# ACrylic paints and leopard gecko hide?



## roach dude (May 13, 2007)

Can i paint my leopard gecko's hide. Its basically a flora (butter) tub and it looks realy ugly. I would like to paint ti browny yellowy greeen with acrylic paint, are these toxic or harmfull to my leo?


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## roach dude (May 14, 2007)

HAte to be uimpatience but anybody?


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## Falyn (May 14, 2007)

honestly id say no just because alot of paints can be toxic, so you might want to look into if its toxic to animals or not it should say on the bottle if it is or not but personally i wouldn't.


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## Mushroom Spore (May 14, 2007)

Yeah, if you want a more attractive hide, I'd suggest just going to the petshop and picking up something that looks like a log or a rock or something.  Then you won't have to worry about toxicity.


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## roach dude (May 14, 2007)

Nah its just its a moist hide so needs a bottom... will check, it dosent smell or anything.


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## LeilaNami (May 14, 2007)

i believe acrylic is nontoxic but you have to let it ventilate well before using the hide again


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## AneesasMuse (May 15, 2007)

..just cuz it doesn't smell to your human nose, doesn't mean the Leo can't smell or be affected by it. 

On the same note, I use water based acrylic paints on some of my artsy birdhouse gourds and cure them with a "known" nontoxic aqua spar after...  I haven't seen or heard of a bird death yet. (The idea came to me from _many_ other gourd artists, as well... so if your paint is water based, it may be safe.)

Good Luck! 


P.s. You could probably attach stickers or contact paper (sticky backed paper) to hide the "butter'ness" of your Leo's hide  ...and if you're going to do all of this, you may as well do as MushroomSpore suggest and just go buy a cool looking one.


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## roach dude (May 15, 2007)

Lol yea true.. i got one cool looking one, likea realy naturall one but it cost about a tenner. And i need this for a moist hide so i htink i will just put up with the butterness! who knows!


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## AneesasMuse (May 15, 2007)

I just thought of something else...

You could buy a fresh coconut at the grocery and only make a small enough hole in it to get the "meat" out and/or let your Leo in. Once it's clean, you can stuff it with sphagnum, or whatever media you use to keep it moist for a shedding hide.. and it will look perfectly natural. 

You could do this with an appropriantely sized and shaped gourd, as well.. but you'd need to cure the inside. I use Nordic Oil to do it.. it's food grade safe for humans, so no harm to anything else. 

Too bad you're in England or I could just slap a postage on one and send it off to ya.


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## roach dude (May 16, 2007)

Thats a good idea but arent coconuts round and wouldnt it just roll about the place iwth a loein thats got half its skin haning off... lolw what a image!


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## AneesasMuse (May 16, 2007)

LOL ..uhh, yeah... that would be funny to see. Little Leo trying to change his "clothes" and spinning around like in a clothes dryer  

I think you can probably fix the coconut into the substrate if you push it down a little... whether you use sand or bark, etc. Or you could silicone a circle around the bottom... let it dry.. and it will serve as a base to make it stable. (I think I need to market these things  )


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## roach dude (May 16, 2007)

haha yea lol!


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