Gecko Mania!!!

Disclaimer: I won't even start this by saying I'll be posting more often because, lets face it, I barely have time to poop and shower (at an impromptu lunch with my husband last week, I raised my arm to scratch my back and he said, "Uh, are you gonna shave your armpits any time soon?"). I'll write when I have time and am clean...tonight happens to be one of those times.

Also, I fully expect most of you to file this under your tldr folder.

First off, let me tell you that the following events happened within a time span of 13 days...I almost feel like I should write this as an episode of 24.

Now then, I do not discriminate when it comes to pet sitting. I look after dogs, cats (obvi.), birds, fish, frogs, hamsters, geckos, bearded dragons (my fave), hedgehogs, horses, goats, snakes, rabbits, etc. Really, as long as you are not all, "Hey, pet sitter, here's my pet clicking cock roach...", I'm game! 

So, when a new client approached me and said that her family is in the gecko breeding business, I thought, "Cool! Learning opp! I'm in!"

I went over for the consult, got the drill - geckos (well, certain ones) need to be misted every other day with water, at a minimum, and they eat a slurry of either baby food (peach or apricot) or gecko food and/or crickets. They also had gecko eggs that were simmering and would hatch at various times - none during the time I was to care for these critters. Whew! Anyone else see my amazing foreshadowing skills at work here???

A small reptilian lesson (keeping in mind, I'm going off of my experience and will resist the urge to consult the interwebs to look more intelligent):

• A leaf-tailed gecko is larger (at full size, approx. one foot from tail to head) and it's tail looks like an actual leaf - seriously, these guys can blend in to ANYTHING!!! I have spent the better part of an hour searching for one, only to find it has been splayed out on a branch right in front of me...jerks
• A leopard gecko is smaller (approx. six inches from tail to head) and has the patterns of a leopard. Fairly spritely little guys and always wear a smile :)
• A crested gecko is even smaller than a leopard gecko (approx. three to five inches). SUPER fast, mischievous and sneaky...they have eyelashes so, naturally, they are my favorite kind of gecko.

In my care was the following:

• One Bearded Dragon (does that need to be capitalized?? Also, reptile enthusiasts call them "beardies") named Spike. I LOVE Spike
• One python
• Two frogs (one is a beautiful, green surely-from-the-Amazon type guy) and one, who (whom??? No clue) I named Bob The Blob - he lives in water and literally looks like a hocked up loogie and is quite aggressive with his food (crickets) again...still, not a roach so I'm good caring for this being
• Two Leopard geckos - no misting needed
• Two chameleons! One small one and one large one - AMAZING creatures!
• Approximately 30 leaf-tailed or crested geckos
• Two on-the-verge-of-dying Beta fish
• Several gecko eggs.

My responsibilities were:

• Visit the reptiles every other day - on the first visit, just mist the required lizards; on the next visit, mist AND feed everyone (except for the beardie, python, and Bob the Blob)
• Make sure Spike has water and food; make sure the python has water; feed the inevitably dying fish
• Water the tomato plants.

Onward...

I entered the house on my first visit (July 31, 2015) - a visit just to mist the lizards. Lizard Central (LC) is located in the area of the house where the dining room would typically go. Along the walls and windows are the larger tanks for the...you guessed it...larger lizards; the smaller lizards are in critter carriers in the middle of the room. As per usual, I go in, say "hello" to everyone (even if they don't respond, and they never do) and resume my duties. I go to the sink and fill the mister from the kitchen and begin. First up - large chameleon. His name is Ernest and I LOVE him. He's amazing. Curled up tail, wandering eyes and the most beautiful shade of green ever. A simply stunning creature. He laps up the water that drips down is body as I spray him gently. I also mist his leaves so that when I go, he has the drippings to frolic in, lick, and enjoy.

I make my way around and get to the third large habitat, which houses two leaf-tailed geckos. I later learned that these two were wild-caught so their ages were unknown at the time of their capture. I'm misting...enjoying the quiet solitude that comes with caring for lizards as opposed to yappy dogs or nosey cats...then I see it, there on the floor of the habitat, a dead, rigermortized (is that even a word???) leaf-tailed gecko...up-side down, toes curled up, white (chalk-ish) looking skin and even some skin hanging off. EW (insert Jimmy Fallon "EW" skit here)!

