Day 5 Gecko Wins

Before my oldest son went to school he asked that no one play with Thing while he was away. He wanted Thing to get plenty of rest. The request wasn't honored very long.  My youngest son asked my wife to get Thing out for him. As she reached in Thing bit her about six times in a rapid fire before she could pull out her hand. He rotated biting her her thumb and index finger.
Now, it didn't hurt at all. But the shock got her. Thing got to stay in his cage until after school.

Day 4 Gecko No More

Well no more Gecko for my youngest son. So he says. First of all, let me tell you that my youngest son is tough as nails. At birth he was a day early and over 10 pounds. Some may brag about topping that weight. That is fine. But regardless my wife and I have never been to the chiropractor as much as we have from the time he was born. Yes he will cry when hurt but all to often I will see him grit his teeth and breath the hurt away. I didn't teach him that. Here is an example of his quick thinking, agility and aggressiveness. Honestly, it was one of those times I needed our video camera. One summer day when he was still two years old playing in the sand box our 10 month old laborador ran through that sand box and took his pale. Without hesitation my son was in fast retriever mode. He caught up with our dog and with both hands grabbed him along the top of his back and took him down. Then all in the same motion slid up to the neck and put him in a head lock. With the other hand grabbing our dogs lip and twisting. While holding the lip he released the head lock and grabs his pale stands up and does a HULK power flex and growl. As quick as that entire thing started it was over. Now that you know all of that this same son is now 3 and is very leary of Thing. He perfers his older brother to do all of the handling. Well Day 4 after the Day 3's car ride is a bad time to start with a Leopard Gecko. Leopard Geckos have claws. I missed the event between my boys and Thing but in the end my youngest had a 4 inch scratch across his arm. Only one. At first looked to me a bit deeper that a cat scratch. Yet it was only a surface scratch. Regardless, he declared, "I will never hold him again."

Day 3 Monday and School

I am certain that School saved Thing. He actually had time to rest up. Boys are so much fun to watch when they are allowed to create and invent. Last fall my boys discovered their grandfathers car creeper. They turned it into a luge by riding it together down the wheel chair ramp. A couple of weeks ago I caught them climbing up the shelves of their armoir and diving off on to their bed. When I arrived at home from work Monday evening the boys had placed Thing in his little chipboard portable carrier and tide the carrier to their remote controlled race car. They were zipping him all over the kitchen and dining room. While completely amussed on the inside from their creativity or what some my call oneryness I used this as another lesson on stress for Thing. The day of rest had to have been what helped him survive.

Day 2 Sunday

My boys have invited a friend over to show off their new pet. I reminded them of keeping Thing's stress level low if they don't want him to have a heart attack from too much activity. I pretended that they understood. This is one tough Gecko. All afternoon he played rolls in the boy's imagination. They had him in the Batman Cave and as the monster on their cruise ship. At one point a Lego Fortruss was built for him invade. Thing is one tough Gecko especially since he is supposed to be noctornal. He survived day two.

The First Night of the Gecko

Setting up the aquarium for Thing was really non eventful. I had newts in the past that are supposed to be somewhat aquatic. However, mine perferred to sit on a rock and dry up. From that experience I learned that tap water has clorine in it. Something not desirable to lizards. Thus this leads to another step in Gecko care. If you choose to use tap water it must give it a day before offering to your lizard. So I have a decision to make. Water or no water for Thing tonight. I am not going back in to town. I errored on giving him tap water. He is a desert lizard so it's not like he will be swimming in it. Whatismore, my wife let me know that the brand new $8.00 UV night bulb for Thing is broken. The glue that holds the glass to the metal housing clearly didn't work. In my over 40 years of changing light bulbs this has never happened before. Anyway I get on the phone to a PetCo Gecko Specialist and ask if my Gecko will survive the night without a UV night bulb that helps keep the temperature in his home up. The reply almost shocked me. "Oh sure, we never used those lights with our pet Geckos. You really don't need it." $8.00 for a bulb and $15.00 for a lamp we don't need. Yet, I have two really happy boys.

Day 1 At Home

After setting up the Gecko's habitat we looked of the care sheet provided by PetCo. One point really stood out. It reads, "In getting to know your Gecko keep handling to a minimum. Over handling can cause stress". Stress in this case relates to a heart attack. So I stressed this on my sons. But the only stress a 6 and 3 years old really understand is when they have almost waited to long to go the the bathroom or they can't find their favorite cartoon. So, let the games begin. By later afternoon my boys named the Gecko "Thing". After Thing from the Fantastic Four. Shortly after they built a LEGO fortrus for Thing; which they blocked him in for hours. Still it survived with out LEGO heat lamps. By the way we have no idea of its gender. Our PetCo sales person said he had his Geckos gender identified three different times by a specialist resulting in 2 different answers. He kind of alerted me because I was afraid he was going to say he got 3 different answers.

The Shopping List

PetCo has mastered having everything a Gecko needs to live. The staff is well trained to assist in the selections. Our sales person actually had experience keeping Geckos. Even though he recommended we feed our Gecko a combination of live crickets and meal worms he warned us not to keep the crickets in the same room that we sleep in because of the constant chirping. Then we are to feed our supply of crickets to obviously keep them alive until time to place them as Gecko prey. For now our Gecko will only get meal worms. I felt if our Gecko survives my sons then we will eventually reward it with a singing dinner. In the mean time we are dealing with the fact that our supply of meal worm must live in the refrigerator. So the list continued with calcium to sprinkle on the food to keep the Gecko healthy. Since the Leopard Gecko is from Afghanistan it needs heat lamps. One for day and one for night. The night lamp is kind of optional but why not. In the end at the register we dropped almost $200 for a 6 inch lizard and its supplies.

Thing The Gecko

This is my first blog as encouraged by a friend of mine. For weeks my oldest son has been asking specifically for a Leopard Gecko. I had hamster's growing up and didn't know much about Geckos of any kind. In short neither did my wife but she was on board as long as it didn't look or act like a snake. Before agreeing to this new addition of our family of 4 people, one crazy chocolate Labrador and 7 horses I gave my son an assignment. He was to go the library and check out any kind of gecko book and we would read them together. Too my surprise they are listed as one of the easiest pets ever. So we blocked Saturday, January 30 for the purchase.