Hi, it sounds like you must be doing great with your gecko of 9 years! I have had 2 for 8 months now and I think they are great. I use linoleum on the bottom of my tanks. We had a bathroom remodel last year with lots of left-over flooring. There are several pieces cut to size so when one needs cleaning I take it out and replace with a clean one. Then I can soak the piece I take out and let it dry, and use it for the next change-out. It is the flexible, no-underlayment needed type of flooring. As for feeding I offer mealworms every night and 3-4 crickets every other night. I just got some super worms last week (more for my sick bearded dragon) and have offered a few of them too ~ my female wasn't interested in them but the male went crazy for them. Oh, and I'm sure you already to this, I also make sure that the crickets get a good meal of apple or carrott or other veggie or fruit before the geckos get them. Along with the vitamin supplement that will give them lots of nutrition. Welcome!

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Alex Hitch Hitchens: "Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it's the moments that take your breath away."

thanks for all the help! my gecko has always been in sand with a heat bulb, but I will switch to carpet and belly heater if that's better for him.... should I have a night time bulb on him or anything?

I ask all these questions because when I first got mine the only info I got was from the pet store.... and now I just want to give my gecko the best tank he can have....

oh yeah... one more question I've heard mealworms in saw dust is bad, what should I put them in then?

well i've never heard about sawdst being bad as long as theres none on the mealworm when the gecko eats it. you can use a nite time bulb on the tank if theres not enough heat or it doesn't make to hot. i use one of those blue night time bulbs but I jus use it cause the heat pad doesn't give off enough heat and I like to see the geckos at night, it doesn't bother them though.

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"Reality is wrong, Dreams are for real"
-Tupac Shakur

0.2.1 Eublepharis macularius
0.1.0 Pantherophis guttatus

alright now should I keep my day time bulb?

you can as long as you change it at night so they don't stressed, or you can just keep the night bulb on 24/7 like I do. it really doesn't matter as long as at night he/she think its night and don't get stressed about the daylight.

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"Reality is wrong, Dreams are for real"
-Tupac Shakur

0.2.1 Eublepharis macularius
0.1.0 Pantherophis guttatus

thanks for all the help, I'm actually going out to petco tonight to upgrade my tank

i would use a very low watt white bulb for day and I use the low watt blue bulb for night. you really dont need a day bulb as I am shure the room there in has a window and the light that comes thru is enough for them to know its daytime. i olny use my white ones when there is company over or to spot check for uneaten crickets and of course to clean out to poop. you can get away with just a heat pad and never use any lights from what ive been told. as long as the surface temp on the hot side reaches 88F (you use a ir temp gun for this) and the cool side is room temp. that is all you would need. Ive checked my hot side and I use the small 10 gallon Under tank heater and I have a 20 gal and I also use the repticarpet and my hottest spot gets to 101F however I never see my geckos over this spot they are allways off to the edge of it. So they know when there bellys are too hot and they will move if so. However dont use a heat rock (these can be bad).

alright thanks a lot and yeah I know heat rocks are bad

alright so I'm going to finish buying everything I need by friday and start building a unique home for my gecko out of floor tiles (hope that is safe?) maybe next week I can get some pictures up.... funny I've had my gecko for 9 years, but it would seem that I've had him for about 2 weeks....glad hes doin well though with all the things that could be better with my tank = /

also does anyone use those waterdishes that hold that large tube of water that automatically fill the dish up as the water disappears?(lol hard to explain, just saw it at petco tonight)

does anyone keep live plants with their leopard gecko's?

I have 2 thermometer gauges from petco, one for the cool side of the tank and one for the warm side, are these good enough?

It depends on what kind of gauges they are. If they are the little stick on dials, they are known to be very inaccurate!
Go digital!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!