Double trouble

I have always been fascinated by reptiles. Even as a small child my favourite toys were a large cuddly crocodile (which was meant to be a draught excluder for the door but which I adopted as a best friend) and a rather long cuddly snake which was made for me. I always wanted my own pet snake or lizard but my mother was not exactly keen.

Well, recently my childhood dream came true. I visited a small shop specialising in aquariums and reptiles and got talking to the owner. I must have seemed keen as he let me handle one of the juvenile leopard geckos. She was so small and sweet that I wanted to take her home and that is exactly what I ended up doing. She is an albino leopard gecko, similar to the one in the picture above (from the web). I called her Bianca.


A couple of days later Isabel joined her from the shop. She was her tank mate there and so it made sense to me to have them both as they got on, rather than try and introduce a stranger later on. Isabel is a ghost leopard gecko which refers to the muted colouring she has which is similar to the one in the second picture which I found on the web. At the moment they are both far too shy to photograph and being nocturnal this would be a challenge anyway!

Leopard geckos are very docile creatures and are fairly undemanding in terms of care though handling live bugs to feed them takes a bit of getting used to. Good job I'm not squeamish! My two are still juveniles and only a few weeks old so are quite timid and hide a lot. They are already becoming more bold however and will calm down a lot by the time they reach adulthood. I'm looking forward to watching the m grow.