It's been almost 2 years!!!

She's growing nicely, and not being able to sit still is probably a good sign -- it means she has lots of energy.

Thank you.
I had a Leopard Gecko for 5 years before Spike. His name was Wiley. He was a spunky little booger, always full of energy, hence his name.
When we moved in October of last year, to where we are now, someone broke into our old apartment and stole Wiley, tank, and everything that went with him. (It was a horrible neighborhood and the Police weren't too interested in helping us find out who did it and our landlord was a jerk who just didn't care.)

In some ways, Spike reminds me of Wiley. She is always scurrying around, never being too still unless basking. She loves attention and to be held (at least when she wants) otherwise she is a little booger and just likes to run all over the bedroom for some free roaming. Or, sometimes she does still enjoy sitting in the window sill on my pillow, watching the traffic at the gas station up the street. She definitely has a lot of spunk for such a little one. Makes me wonder if she will stay that way once she is an adult, or if she will become lazy bones.

My little chubby butt worshiping her basking light on her new giant rock. <3 I have an addiction of taking pictures of Spike. Haha. But darn it, she is just too darn cute and adorable!

Dragon pips! :lol: I think the gaping/"pipped" mouth is the cutest thing they do.
I call him Pipter...

I'm so sorry to hear about not only your break in, but the loss of a beloved part of your family I would have been devastated!! I can't imagine losing a pet in that manner. That's terrible. Though I take it you did not get him back, I hope the remainder of his life went well and the crooks got what was coming to them.

Pipter! Haha. I love it! That is awesome. He is such a handsome guy! And quite the camera ham it seems.

Yeah, I was pretty devastated about Wiley. He was my birthday present and the sweetest little gecko ever imaginable. The hubby unloaded the u-haul truck at the new place and I stayed to start unpacking. He called me once he went back to get the last load of stuff, including Wiley, and told me that he was gone. I thought he was joking. I was like, "Gone? What do you mean gone? It isn't like he came climb out of his tank!" And then he told me that he wasn't just gone, but his tank, lights, everything I had for him was gone. We never figured out who actually took him, and we searched all the yard sale sites on FB and on Craigslist and never found a trace of him. I can only hope that whoever took him, treated him right and cared for him properly. He really was an amazing little pet.

I literally just had the crap scared out of me while I was getting Spike some bugs out of the bug bin. I normally just pick them off one by one as I hand feed them to her. I went to each in, snagged one, but then another one started crawling up my hand. Normally, I don't care, but I literally jumped out of my chair and almost screamed! My oldest came running in and asked me what was wrong. I showed him the roach that I didn't even know was in the container. It is HUGE and WAY too big to even attempt to feed Spike. It is about an inch and a half if not maybe a tad bit bigger. I grabbed the measuring tape as quick as I possibly could and that is roughly what I got before it took off again. Scared the living crap out of me! Spike's normal roaches are 1/2 inch or smaller. This one had to come in the new shipment I received today because it sure as heck wasn't in there when I cleaned the bug bin last night!
I suppose I am just going to continue to keep it and hope that it starts making some babies. Haha.

Edit: I looked it up on the website I ordered them from and they do have those size roaches. They are the extra large ones! Must have gotten mixed in some how. But still! Haha. I think I just about had a heart attack.

If I have to handle the extra large ones, I think I am going to have to order a pair of tongs. I can't guarantee I can hand feed her those. I normally don't mind bugs, but that MONSTER is ginormous especially compared to what I am used to handling. >.< Ugh. But, I honestly can't see her being able to eat the extra large ones at any point. They just look too darn big to me to even attempt to want to feed those to her in the future.

I hand feed all my feeders, but those big roaches...
I breed my own and I cannot stand them touching me. I'll get over it, I feed the xlarge to Richter, but the adults are just.... dhjkdgjhjg. So gross. And I raised them! I still think they're gross.

I honestly don't know if I can get used to THOSE big one, but I am hoping that as Spike grows and requires the bigger roaches, that I can get used to them by gradually having to feed her the bigger ones. The ones now don't bother me at all, but once that big one started crawling up my hand, that did it for me. I don't even know how I missed it! It is huge compared to the rest! I even inspected the bug bin again today and I couldn't find the big one. It must be pretty well hidden! >.<

The medium to large ish ones are ok I think mainly because I can't really feel them. They kind of glide. The REALLY big ones you can feel grip with their gross *** feet. That feeling is what gets me. Richter has been rejecting his roaches lately in favor of collard greens and superworms, and he's big enough to have a few supers a day so I've kind of been just letting it happen, though I'd like him to accept some roaches again soon. He just gets the dweeby look on his face like he's about to strike it and then looks away like "eh nevermind.." Luckily! My pacman frog has begun accepting roaches and he can eat the pretty big ones even at a few months old as long as it fits his mouth, which is basically just his face.

