Meet the New Guys!

[Crested Lady]

As promised, here are the pictures and names of the newest additions to the family. :D One Isle E leachianus named "Wilma", and one (very, very fast) sarasinorum named "Andretti". Woo hoo!!! :D :D :D

Wilma:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b114/crestedlady/wilma.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b114/crestedlady/wilma2.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b114/crestedlady/wilma3.jpg

and Andretti (the name fits) :wink: :
First one taken through the glass so he didn't escape....
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b114/crestedlady/andretti.jpg
Second one, I grew braver and took the lid off. :P
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b114/crestedlady/andrettisaras.jpg

[Lumpynutz]

wow, sarah that's almost as nice as me getting my named changed!! haha -- Seriously, that leachie is awesome, cool name too!! Andretti seems to be well suited for the sara. I can't wait til that leachie starts to put on some size. So Igora and wilma, too funny. keep us updated on pics. Congrats!!

[Crested Lady]

Lol. I like your new name. I almost died laughing when it got changed... :lol:

I've never had a sara before, but I've heard stories about them. Before I let him out, I put the deli cup in his enclosure and slowly took the lid off and removed the paper towel. Glad I prepared for it because he shot off like a rocket. I knew they were fast but... whoa. That sucker was all over the place! I like him, though. :D

As for Wilma, she cracks me up. I'm amazed at her coloring and I forgot how small the babies are. Lol. Wilma hopped out, squeaked at me and took off running. It was fun trying to take some photos... she cussed me out the entire time, so I snapped a few and put her away. It's so hard not to play with them! Lol. :D

I swear, Rhacs are so addicting. You get one, you want another one. You get another one, you want 3 more... :D :P

[Lumpynutz]

I really want a sara too. If I was to get one it would be from nate benner, I always take so long to decide when I buy geckos, by the time I make up my mind they usually end being sold.

[Lumpynutz]

By the way, I didn't notice the name change til I came into work this morning and saw lumpynutz on all my threads.

[Lumpynutz]

yea wilma looks like she is going to be a pretty adult with lots of color, and judging by the size of the parents, she should have some serious size.

[Crested Lady]

yea wilma looks like she is going to be a pretty adult with lots of color, and judging by the size of the parents, she should have some serious size.

I hope so! Wouldn't it be funny if I had one giant leachie (Wilma) and one midget (Igora)? :D :P

[Lumpynutz]

Igora the midget, you seem to always pick the perfect names. Thanks for getting me mine. :D

[Crested Lady]

LMBO. Thank Matt. I just sent him your e-mail address. he he he :D :wink: :P

[Lumpynutz]

sarah, your always looking out for people!! Thanks :wink:

[nbemmer]

Saras are great, I'm sure he will calm down some for you so you can handle him a bit. They definatly aren't a chahoua thats just going to sit on your hand though. One that i've been raising up(looks like a female) is pretty cool, I put my hand in her tub and she comes over to check me out and will sit nicely in my hand if I want. They are definatly a fun species to work with.
Nate

[Lumpynutz]

nate, sven here -- I want one of your saras so bad!! How old is the sara that you believe to be female? and what incubation temps do you use for the saras? Sven

[nbemmer]

Nice to hear from you Sven, The one i have is pushing 7 or 8 months now at least, I haven't looked at dates in awhile. I incubate them at the same temps as my chahoua, roughly 72 -74 degrees, they take approx 65-75 days to hatch. Let me know when you want some =).
Nate

[Donn S]

Nice new additions! Andretti is really nice looking! Congrats.

[clarksgeckos]

Glad that you like the Leachie and the Sara, Sarah, LOL!! I have to say that you will be very impressed with there appetites and the size that they will soon put on. I really have had some huge and very colorful little babies from my male E "Tank" and Brandon Macy's female E "Yoshi" this year and hope to continue producing very nice and huge babies from them for a long time to come. Keep me posted on the Leachies growth. My baby that I kept for the year born 7-03-05 is enormous already and I have already sexed it as female. I am still awaiting placing the Island C geckos together again around the beginning of the year. Anyways, Here is a good photo of your babies daddy, LOL!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v662/clarksgeckos/MaleIslandE.jpg

[derekls]

Very very nice leachie.

I love leachies!!! I want one soooo bad :(

[Crested Lady]

Awww... it's my baby's daddy! Lol. Thanks again, Clark. The geckos are amazing. I must say, you have to have reflexes like a cat to have gotten that saras in the deli cup. Lol. That thing shot out like a rocket!!! :D

[nbemmer]

You should see how fast they come out of the egg. I've only ever seen one slit the egg and put its head through. The rest all exploded out of the egg.
Nate

[Sanskrit]

Great new leachie and sara Sarah! I'm in love with Wilma!! :D I'm turning green as we speak :mrgreen: .

