Leopad Gecko Care

Leopard Gecko (Eublepharis macularius)

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Description

Leopard geckos are also known as Scorpion Slayers in their native lands because they are known to kill and eat scorpions. They live in arid, rock hilly areas comprised if sandy clay soils. They are nocturnal, ground dwellers. They are solitaire creatures which prefer to be alone but have been known to group up at times. They escape the heat of the desert by spending the day under crevices and in burrows in the ground where they can receive needed humidity. They also have the ability to drop their tail incase of a predator.

Range: Afghanistan, Northwestern India and Pakistan

Habitat: Hardened clay soil strewn with sand and Mountainy hillside rock crevices

Nutrition: Insectivores

Lifespan: 20-30 years

Size: 8 inches

Leopard geckos are a great lizard for the beginner while a favorite of the advanced keeper. From their unique colorings and markings, their easy going temperaments, to their easy care requirement's they are sure to become your favorite too. They are medium priced lizards that don't cost and arm and a leg to provide proper care for either. Leopard geckos also tend to like being held and don't mind resting on your knee. They also hardly bite and when they do it doesn't hurt or brake the skin like most reptiles. I'm sure after owning one that you will be happy that you went with a leopard gecko.

Temp: 85-88 on the hot side, and around 80 on the cool side. The heat can be controlled my light or heat pad

Lighting: Red night light (recommended) or Black Phosphor light in a reflector style fixture

Food and Feeding: Mealworms all the time, and crickets every other day. Also provide a bowl of calcium powder at all times and a bowl of water.

Caging: For 1 leopard gecko or a pair a 10 gal or larger. If more then 2, do not keep more then 1 male together as they will fight. 16 x 22 or a 20 gal may house 3-5 geckos.

Humidity: Provide a humidity box. A plastic shoebox with a opening cut into it with about 1 in height of moist peat moss will work. Placed on the hot side.

Their care is basic and simple to care for. Here are a list of supplies that you will need for your gecko before bringing him home.

So now that you got everything that you need, your all set to get started setting it up. First thing to do would be to washout the cage (even if brand new). The best thing to do is use is a bleach and water solution. This is also the cheapest thing to use too. Mix 1 part bleach to 10 parts water. This will not be a safe and effective mix. Wipe down all the sides both inside and bottom with it. Then rinse and dry. Do this with the Tub-a-ware container too along with the feed bowls.

Now line the bottom of the cage with paper towel. This will act as your substrate. Then place the food bowls in around the center area or along the edge near the center. Now clip on the light with the bulb on one end. This will be the end your gecko will usually stay and sleep.

Substrate is the ground material used to line the bottom of their cage. Their is a few types to choose from, and only one is considered safe and s recommended.

Paper towel is the safest substrate to use and is a must with hatchlings and juveniles. Paper towels provide a clean sanitary solution along with being the safest. Other substrates risk your animal to impaction which can cause death.

Reptile rugs have been used successfully too. But with these rugs, you have to make sure that their claws don't get caught in it not des it snag.

Playsand has been debated and debated. It is not the safest substrate to use but does help provide a natural home for the leopard gecko. When using sand, you must be aware of the risks of sand impaction and keep an eye open for the signs, such as dark spots under their belly, loss of appetite, lack of stools, sand in their stools, and other signs. Sand should only be used with full grown adults over a year old if used. It is also a must to provide calcium bowls as they will otherwise lick the sand for calcium and subject them to impaction. Also when using sand, make sure it clean, disinfected, and fine grained.

Calci-sand is not recommended. This has been developed to bypass the problems of using sand but has only compounded the problem. It was thought that it would digest in the animals stomach. While is does digest, the grains are to big to digest enough to avoid impaction. Also it's grains are larger then a good quality fine grained playsand. One other problem is that it's calcium, so your gecko will want to eat it more then playsand with will cause an impaction. Same holds true with calci-sand as does with playsand. Adults only, calcium bowls needed.

Lizard litter, it of large sized pieces and not recommended as it too has caused impaction.

Mulch though considered acceptable for other types of geckos is not acceptable or safe for leopard geckos either.

Your hide box or humidity box is needed for your pet to have a safe area to retreat and relax. It is also needed to help provide him/her extra needed moisture. And the final reason is he need's that constant moisture when shedding.

This is easily created. Take your container that you choose to use and cut a hole either in the top off to one side or on the side or front of the container near the bottom. Make the opening roughly 1 3/4" wide by 7/8" tall. This should allow your leo (leopard gecko) ample space to craw in and out of while providing a nice hiding spot without a huge opening. Now take about a handful of moss and rinse it in a bowl a few times to clean it. I recommend to change the water 3-4 times while doing this to give it a decent rinsing and cleaning. Just use plain water. Now ring it lightly as to keep it damp and place it in the hide container. Stick the lid on and set it halfway under the heat lamp.