I'll usually go down to my colony and shake a cardboard tube into my feeder bin and pick out the super large ones to put back in the colony. The babies/nymphs I leave with the feeders and just put them back into the colony when I go to "restock" the correct sizes. Basically I just dump them back in and shake the now re-filled cardboard tube into the feeder bin again. I'm lazy. Eventually I'll have to start sorting the breeders from the feeders, though. My colony is getting pretty large now

Yeah, I can't stand the feeling of that big one climbing on me. It gave me the creeps.

I am going today to get a bigger bug bin. I didn't think they would breed as fast as they are, but i'm not going to complain. It beats having to have bugs shipped to my house. Right now, I probably have a good 300-400 in my bin, possibly a little more or a little less, but that is including the little ones and my breeders. I wanted to start small cause for the longest time Spike wouldn't eat her roaches so they were just collecting. I did order another 100 small/medium ones the other day though just to make sure I was good to go. I originally wasn't going to, but I thought Spike had eaten most of them, but come to find out, I forgot to shake one of the egg cartons and found A LOT that I didn't see. Oh well. Haha. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.

I started my colony with like 30 adult female and 15 adult male and that was a super slow start. I kept ordering more for Richter as he grew and adding some to the bin, ordering larger as he grew, adding more to the bin, got a messed up order they replaced for free, so added to the bin.. I have to be in the thousands now, and food disappears fast. Might have to get them a larger bin

My husband and I have had a few discussions about raising our own roaches so we'd always have some around for when the local pet stores are out of them, as well as silkworms, but so far we haven't tried it, although our beardie hasn't been eating them quite as fast as usual lately, so I suppose we could eventually end up with a breeding colony whether we want it or not. :roll:

I've seen how big they can get but I've never handled the adults. I like to think that I wouldn't be squeamish about it but I suppose I could get pretty freaked out if I found one way bigger than I expected somewhere that it wasn't supposed to be. Our main reason for deciding not to breed our own was a matter of already being maxed out as far as critter care is concerned, and supposing that taking care of a breeding colony would be even more labor intensive than just maintaining the little ones for feeders, but my husband thinks that it might not take any more time and energy than running to the pet store every time we need more.

I have noticed that they do have very sticky feet and they're really good at crawling up your arm when you're not looking. :shock:

Stealing someone's beloved pet is just about as low as you can get. I'm sorry to hear that you lost your gecko that way.

I did go out and why a bigger bug bin, but unfortunately it is a clean one. I wanted one that was a solid color so the kiddos couldn't see the bugs running around, but that didn't happen. So, needless to say, I had to move the bug bin, which is now sitting on top of our refrigerator, just in case someone little one with sticker fingers decided he wanted to play with the bugs.

Granted, he never has before, but this bin is a lot bigger and doesn't fit on the shelves under Spike's tank like the old one did. So, I would rather be safe than sorry as I do not need bugs crawl through my house. Haha.

Everything I have read says that dubia roaches can't climb, or at least not that well. Pfft! That thing didn't have ANY problem crawling up my hand. If anything, it felt like it had sticky feet or something.

Losing Wiley was horrible. But the worst part is not knowing how he ended up. There is a reason I prefer animals to people.

So, in the next few months, Spike's tank is going to need to be upgraded. Right now she has a 36"L x 18"W x 12" H. It was a surprise from the hubby, but sadly, it is not an ideal tank for her, at least in my opinion. She is still little now, but she won't always be.

It is extremely difficult to find places in the US to get a half way decent enclosure! Everything I have found is just 36"L. I found quite a few in the UK that I would love to have, but they don't ship to the US. And building my own is out of the question. I am not THAT handy and the hubby isn't handy at all. Lol.

This is the one I was debating on:
http://www.boamaster.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=8
Thoughts? Or happen to know a place that ships that I haven't found? Or possibly a website I haven't looked at yet? Craigslist was a no go.

*EDIT*
I also found this one that I like too.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/484604...rch_query=reptile enclosure&ref=sr_gallery_14

It's certainly more expensive to have a custom enclosure built than making one on your own, but if that's not an option, go for a nice one. KM Dragons has come with good reviews on here in the past http://www.kmdragons.com I'd request one that's at least 4'x2'x2' with a 24'' T5 UVB fixture next to the basking light fixture.