[gcxbrian]

wow... im soooo jealous.. those are two nice geckos.. =( how much did they cost you? theyre soooooo sexy nice! good angles and nice crisp clear pics

[Crested Lady]

Thanks! However the price will remain a mystery. :wink:

[DDReptiles]

Yeah when I took my Sara out he/she just took off like a lizard drinkin I was a little stinned but now he/she has calmed a tad (not much) they are definitly a joy :)

[FrozenGecko]

congrats on your new geckos
they look awesome
* so very jealous*

[MintyHippo]

WoW Sarah more rhacs Im so suprised :shock:

[MintyHippo]

Question how much did they cost each????

[Crested Lady]

I usually don't like discussing how much I spent on geckos. :wink:

[clarksgeckos]

Sarah, have they started feding well since their shipment to you?? All the Island E's that hatched are gobble guts and I think that every Sara that I have had here has been the same way. That Sara really loves his roaches and he is one of the reasons you got so many use the large nymphs to hemo feed him. he will snatch them right off if he doesnt see you directly, LOL!!
Your good friend,
Clark Tucker @clarksgeckos

[RangerGrrl]

Awww, man, I'm so jealous of the leachies.... By the way, what size/type of cage are you keeping the baby leachies in? I know the adults need space, but what are the babies' needs?

[clarksgeckos]

Sarah and Sarah, LOL, The Leachies do much better when young in shoeboxes. If they have too much space they will tend to not find their food and will be shy about coming out into open spaces. We are keeping them all in 1754 sterilites with heat on the bottom of one end until they are at least 1 year old. They are growing very well here in this size of container. If you do not have or cant find that size of sterilite you can always use the shallow medium sized kritterkeepers. They work well also for getting them well started.
Clark Tucker @clarksgeckos

[RangerGrrl]

Cool, thanks. Clark, do you use heat tape or actual heat pads? I'm a big fan of Cobra mats, since they're supposed to regulate themselves at 100 degrees, but i'm so scared of using heat with plastic tubs. Do the tubs hold up? I don't really want to mess with heat tape at this small a scale. Maybe in a few years, when i have actual rack systems or something....

[Crested Lady]

Clark- Wilma isn't too keen on her food yet, but she's doing fine. Right now I'm keeping her in a medium Kritter Keeper (got Igora in a large). Andretti is a pig... eating everything in sight. Hopefully Wilma will figure out that I'm not evil and she'll stop cussing me out! Lol. Meeping and chirping at me like a nagging, old housewife!

[clarksgeckos]

Srah, The Cobra Mats are very nice but they are way too expensive and seem to not work well when hooked up to a thermostatic controller. I use 3 inch flexwatt tape on the bottom at the back end of the plastic shoeboxes. As far as a 100 degree mayt is concerned that would be great for some desert anuimal that had a inch or deeper of sand to help defuse the heat a bit. I set my thermostats for the 3 inch tape at about 85 degrees and they seem to stay right on top of it most of the time. It sure helps to get them to feed heavily like they need to in the first few months to a year of life.
We have been using the flexwatt tape for about 8 years here and never had any problem when using a thermostat except for an occassional mat go bad and stop heating to the desired temp (always goes cooler never hotter). The plastics hold up just fine and are much easier to keep clean than any of the custom HD plastic cages are and are much cheaper. I never could find any custom cages that I wanted to spend that much money on to raise my hatchlings and juvies in. They always seemed to be much harder to clean as I have already mentioned.
Clark Tucker @clarksgeckos

[clarksgeckos]

Sarah M., Now that is funny. She never talked back to me when we cleaned her cage. I have one large 2 month old that is a bit vocal after a bit of handling but, not like that. What are you trying to get her to eat?? Remember my suggestion and just do it, LOL!! You crack me up sometimes with all the girliness, LOL!! I have not had any problems with that one and the FGD. It eats it like a hog. Do you have a 10 X optics there? If so in about a month or 2 if you have heavily fed that one you should be able to let me know what sex it is so we can work on a mate for it.
The Sara's are quite the hogs arent they?? LMAO! They eat and eat and eat and poo, LOL! I am tickled that you are happy with the new geckos.
Your good friend,
Clark Tucker @clarksgeckos

[Crested Lady]

Lol. Yup, she's quite the talker. Cracks me up. :D Don't have any 10x optics... but she talks so much that I'll bet she's a girl. Lol. :wink: I'll have to see what she looks like in a few months.

