Newbie Introduction

[Laceflower]

Hello! I've been lurking since August, and since I've just adopted my first bluey, I thought I'd better just join! I adopted my Northern, Riff-Raff, from Captive Bred Excellence in mid-September. She (only guessing, of course; the major all-bark-no-bite attitude she's had since day one screams "Girl!" to me) has always had a great temperament and lots of personality. She loves burrowing and hiding in small, dark places like all BT's and especially loves her new humid hide which I will post photos of soon, seeing as it turned out really cool. She is sleeping inside it as I type this; I can see her little pink nose.

Riff (named partially after Riff Randal from Rock N Roll High School, and mostly after Riff-Raff from Rocky Horror Picture Show) will be 5 months old in three days, and she's currently right at 16", which is 2" longer than when she arrived. Her guilty pleasures include banana, blueberries, and Randy Travis. No, really; she perks up when I play Randy Travis, but nothing else - never any jazz, no blues, not the Ramones, not the White Stripes, not even Led Zeppelin - not anyone or anything but Randy Travis. It's a mystery... Her favorite thing in the whole wide world is being left alone to sleep the day away, but at least she leaves her cute little snoot poked out of wherever she's hidden herself so that I can see her, which is a cute little quirk that gives me something to take pictures of and send relentlessly to my friends.

Anyways, I myself am a just-above broke, full-time college student and musician living at home with a room full of reptiles, so I've become quite the do-it-yourself herpetoculturist, which, I think, is a huge part of the fun of reptile keeping. I try to make all of my enclosures look as naturalistic as possible, and having a back yard full of flat landscaping rocks and a family stockpile of craft and construction supplies has made that pretty easy. With a little ingenuity, I'm able to stretch my paycheck far enough to cover their necessities from substrate to food, lighting, and heat with no trouble, and I've wound up with some nice terrariums in the process! I really enjoy that aspect of their husbandry - research and creation (plus, it saves lots of cash. Buying for a Leopard Gecko, even three, is one thing, but dishing out huge sums of cash for enormous hides to accommodate a reptile that will grow to be 2-feet long? Forget about it! I'm glad aspen is only $9 per bag!)

I just thought I'd introduce myself and my new baby! I'm excited to spend the next 20 years or so in her company and watch her grow into a big, lazy, lounge lizard!

[alichamp]

Hi and welcome!!

I love that aspect of learning/setting up/caring too. I only got into this because of my daughter so support her in learning properly about everything she needs to know. Almost 2 1/2 years later and she's still going strong and now I'm addicted too!!

Man, they suck you in.

Good luck with all the study and I'd love to see some picks of your leopard geckos in the Everything Off Topic section.