I have never been a pet kind of person, and I am by no means, an animal lover. I am squeamish about anything that creeps or crawls, and the mere sighting of a squirrel outside my kitchen window is enough to make me lose my appetite.
So when my son requested a
pet for his birthday, I was initially thrown for a loop. Up until now, we had
never owned any pet more high maintenance than a goldfish. The notion of
nourishing an animal in addition to my kids seemed very daunting.
After a little bit of
thinking on my part, and more cajoling from my son, I began warming to the
idea. Anything that couldn’t be contained in a cage was out of the question, so
cats and dogs were not even on our radar. I envisioned a snowy white bunny,
sitting tamely in its cage while my son brought home a string of admiring
neighbors, perhaps even allowing them to feed the bunny a carrot.
“Okay, Mudgie,” I smiled.
“Daddy and I have decided that we think you’re old enough to take care of a
pet.”
Mudgie’s almost eight year
old, toothless grin was priceless.
“Yesssss!!! Can I get a
Python?”
“A snake?! I was thinking
maybe a rabbit or a guinea pig. How about a cute little hamster?”
“Those are soooo boring,
everyone has them. I want a reptile.” He was resolute.
And so began the research.
Milk snakes versus garter snakes. Geckos or chameleons? An iguana or maybe a
bearded dragon? We spent hours online, we visited our local pet shop, and we
took books out of the library.
We learned that reptiles
have levels of care ranging from beginner to advanced. Most of them eat live
food, and there was even a chapter in our gecko book entitled “Feeding the
Food.” We went to Petco a couple of times to get acquainted with different
species of reptiles.
After all of our investigation,
we decided that a leopard gecko made the most sense for us since they are easy
to care for, and they’re considered ideal pets for beginners.
On the day of Mudgie’s birthday,
we went to Petco with a couple of his friends who came along for the exciting
event. An employee named Joe was really helpful and patient and he answered all
our gecko questions. He informed us that Petco was currently running a sale on
leopard geckos, and I, who can never resist a sale, told him that we would take
two geckos. He kindly wrote up a detailed list for us, which contained all the
information we needed to care for our new pets.
We came home with the tank
along with all the other gecko necessities that Joe had insisted we buy, and we
set up our geckos’ new habitat. Once they were settled in, we had to get the
crickets set up too. I poked holes in the plastic lid of container, threw in a
slice of orange, and Mudgie bravely opened the plastic bag containing the
crickets and poured them into the container.
We sat around the gecko’s
tank admiring them and observing their stealth, cat-like mannerisms. All the
kids on our block came by to check our new additions, while Mudgie basked in
his novel celebrity status as the proud owner of such exotic pets. We fed them
and conscientiously cleaned out their tank, making sure they were always
comfortable and happy.
We’ve had the geckos for
two months now and I can attest to the fact that they really are very low maintenance
household pets. So what if I currently have a container of live mealworms
residing on the bottom shelf of my refrigerator? It’s a small price to pay for
my son’s happiness.
It feels to me like we
spend most of our time in Petco, replenishing our ever dwindling supply of live
mealworms and crickets. I still haven’t gotten used to the smell of that place,
and I usually just hold my breath, until we’re safely back in the car with our
fresh supply of insects.
Recently the novelty of our
geckos has begun to wear off. We no longer find them fascinating to watch, and
even their tri-weekly feeding sessions have lost their allure. We bought a bag
of crickets the day before school started, and in the back to school chaos, we
forgot to put them in a container with their food. Two days later, when it was
bedtime, and my son remembered that it was time to feed the geckos, and all we
had was a bag of dead dried up crickets. I assured him that geckos can go for
long periods of time without food, and that we would buy them food in the
morning.
The next day our hapless
geckos were completely forgotten as we resumed the frantic pace of the new school
year. Later that night when things had quieted down, and the geckos came out, (they’re
nocturnal) I remembered that we hadn’t fed them in a while.
I vaguely recalled Joe from
Petco telling us that in a pinch, geckos can be fed jars of turkey baby food.
My husband and I dashed over to the nearest 24 hour Wal Mart to see what they
had to offer in terms of gecko nourishment. We were pleasantly surprised to
discover a huge jar of freeze dried mealworms for a mere $4.99. Thankfully, we
have since cut down on our excursions to Petco, as the geckos seem to be just
as content with dried mealworms as they had been with the live ones.
The geckos really are very
endearing, and I must confess, I’ve become somewhat attached to them. Owning
pets is not as difficult and time consuming as I had initially assumed it to
be. Now my daughter is clamoring for a pet of her own as well, and I think I just
might be brave enough to take on another one in the near future.
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| Gordon and Gecky |
