Joe, Your test is a great idea, however, some of the questions may or may not have exact answers (or may be biased). For example, 14. True or false: It is acceptable to mix different species of reptiles together in one enclosure. (although some people may have done this successfully (a diurnal species with the nocturnal Leopard geckos). I strongly disagree with mixing species, you never know what disease may or may not harm your animals. Adult leopard geckos may look at other tankmates (or offspring) as a potential meal.
Another good example is 19. What is the scientific name for the leopard gecko? Everyone who keeps Leopard geckos knows the name Eublepharis macularis, however, the discussion on subspecies becomes a little more complicated. There are currently 5 subspecies and figuring out which one you have becomes really difficult, especially if you don't know exactly where your geckos come from. It's a widespread species and some of the subspecies may actually be valid species. Leopard geckos haven't really been studied extensively since the early 90's (when one of the subspecies was raised to a species) and part of the area where they're found is currently a war zone. Diet and pet stores, #'s 1 and 18 can be complicated too. I like feeding my girls pinky mice. Especially during the summer months when they eat more often. My local pet stores the big chains, Petco and Petsmart, will not sell live pinky mice for pet food. They will ask you when you buy them. I did find a local pet store in Truckee California that sells pinkys for food. It's great to see the test, though, new gecko keepers should have the right frame of mind. I would hate to see the Tokay gecko test. Ron -----Original Message----- From: Joseph Loucek <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sun, Jun 20, 2010 9:47 am Subject: Re: [gecko]leopard gecko test for new (kid) keepers Hey Lyle - All is well. Hope all is well with you. This group has been way too quiet. Has everyone migrated to a new chat group and not tell me? Thanks for your input. I scrolled through, I didn't see anything jump out at me that you might have added. Was it just the two statements in your email? I do not have an answer sheet - most of it is in my head already. I suppose I should create an answer sheet. I figured they would give me his responses and I would score it. But a "teacher's version" with the answers would probably be helpful. Some the stuff I don't know how to answer for one animal/cage anymore - I can only think in terms of how many thousands of crickets would I need per week! I will work up some answers for the group to critique, and we'll see where that takes us. I suppose I could get the questions to Ian while we work on the answers. Well, lunch is over. Time to go back outside to swelter. Joe --- On Sun, 6/20/10, Lyle Puente <[email protected]> wrote: From: Lyle Puente <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [gecko]leopard gecko test for new (kid) keepers To: [email protected] Date: Sunday, June 20, 2010, 10:34 AM Hi Joe, I hope you are well great idea! I added a couple things: Over all I think its a great idea. Do you have an answer sheet? Will that be given to parents? Lyle Lyle Puente My Brothers Banned http://www.MyBrothersBanned.com http://www.myspace.com/MyBrothersBanned 1. Where are your 2 closest pet stores? 2. How often should you clean the cage? 3. How often should you change the water and clean the bowl? 4. Where are leopard geckos from? 5. Why do you want a captive-bred leopard gecko (as opposed to a wild caught)? 6. What kind of mineral supplements should you give your leopard gecko? ( I might need help answering this one - has anything changed in the last 3-5 years?) 7. How big a cage will you need for your leopard gecko? 8. What kind of substrate (cage liner) should you use? 9. What temperature range is a leopard gecko most comfortable? 10. How will you maintain that temperature, especially in the winter? 11. How can you help you leopard gecko shed skin off its toes? ( Maybe how can you avoid shedding problems? The way its worded seems that this is expected and normal.) 12. How many male leopard geckos can you keep in one cage? 13. When is a leopard gecko most active? 14. True or false: It is acceptable to mix different species of reptiles together in one enclosure. 15. How will you clean and disinfect the cage? How often? (what do you all think - clean weekly, disinfect quarterly?) 16. Does your leopard gecko need a hide box? If so, what will you use? If not, why not? 17. How often should you feed your leopard gecko? 18. What will your leopard gecko be fed? 19. What is the scientific name for the leopard gecko? 20. What is thermal gradient, and how will you achieve it in your leopard gecko's cage? 21. What is the life expectency of a leopard gecko? What will you do with it when you go off to college?