I didn't know how I would feel about the sarasinorum... but I like him! Andretti runs around like crazy, snatching up crickets, gulping them down, and shooting off again. I finally got to get a REALLY good look at him this morning when he stared at me through the glass. BEAUTIFUL eyes... and I like his stripes! :D :P

[clarksgeckos]

Sarah, I told you he was a looker, LOL!! Let me know about the Leachie and its feeding and invest in a 10X loupe since you are now into the Leachies, Chahoua's, and the Sarasinorums. You can pick one up for cheap on Ebay. If you will be around tommorrow please give me a call.
Your good friend, Clark

[Crested Lady]

You bet. :D :wink:

[Sanskrit]

Is 10x the strongest magnification that you'd need? I was looking at buying a 10x and a 20x but if I don't need it then I won't bother.

[clarksgeckos]

Marina, I use a quality 10X Loupe from Baush and Lomb. I would love to have a 15 or 20X Loupe and if I find one that is a Baush and Lomb unit I will be buying it, LOL!! Never hurts to be able to see a bit further in.
Your friend, Clark

[RangerGrrl]

Clark,
I agree the Cobras are super expensive and I only use them on cagees with deep substrate. I usually get the basking heat on top of the substrate to 85-90 degrees. All the other cages I create basking areas with lights. I would really rather use tape, but I am no electrician, LOL! :wink: And I don't have many animals, so I'd have to rig up a completely different strip of tape for every cage. It's good that they don't OVERheat when they malfunction, though. I might check it out again if I go to the Atlanta show, but Flextape really seems like something I'd have to wait on until I go slightly larger scale.
Thank you for the info!

[clarksgeckos]

Sarah, The Flexwatt is very simple to put together. All you need is a pair of pliers to clamp the power cord to the matt when you buy the flxwatt kits. I will look to see where I can send you to get the complete kits. I wire all of the flexwatt in the room for geckos to a power strip and then into a BAH 1000 Watt Thermstatic Controller and all the roaches are on another BAH Controller and I am all set. I think that it costs a whole lot less to go this route and the power usage is a lot lower as well.
Your friend, Clark

[Donn S]

Yep, flexwatt is very easy to use. I think Big Apple sells the cords with the clamps already attached. All you do is squeeze and then tape them up. I bought the little plastic protector things and found them pretty useless. They're just big and in the way. Just use some electrical tape and tape the clamps and flexwatt up real good.

[Sanskrit]

How many millimeters is your loupe? I'm looking at one thats only 12mm and that seems like it would be awfully hard to see through being so tiny. It'll probably seem bigger in person :) .

[clarksgeckos]

Marina, Now you are going to make me do math, LOL. I know it is a one inch lens. That equates to a 25.4 mm lens and I would suggest nothing under say a 3/4 inch lens or it will be very hard to work with I would imagine. That half inch lens may do the trick but, I wouldnt bet on it. What gecko species are you trying to sex anyway? I guess that would kinda determine what size optics to use.
Your friend, Clark

[Sanskrit]

Ok I just bought 3 loupes. One is an 18mm 10x, one is a 21mm 30x , and the other is a dual 14mm 10x and 12mm 20x. In a way it's 4 loupes but one is a dual........... At least now I know I'll always have the right magnification :roll: .

[clarksgeckos]

Marina, Where did you buy them and what did you have to pay for those?/ did you find out what brand you were buying as well. I am looking for a 15 or 20X Loupe for my younger geckos in hopes of being able to determine their sexes even earlier.
Your friend, Clark

[RangerGrrl]

Clark and Donn,
Thank you for the good info; I see I was working under some misconceptions! I had read you needed a special (very expensive) crimping tool to fasten the cord onto the tape. Plus, I had no idea how many thermostats it would require. That sounds a lot easier than I thought....sounds easily customizable. I'll search around a little on the Web, and see if any of the vendors hitting the Atlanta show will be selling it. Thank you. :mrgreen:

[Sanskrit]

I bought them brand new off Ebay. It never ceases to amaze me what I can find on there.... Anyway I'm not sure what brand they are but here's the link for them:
http://cgi.ebay.com/30x-dual-20x-10x-10x-Combo-Loupe-Magnifier-Tool-Silver_W0QQitemZ5037206615QQcategoryZ34084QQssPage NameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I did the buy it now option because I'm too impatient to let $2 get in my way :wink: . I figured that with two 10x, a 20x, and a 30x I wouldn't ever be wanting for more magnification. :D

[PCherper]

wow those things are big