The moss should be about 1/2" to 1" deep. You will need to keep it damp. It usually require adding water to it or spraying it every three day's. This of course depends on the weather. It's a good idea to change it every 3-6 months.

Feeding your leo is easy. You can simply feed them a constant diet of mealworms or mealworms and crickets. They will usually eat 4-10 food items per day. So how do you feed them you ask? Simple, keep a constant supple of mealworms provided in their food bowl. Now make sure that you keep the bowl out from under the heat lamp or you will kill the mealworms. As far as the crickets go. they are not needed but are recommended. Feed about 5 every other day. The size of the crickets should be no bigger the half the width of their head until they are fully grown. Then they should be fine to eat full grown crickets. As far as the mealworms go. Use 1" sized mealworms. Mealworms generally are not as big of a problem as cricket as their size goes. Anyways for baby leo's and hatchlings, I recommend small mealworms till the leo's starts getting a little larger .

A water bowl should be always provided. Change the water daily with fresh clean water. Some keepers say it is only needed 3 days out of the week. I feel being housed in captivity, they require a constant supply of water as they don't have the mass microenvironments to choose from such as in the wild.

For keeping a healthy pet, it is also required to keep your food well gutloaded. This is because your herp gets all the food and nutrition form it's food. An if a cricket has an empty stomach then your gecko will be getting no nutrition.

Crickets are basically an exoskeleton. They do not hold nutrition very well unless they have it in their stomach. This is way it is so important to provide you crickets with a well rounded diet. For the easy way, it is recommended to use poultry or chicken mash to feed to your crickets. Make sure that it does not contain any steroids or other growth hormones. You may also use cat food though it is not quite as nutritious. Their are also product's called cricket gutload or cricket feed. These are acceptable too. Not only should you provide a good source of dry food, but you should also provide a fresh veggies or fruits. This will complete a good diet to provide back to your herp. Also this will provide a good source of water for your crickets. Stay away though from using iceberg lettuce as this has very poor nutritional value. You may also purchase another product called cricket water. This provides an good source of water too. Or use a combination or the too. Do not use a water bowl as crickets are dumb and can drown in a drop of water. This also make's it to easy for bacteria and disease to spread as crickets will excrete their wastes everywhere.

Mealworms are easier provided that you feed well gutloaded crickets as part of their diet. Simply provide a container with a rolled oats or wheat bran for their food source and substrate. Five them also some sort of vegetable or fruit once a week.

Potatoes, mustard greens, and dandelion greens are an excellent source of nutrition. Potatoes, carets, and oranges provide a good source of nutrition with providing a great source of water. Please remember though to replace the fruits or vegetables every couple days as it will start to mold which can be harmful. Also when using dandelion greens, it advisable to get them from the supermarket or make sure that your lawn is not sprayed or have received overspray from the neighbors yard from any chemicals such as weed killers, pesticides, or fertilizers. They can be deadly for both your feed and herp.

Even with proper gutloading, it is still recommended that you supplement your herps food with vitamins and calcium. Providing these supplements is easy. The main way is simply adding a tiny bit of supplement to a baggy, add the food and shake a few times to lightly coat it. Their are also sprays, drops, and water drops. Dusting is the preferred way, unless needed to for health reasons.

You will also need to provide a bowl with calcium. This allows them to be able to eat extra calcium when needed. I also add a tiny amount of vitamins mixed it with mine, but this is just something extra that I do.

Dusting you their food is needed depending on the age, size and season of your geckos. Adults require dusting their food once a week with both calcium and vitamin powders. This generally provides the amounts they need without overdosing or becoming deficient. Use the Calcium with Vit.D3 on every other dusting with the adults as two much has been causing some debate as to Vit.D3 overdosing.

For hatchlings, juveniles, and gravid females, it is recommended every other day to dust their prey. Please note, you will only want to use the calcium with vit.d3 once a week. Other then that use the regular calcium.

Calcium is important in proper bone growth along with egg production in gravid females. Without the proper about of calcium, they will develop MBD. This will include signs of weakening of he animal, limbs not growing strait, mouth line uneven or not strait, and improper development of the jaw. Females need it when producing eggs. They will require high levels of it for strong eggs and to lay the eggs. Not enough calcium will cause soft and brittle shells along with the female becoming egg bound which can kill her. Even if you don't breed your female. She will still need extra calcium during the breeding season as she will still lay infertile eggs. MBD is one of the main killers of herps.

