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| PET GAZETTE | REPTILE
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LOOKING AT THE LEOPARD GECKO AND ITS
CORRECT HOUSING IN THE MODERN HOBBY
In the second part of this feature, John Courteney-Smith continues to look at the
updated requirements for the reptile following continued research within the hobby
R
eptile keeping as a hobby
is evolving very quickly
indeed. Many of the ‘old
ways’ of keeping are seen
as being invalid and in some
cases detrimental to health and wellbeing.
This is down to the ease of access to good
information that is both available online within
specialist keeping groups, and the good
advice given by specialist retail stores. Gone
are the days of small sterile box type cages
and minimal care standards.
At the core of effective reptile care we have
guides set out by millions of years of wild
adaptation and progression. The parameters
of supply in which all species have developed
have indeed become the optimum suppliers,
a series of core providers that will allow a
species to truly fl ourish within the wild state.
Accepting that these suppliers form the base
of the core need, per species, represents the
fi rst steps that every keeper will take in order
to make suitable adjustments to their own
level of provision, and to subsequently see
their own animals fl ourish within captivity.
This is the basis of wild re-creation,
replicating as best we can the core suppliers
that power any given species in terms of heat,
light, food, water and typical terrain. We can
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then further build upon the core theory of wild
re-creation by expanding our knowledge
base as we continue to discover and to then
seek to provide for them alongside the core
providers within ‘The three parameters of
overall-supply’- these being; 1. The energy that
surrounds, 2. The energy that is ingested, and
3. Physical and mental enrichment.
All of this theory is just as valid for the
Leopard Gecko as it is for any other species,
large or small, our own included. As we
discovered in the previous feature the Leopard
Gecko is a highly developed, sentient and
very well organised small predator. It is well
developed to be able to take all that it needs
to thrive within the variations in which it exists
in the wild state. The fact that this is a group
of species that has been able to adapt to
differing terrain in the wild is the sole reason
why they have been able to do so well in
captivity, even when kept in less than wild-
like surroundings. Just imagine how much
improvement their lives will see, what types
of wild-like behaviour we may start to see,
the impact on captive breeding that may be
had still. All of this, when we start to move
them back into wild-like enclosures that do
seek to provide for them in a wild-like way,
and including all of the core environmental
suppliers, as best as is possible.
Over the past few years we have seen
a marked move within the hobby towards
naturalistic and bioactive enclosures. These
are not new ideas, in fact both have been
bought back from our history into the modern
hobby and then fi nally made accessible and
indeed successful for all. What does this all
mean for the Leopard Gecko and its ongoing
care within our hobby? Are keepers really
trying to mimic the scrublands and emergent
forests of Afghanistan and its surrounding
countries and are there levels of keeper buy
in to the theory? The answer is yes in both of
the preceding questions. Keepers are trying
to build more wild-like systems in the home.
Some even being akin to those only usually
seen in zoos and large private professional
collections, however there are more keepers
March 2019