A cold sweat rushes over me - I'm good with live animals, but I'm not so good with dead ones. Why? My biggest fear is that the "dead" animal actually has a shred of life left in it and at the very moment I touch it, will jump to life and scare the ever loving fuck out of me. What to do? Call Dad.

Dad was busy having lunch with a cousin...well, isn't that just freaking great?! There is NO way I'm going to pick that dead lizard up. And so, for the next 20 minutes I sprayed this poor, dead creature with various pressures of water to confirm its "deadness."

I do have a small, but AMAZING team of sitters who help me out more than I can even explain. Nancy....Nancy is a very tiny person with a huge personality. She doesn't mince words, nor does she take any shit from anyone (even me). She handles a client who has a horrendous roach problem for me. SHE is the man...er...woman for this job. I called her...she came right over. 

Armed with rubber gloves and poop bags (a necessity in this industry), Nancy extracted the stiffy lizard and deposited it into a zip-loc bag and placed it in the freezer (as instructed by the client). Prior to laying (lying??) it to rest in its icy tomb, I took photos and sent them to my client. This was necessary because they planned to do an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Since this lizard shared a habitat with another gecko, they need to make sure it's not something contagious that can be passed on to it's flat mate.

Wouldn't it be nice if the rest of the scheduled visits with my reptilian friends went smoothly? FAT CHANCE! However, the next story is pretty cool!

As I said, this client not only has several geckos as pets, but they also breed them. There are always various eggs in little, tiny Tupperware containers resting, cooking, simmering - waiting for the day that they hatch.

My client assured me that none of the eggs were due to hatch while they were gone, but to check on them at each visit just in cases (hello...Love Actually reference...anyone...anyone???). So, I made checking the eggs my last task before I walked out the door each day...I made my rounds and the first two visits - nothing. Good.

Third visit comes around. I mist, give Spike some love, baby talk to Ernest and marvel at his swiveling eyes and slow-moving tongue, talk to everyone else and make sure things are in order. Check on the fish...can't believe they are still alive and audibly say aloud, "I can't believe you guys are still alive." I begin making my rounds to check on the eggs and, wouldn't you guess...one of the m-effers has hatched!!!! 

I immediately call my client and deliver the good news. They are shocked that one hatched and told me that I needed to go to PetSmart, get a small habitat to put the baby in. Get some of the bedding from one of the other habitats, toss it in the new baby's home and steal a leaf from another habitat to add for nice ambiance for the little guy...or girl. Off to PetSmart I go!!!

I quickly grabbed a small, plastic critter cage and a bag of bedding. I didn't want to risk another one of the lizards escaping as I stole bedding from it's home...better to just add new.

Once back at LC, I arranged the bedding and grabbed a leaf from another tank (a low-risk tank on the "possibility of escape" scale) and prepared to transfer this teeny creature. It was a crested gecko that hatched...a red one. It was about the size of 3/4 of my pinky - super small and super CUTE!! I placed the "egg cooking" container that he/she hatched from inside his/her new home (again, minimizing the risk of having this smaller-than-pint-sized baby escaping into the open house), opened the container and poked it a smidge with my finger to get him/her to hop out and onto the new bedding. This tiny creature made the cutest sound that I have ever heard come from something so small...too bad I can't attach audio or I would try to recreate it!! My client later told me that only the babies make this sound.

I sat back and watched the baby. I gently misted it and gave it a stern talking to, "Ok, now listen, little fellow...please don't die in my care. You are so tiny and cute and I will take good care of you, but please don't die on me. I will bring you some peach baby food tomorrow and will mist you with a gentle touch. Again...do NOT die!" 

Fun factoid time!!! A gecko's first meal is the skin that it sheds after hatching. Once it finishes this meal, it can eat either gecko food or some peach or apricot baby food (as stated earlier). And that is just what I got him/her - some Gerber peach baby food, which I placed in a cut-down Dixie cup the next day. 

From that day on, I walked into my client's house and immediately went to the baby's container to make sure it was still alive, and it WAS :) I felt like it was mine...it was so fragile and tiny. 

The rest of my visits went off without another glitch, death or hatching. A few days after my clients returned, I text to check on "my" baby and it's still doing well!! Also, the freaking fish are still alive!!!

I'm still waiting for a TV network to call and offer me a reality show...

Post by: Allison Otero, owner of AlleyCat's Pet Service
alleycatspetservice.com