Heating is required as your herp is cold-blooded and receives it's body heat from outside sources. It cannot make its own body heat and will simply freeze to death. Not only does it need heat to keep warm, but it need's it to properly digest it's food. Too cold of a temperature if not cold enough to kill your herp right away will cause a loss of appetite, slow growth rates, vitamin deficiencies, impaction problems, and weaken his immune system. A week immune system will also leave your herp more susceptible to worms and other parasites. Your herp will also be less active, more stressed, and eventually die a painful death. So proper heating is extremely important.

Proper heating can either be supplied by a heat pad, heat tape, or the most recommended, heat lamp. Do not, I repeat, do not use a heat rock. Heat rocks are been known to cause extreme burn to your lizard and also have a tendency to cause burns. Heat pads are generally safe as long as they don't heat up to hot and cause burns. The same holds true for heat tape.

Heat lights or lamps are what is recommended by most keepers. Not only are they easier to control the desired temperature, but they provide it to the top parts of their bodies too. It also provides a great way to provide a graduated heat source. This allows for your leo to chose the right temperature it wants and requires at any given time. Their is also little risk of burning too.

Leopard geckos require a daytime temperature of 85-88 degrees (86-88 is recommended since their will be some heat fluctuation and inaccuracy in the thermometer) in their basking area. It can be allowed to get up to 95 degrees at times but no higher and should not stay at a constant 95 degrees for very long. 85 degrees is required for proper food digestion and health. So you don't want this any lower under the heat lamp. The opposite side of the cage should be cooler. Ideally it should be at around 70-75 degrees.

To control the heat when using a heat lamp, their are two main ways. First you want a correct wattage bulb. This will get you close in the heat range. For a 10 gal aquarium a 15-25 watt bulb usually about what's needed. Some bulb manufactures red heat bulb place out less heat then others. So a cheap bulb may require a 50 watt or higher. To control the heat, you will now need to control the distance that the bulb is away from the surface of the substrate. That is the most common way. The second is to use the bulb on a dimmer switch. This will allow you to precisely control how much electricity is going to the bulb in turn control your heat. One thing to remember is that when the temperature in the room changes so does the cage temperature when using a heat lamp.

The best way to check you temperatures is buy using a digital thermometer which you can generally get for around $10. Make sure you get one that has an outdoor probe and duel display is recommended. Simply place the outdoor probe under the heat lamp and the main unit in the colder section. This will allow you to keep an constant eye on both sides at once. Most thermometer's have a max and min feature that tells you the highest temperature and lowest temperature recorded sense the last time reset was pushed. Some models even have an alarm feature that you can set when a certain temperature has been reached.

Lighting is not a major issue with leopard geckos as it is with most other lizards. This is because they are nocturnal. They come out at night when the temperatures are cooler and have adapted to make their vit.D3 more efficiently. They generally come out 30 before sunset in the while and stay out till a half an hour after sunrise. They will from time to time come out in the daylight hours but not for long or very often. This is why lighting is not a main issue.

Basically for the lighting requirement you need 12 hours of sun or light. Less in the winter, more in the summer. But this is not a major issue. As long as they have their night time they will generally be happy. Special UVB bulbs are not required.

Their is however a ongoing debate whether or not UVB lighting is helpful. People have noticed that their leopard geckos seem more active, healthier, have increased appetites, better moods, better coloration, and increased growth rates however. So their maybe a big plus to using full-spectrum lighting. It is not known though yet as to whether or not as if it will replace the use of using calcium in adults. This has been a discussion by many keepers and breeders and will be debated until essential testing has been done to confirm whether or not it helps for sue and how much.

Since their is a debate on whether or not it is worth the extra cost and trouble, I have decide to use full-spectrum lighting on my leopard geckos as their does not appear to be any harm and the the possibility or benefits outweigh the lack of risks.

Cleaning is not a major chore as leopard geckos are clean animals. They like to use one area to use as their bathroom with makes cleanup easy on you. You should spot clean daily. With paper towel you should just change it weekly

With sand substrate, you should remove any fecal mater every week. You do not have usually change it until 5-6 months. Then replace it with clean fresh new sand after washing the cage and bleaching it first since your changing the substrate anyways and will have it empty.

I have written this care guide to be in acceptance with all the new and best theories and ways to provide optimum care for your leopard gecko. I believe this guild hill help you of better understand the care requirement's in keeping a healthy pet. Some of the idea's in here are debated and it is best to use you best judgment and consult with a qualified vet that specializes in exotic animal care and has proper knowledge of leopard geckos. I have tried to provide you will the best up-to-date info and make sure that it is accurate. Please beware that these are my ideas from my best judgment and mayor may not fit the care requirements for you individual animal. You use this document at your own risks and agree not to hold us liable for any info within or provided on our site.

For more information along with questions and answers, try our Leopard Gecko Forum.