My Gorgeous bestie Ashley Geckoface Ogilvie has asked me to put this together about myself and how I got into the Leopard Gecko hobby. Id like to nominate Tony Astle, the missing, dirty uncle in my life! But also someone who I look up to massively as a gecko idol, and admire greatly within this hobby. So Im Kate, and Im a forklift driver for Wickes in Gloucester. I actually own 29 (keep loosing count) leos. I suffer with depression and anxiety, through my geckos I can control it, sort of. And Ive been breeding for two years. (Turns out) only 3 years ago this sort of time I got into the hobby. Whilst we were having the Wickes store in Gloucester built and stocking it up, my colleague at the time Jenny, wanted to go next door to pets at home to look at fish. This is when I laid my eyes on my life changing. After that day I was adamant I was going to get a Leopard Gecko. So every night until march I googled them, I must have been on 100s of websites. I got myself some books and found a local reptile shop called Pilbara reptiles. I spoke with them on numerous occasions about getting my first gecko and they talked me through everything. My first gecko was Candy, a hypo and a very cheeky lady. Then two months later I got Sandy (Engima) and put them in the same viv together. They were isntant besties!! When I first got into researching geckos the only thing I didnt research were the morphs.. and I found out how different Enigmas could be. Candy & Sandy had a mix of sand and bark chippings in their viv, one day I noticed Sandy acting differently and took her to the vets to find she had sand impaction. Finding out she was a Engima and having her on sand.. I felt like it was all my fault. I some what fell into breeding in a stupid and ridiculous manner, which annoyes me that I was so stupid for not checking. I had 6 leos living together in seriously kitted out 4 foot vivarium.. and one day found out one of the girls was a boy......... Luckily it wasnt so bad and researched the hell out of the breeding part. All girls slapped their weight on fast after and it was the best mistake of my life. As now I have my beautiful boy Bambini. Unfortunately all the bad things that come from owning such pets Ive had to deal with first hand. And this year has been tough for me emotionally on me and my geckos. Last year at Sware I bought my beautiful Shimmer, believed to be a Banana Blizzard. She had somthing wrong for months and I tried everything I could. Shed stop eating, eyes would get gooey and shed needed eye drops to seperate her eye lids. This went on from October 2013 until April 2014 when we finally had to have her put to sleep after being diagnosed with Crypto. Luckily the rest of my team were clear from it after having them tested too. And then only a week ago my Millie past away from what I could only diagnose as suffocating eating her shed.. From these two beautiful girls leaving me, I have promised I will never let another gecko leave me in such a tragic way. Too many people in this hobby are quick to judge someone elses animals because theyre not high end enough, havent brought from the right breeder or have a baby that is het for two albinos. Things happen, and at the end of it every gecko deserves to be loved and cared for as much as the most expensive gecko. Theres too many people out there breeding for a quick couple of quid and for what? Absolutely nothing but ruining this fabulous hobby and everything it stands for. Even though I never planned on getting on this scale, having my own page, owning so many leos, and then the breeding part, Im glad it happened. The people Ive met just over facebook is incredible, the friendships Ive made within the hobby, and of corse the animals. I want to thank Charli Skyla Lello, as she was the first ever person I met through the hobby after contacting her on Reptile Forums website. If it wasnt for her showing me so much help and care I dont think Id know anyone or have what I have today. So thank you Charli.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 13:25:31 +0000
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