DIY - Isolation/Hydration Station

Every once in a while, you're going to need to separate one of your animals from the others - whether it's a new arrival, an illness, an injury, aggression, etc. This can be done quickly and easily, for far less than the cost of setting up an entirely new tank. The DIY I'm showing here is designed for temporary use (generally for injury or hydration), since it's such a basic set-up, but it can be easily modified to suit your needs.

In this case, I'm showing you how to make a 'hydration station' for a Crested Gecko.

Since I'm working with smaller animals, I'm using a plastic shoe box that was given to me by a friend of mine - I've also used plastic tubs designed for storage, which can be used to accommodate larger animals.

As substrate, I've laid down a couple paper towels. Paper towels are an excellent substrate for hydration, as they hold quite a bit of moisture - they are also a great choice for juveniles of many species, as well as injured animals due to their cleanliness, ease of changing, and color (white, simple backgrounds are far easier to spot waste and other important to see items on).

I've misted heavily, and placed a food dish into the shoebox.



Using a paring knife, I poked several holes in the lid.
(Apologies for the angle, but it does show some of the holes better than a straight on view.)



Annnnnd... that's it.

Easy, huh? :)

Now, for a recovering animal, this is a pretty solid set up (add a water dish if they're going to be in there for more than a few hours, even with a heavy mist) - for an animal that just needs to be separated and is going to be in there for a prolonged period of time, use a larger space and add more decorations (paper towel and toilet paper tubes work well for a variety of species). Done and done. Quick, easy, and inexpensive.

A Horse Of Many Colors (aka: Before and After Photos)

One of the super interesting things about Crested Geckos - to me, anyway - is the amount of change in coloration that they can go through as they mature. I noticed this most dramatically with Norbert as I was looking through old files the other day, and as such, felt like posting a few progression shots.

This is Norbert shortly after I got him, weighing in at 4-5 grams.



This is Norbert as of last week, about three years after the original photo:



This is a gecko of mine, Zippo, when she weighed approximately 2-3 grams:



And this is the same gecko when she was approximately a year old (I'd post a photo of her today, but she never fires up so you can see her true colors anymore):

I Get Lizards In The Mail

Norbert's new girlfriend has arrived.

The husband stayed in on Tuesday morning in order to sign off on the package. <3

Without further ado, meet Finch.