Sleepy Walking Afternoon

May 01st 217

Guess who went out walking yesterday afternoon!!! YES! Jupiter and Nova did.

Last week I felt how their tiny claws were getting too long and sharp and I knew it was time for a walk.

It is healthy for geckos to get a little sun and since they are crepuscular animals, it is always a good idea to take them out right before sunset. However, it was somewhat early for them and they were a little sleepy.

After a while they were more alert and enjoying the sunshine.

But as it is common for geckos 20-30 is enough to get exhausted and ready for another nap.

Lost and Found

Yesterday morning I woke up  and as I came closer to their terrarium I noticed that Jupiter was acting odd. But where was Nova???????????

Ok, This is not the first time Nova escapes, and every time she makes skip a heart beat. I do not know how she does it, the terrarium is safe and secure, but she always manages to squeeze out.

I had to do a deep clean and finally found her behind the fridge. Actually if I was gecko, I would also hide behind the fridge, as it is warm.

She is now back home and I have reinforced the terrarium, let’s see how it goes.

Gecko Hugs

As the winter is here, guess who I found cuddling together!

Now, isn’t this sweet?

Guess Nova’s tail is comfortable pillow! 

 

Jupiter, the Leopard Gecko with Nova, the African Fat-Tail gecko

Geckos are not known to have the ability to love, but they can definitely create an attachment. For months, I tried for these two to get along and it seams to me that I have finally created some bond here. Hurray!

 

Jupiter Having Dinner

Today I have something special.

After almost 3 years of having Jupiter, I was finally able to capture a good video of him having dinner, or lunch or breakfast. Whatever you want to call it. There is a video of Nova and Jupiter having dinner together, but I still need to edit it.

And the menu is PIZZA!!!!

NO, I am just kidding Geckos do not eat pizza, they eat crickets. Hope you like my video.

Subscribe to my blog and to my youtube channel, where you will find only this video, but I am hoping to have some more soon.

Waking up Guilt

Geckos are nocturnal, better said crepuscular, which means they should wake up when the sun goes down. We as humans should wake up when the sun goes up, but come on! on Saturdays no body wakes up that early.Guess what? neither did my geckos. It was 8 pm when I took this pictures and they are just opening their little eyes. Oh big lazy ones!

 

Designing Houses

This a house I designed for them a few months ago. It was a great design, specially for summer. And see they actually liked it.

Nova, the happy lady gecko in the previous house

 

The Jubilat Jupiter in his previous house

“Oh I am happy, I am such a happy gecko”

 

… and then they started fighting. Jupiter is bigger and stronger, so poor Nova, always got the worse part, but even Jupiter got some bites from her. It was a little bit hard for to understand, because I tried putting walls to separate them, and they always managed to get back together. It is a love-hate relationship they have. Sometimes it was that Jupiter went looking for Nova, but sometimes it was Nova show looks for Jupiter. I could only assumed that something in their house was unsettling them.

And this time they would be separated….

If you read my previous post, then you can see that is IMPOSSIBLE

In case you did not see the yet their new house, here it is.

New house, where they are separated, fight less, but still miss each other.

 

 

Back

I have not give any update is more than a year, but it is time to come back. We had a hectic past couple of months and that upset the Geckos a little bit. When Geckos do not feel comfortable they will try to escape their house, so it is important to try to recognize what is causing that. In my case is that I moved to a new apartment and now we have different angle of sun and wind. But now after almost three months they are feeling better.

A couple of month ago, Nova escaped and she was gone for almost a week. I was loosing my mind thinking of all the things that might have happened to her. But then I found her under some shoes and I felt a lot better. She was cold and dehydrated. I have never seen her drink so much water. Here is a picture of her right after I found her. Poor Nova.

Jupiter and N0va and great companions, but sometimes they fight. Think of two people living together all the time, there will be a moment when you can’t stand the other person anymore and just want to bit his/her face. So it is the same.  Except that Geckos actually bite each other. When they are stressed they fight a little bit more often. So I redesigned their house and now they are separated.  Here is their house now:

See how it is arid and desert -like on top (for Jupiter) and humid and forest-like on the bottom (for nova). But perhaps you can  also see how they sometimes switch.

 

There is Nova tail and Jupiter curious face. Can you see them both?

And here is photo of Jupiter, because he loves having his picture taken:

Nova Taking her Medicine

Little sweet Nova was feeling ill from her tummy, so I took her to the veterinarian last Saturday. It took me a long time to finally find a good reptile vet, but I was finally lucky to find a good, very professional one. All the nurses went “Oh how cute! How beautiful and bright colours! I have never seen a gecko so pretty before!”. I was a proud mother of geckos at that moment. The vet grabbed her with care and examined her, that is how I find out she is now weighing 71 gr. How cute is that! I am happy she is getting bigger and gained 20 beautiful grams since last year. She has nothing serious but the doc gave us a little medicine for her to take.

A natural reaction for geckos is to open their mouths when their lips are rubbed with a finger. I read it many times and even watched videos of how to give them medicine. I know Jupiter does it, I have tried before, however Nova has never had this reaction, so I was worried if she would take her medicine or not. At first I tried as I read how to, but as it turns out it was far easier than I thought. She is a very good girl, sweetly and obediently just do as I tell her and without any effort she just drinks it from the syringe without complaining, even though it is a little bit bitter. After that she just curls up and sleep in my arms… She is so tender.  Here she is after taking her medicine:

Drinking water

So I caught Jupiter drinking water. He stays like this for a long time as if trying to decide if he is really thirsty or not. Two sips and then he goes away. I have never seen little Nova drinking any water, though. I suppose she does, at least I hope she does. Sometimes I worry and place a few water drops around her mouth, but she only takes one or two.

I always give them mineral, purified water, however a time ago I encounter a person who mentioned that his brother has five leopard geckos and that he always has had many, so he just give them tap water.  I could not give any opinion on the matter, but even if I had as many geckos as planets and stars in the galaxy to name them after, I would still give them purified water. One can never be too careful about tap water, especially where I live, and I do not want my geckos to get impacted from something as simple as that.