What is this?

My daughter got this free at the expo I was at. I don't kno what it's called.
Anyone know what kind of lizard this is?
View attachment 140241

maybe a leopard gecko?

Yeah, looks like a leopard gecko, if so, I'd get it on some paper towel...it's weird they'd give a lizard away without telling people what it is, really bad business imo. Get a UTH and a calcium dish if you haven't all ready.

Biollantefan54 said:

Yeah, looks like a leopard gecko, if so, I'd get it on some paper towel...it's weird they'd give a lizard away without telling people what it is, really bad business imo. Get a UTH and a calcium dish if you haven't all ready.

Click to expand...

Paper towel?

---------- Post added 11-21-2015 at 03:23 PM ----------

Biollantefan54 said:

Yeah, looks like a leopard gecko, if so, I'd get it on some paper towel...it's weird they'd give a lizard away without telling people what it is, really bad business imo. Get a UTH and a calcium dish if you haven't all ready.

Click to expand...

I've seen people using paper towel but are under tank heaters ok with it? I have a couple red heat lamps....are they not good
for these?

Paper towels just ease tank maintenance and cleaning... i dont know much about reptiles so i dont knlw what it is or heat/uvb requirements.

Leopard geckos need heat on their bellies to digest their food so a heat lamp will do no good. You don't have to use paper towel, you can use newspaper or tile as well.

Biollantefan54 said:

Leopard geckos need heat on their bellies to digest their food so a heat lamp will do no good. You don't have to use paper towel, you can use newspaper or tile as well.

Click to expand...

Ok. I knew about the paper towels, but didn't know those AND heat mats. I have a heat mat I just installed, as well as paper
towels, a warm hide and a cool hide. I'll prolly put a red lamp on 1 side at night. Thx

Do you have any other pictures of it? It looks like it could be an african fat tailed gecko which is pretty much the same care as a leopard gecko. They are quite easy to care for.

1 leopard gecko needs a minimum of a 10g tank. Though it's nicer to give them a 20gal. They need two hides (Or three if you want to be "nice") one on the hot side, one of the cold side, and a humid hide in the middle. They need a water dish, food dish, and calcium dish. They will lick the calcium when they feel they need it. They are nocturnal, overhead heat lamps are no good for them, and they do not require UVB. When using the heat mat, you NEED a thermostat or it WILL overheart and burn the animal. The animal will not "realize" and move away if the heat mat gets too hot, so it will get burned. Substrate can be paper towelrs, tiles, reptile carpet, etc. No loose substrate as geckos are easily impacted. No sand, no eco-earth, etc. They are fairly low humidity species. No need to spray the tank, just keep a full water bowl and their humid hide to help them shed and that's it. They can live on a diet of staple superworms or mealworms or roaches. They tend to pick one corner to poop in so cleanup is easy.

---------- Post added 11-21-2015 at 08:22 PM ----------

Also you will want to set the thermostat anywhere from 88 - 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

With all the fuss about this it makes me wonder how the trillions of gecks around here survive from one minute to the next.

The Snark said:

With all the fuss about this it makes me wonder how the trillions of gecks around here survive from one minute to the next.

Click to expand...

Yip, I know what you mean. I'd figure out what it is first, read some advice, study it's natural habitat then pay attention to your common sense as well. I've seen some lizards swallow small rocks on purpose, to help grind up food, like a gizzard. So one dies and one might see it has rocks inside and assume it died of impaction while it might have died of something else. There is a bunch of assumptions and speculation all over the place about reptiles and inverts. Though this lizard might be susceptible to impaction after all, I don't know, just sayin it's good to think twice about some things.

View attachment 140256
Another

That pic might be good enough for somebody to ID it for you but for a good ID pic, it's best to show everything you can in a shot, side view, showing the top a little more and the tail. It looks mean haha.

Well, just chatted with my childhood friend and reptile expert. (San Diego Zoo alumni. He's pretty long winded.) If you provide the right climate, accommodations and food, you don't need to do anything else. Geckos will derive all nutrients and water from their food. The biggest obstacle is you, the keeper, upsetting it's natural cycles. They will naturally go into a torpor to maintain body balance and external influences will disrupt that balance and are inevitably detrimental to their health. Lacking the periodic torpor you will have to become it's servant, attending to what is missing. This applies to most reptiles that are able to moderate their metabolism.

"Reptiles have a given lifespan which can vary in the extreme. The lifespan is determined by the dormancy. In one environment they have a very short lifespan and rarely go dormant. In another environment they may spend 11 months out of the year in some defgree or dormancy and have a tremendously long life span. The extreme end of the spectrum is the Galapagos which becomes dormant for up to 22 hours per day and never has to exert itself to find sustenance. At the other end of the spectrum are certain skinks that never go doprmant and have to find nutriants constantly with a lifespan rarely longer than a month."

Definitely a leopard gecko. Just follow the advice given above and you'll be set!

Thx all!
I've owned lizards in the past but now I'm just figuring out the adding calcium WITH D3, so they
stay healthy. I knew about food n water bowls, sprinkle calcium on food, and heat may, not heat lamp.
I have all the above so all I'll add is another cool hide so there's options.
I normally wouldn't buy anything like this for my daughter, but she actually won it in a raffle @ the
expo! Needless to say....it was like she won the lottery

I believe they need calcium without D3.

They need a bowl of straight calcium power at all times, Always dust your prey items with calcium as well. I feed 5 crickets (no bigger than their head)a day, once or twice a week I'll give her some meal worms. Do not leave crickets in
with your gecko, it will stress it out. Once a week dust with the calcium & D3. Make sure you're gut loading your feeder insects for a few days before using them so the gecko is getting the nutrition it needs. Wax worms and pinky mice make good,
very occasional, treats (they are gecko crack and if fed too oftenCan cause your gecko to refuse other food and lead too life threatening heath problems), I usually only gave my gecko these foods after they had fasted.

They need a temperature gradient this is easier to accomplish in a larger tank. Cool side should be 74-76, warm side should be 85-90, with the middle of the tank falling between the two extremes. I found that it was easiest to get the gradient using
over head heat lamps. Daytime & night cycle is vital!!! 12/12 cycle year round is the standard and you can get the day/night bulbs (another reason I used the over head lighting for heat instead of uth) They should have a wet/humid hide (Tupperware
containers with a door cut into it and wet paper towel inside work really well, make sure the plastic is sanded and smoothed down so it can't injure your gecko) on the warm side of the tank to help with molting and at least one on the cool side. Basking
rocks can cause burns as they can judge when they're too hot and won't move so never use those!

Best substrate is reptile carpet as it can just be washed and replaced. You can also use paper towel or eco earth (gets exexpensiveo keep changing it out). Never use sand or bark as there's risk of impaction.
Keep the decorations low to the ground as falls can cause serious injuries, same with anything sharp/angled or jagged edges.

A healthy gecko should have a nice fat tail. They will get dusty looking before a moult, if any moult gets stuck you can soak them in warm water and take aq-tip and gently roll the remaining skin off. This is
especially important in their feet as failing to do so will result in lost toes. Geckos will fast for a couple of months in the winter and will lose some weight, slowly. If yours losses weight quickly this is a sign
That something else is wrong, get them to an exotics vet immediately. They should be taken in annually for a general check up and a fecal exam to check for parasites.

Leos are the absolute cutest lizards! Wait till you see the Leo dance when they want food/attention! Lol Good luck & enjoy your new critter!