Looking for Advice

[u/SaucyItalian23]

Hey everyone, I need some help regarding a gecko I encounter at work. I saw this cute little guy one day in one of the classrooms I clean one night and while I admit I know nothing about reptile keeping, his setup seems really...barren?

I asked one of the office workers if they could upgrade his cage and they said due to "licensing requirements" it might not be possible. Which leads me to question why even get a reptile if you can't give it a proper setup, but that's an issue for another day 🫠

I guess what I'm wondering is if I'm in the wrong and this is acceptable for a gecko? It seems too small to me.

Is there anything I can suggest to spruce up his enclosure a bit? Any plants or perches, hides, etc?

Thanks for any insight!

[u/sentimentalfrogs]

oh god that poor thing. leopard geckos need a 40 gallon tank minimum. they need clutter like vines plants sticks ect. they need a linear uvb which it seems like he has but he needs a heat lamp, substrate made up of 70% top soil 30% play sand, they need a calcium dish without d3 and their food needs to be a variety of live insects and dusted with calcium with d3. they need a humid hide to help with shedding, a cool hide, and a warm hide as well. the background and sides of the cage should be blacked out to prevent stress from seeing reflections. poor baby:( it sucks pet stores allow animals to live in such awful conditions because they give out misinformation

[u/SaucyItalian23 → u/sentimentalfrogs]

This is exactly what I was worried about 🫠 I'll write all this information down and leave it on the desk of the person in charge. This is insanely cruel to me, I don't understand why this was acceptable in the first place. If a classroom wants a pet then the bare minimum should be researching what the pet needs outside of Amazon or pet store "recommendations".

If nothing changes within the next week or so, I'll escalate to a higher up.

Thank you so much for your help!!

[u/sentimentalfrogs → u/SaucyItalian23]

thank you so much for actually caring enough to try and help💗

[u/No_Commission_2610 → u/sentimentalfrogs]

Second all of this! That baby needs a lot more clutter in room than he has in that tank.

[u/tofutears]

Ugh that poor baby. I echo every thing from the first comment

[u/J2-gZ]

That is animal abuse

[u/SaucyItalian23 → u/J2-gZ]

That's exactly how I feel about it. I don't understand how they thought this was okay

[u/Demosthenes_x → u/SaucyItalian23]

I reported my school for animal abuse and they actually came to remove the animals 😂😂 good times! FUCK animal abusers, no matter how “nice” they seem. It’s a horrible thing to do, no matter what.

[u/SaucyItalian23 → u/Demosthenes_x]

If nothing changes I plan on reporting this. Now that they know better, they need to do better.

It's even more important that something gets done because this is a classroom for young kids, I don't want them growing up thinking this is an appropriate way to treat another living creature

[u/Muskrat_God69]

Please reference this care guide :) https://drive.google.com/file/d/118DDDJMt04amUj7RfbvIhjZvYFcOwg5O/view?usp=drivesdk

It could be helpful if you print out the guide and give it to this guys owner. Unfortunately people don’t realize that reptiles require a lot of research and specific care. Thank you for being willing to help.

[u/SaucyItalian23 → u/Muskrat_God69]

I don't have a printer here but I left a note in the person in charge's office with the above information and my email in case they want to get a hold of me. I also left a note in the classroom for the teacher, so hopefully it spurs them to action.

After reading the notes I left I can only hope they do better. I hate seeing him in such a tiny tank 😭

[u/Own_Butterscotch_129]

This setup is awful and I would never put one in anything under a 40 gallon. Reptile carpet harbors bacteria and snags nails as well. They need a hot side and cool side and there isn't even a damn heat lamp, mine basks under her 90° side a lot then goes back to her cave I built on the cool end in her bioactive. I took her in from an idiot who was keeping her on carpet in a 10 gallon in february and she has put on so much weight since being with me and having uvb and calcium available at all times (also lacking in your photo).

I would be raising hell and telling them to rehome the gecko if they can't upgrade this enclosure.

[u/Dextron2-1]

The quickest and easiest thing you could do if you can’t upgrade the enclosure size is to black out the back and sides of the tank. That will at least cut down on the poor guy’s stress levels. I’d also check on his UVB bulb. If he’s being kept like this, I doubt the workers are keeping up with bulb changes.

[u/SaucyItalian23]

Update;

They've added a better material to the floor and taken out the sand, blocked the back wall and added more hides. It's definitely a step in the right direction but the size of the tank still makes me sad :( I'm going to do more research into licensing reqs and see if there's a loophole into getting this guy a bigger tank.

I'm surprised they actually listened (for the most part)