Leopard Gecko Care
Leopard Geckos in the wild originate from Pakistan, Afghanistan and northwestern India. They are nocturnal which means they should be active mostly at night but during the day our geckos tend to be inquisitive and take a wander around their homes to see what's going on. They belong to the family Eublepharidae, which includes all geckos that have movable eyelids. Their scientific name is Eublepharis macularius, which translates to 'true eyelid spotted', personally I prefer Leopard Gecko.
Leopard Geckos are one of the most hardy of the gecko species available, combining this with the fact that their husbandry is quite simple and even the novice reptile enthusiast can have great success in keeping and breeding this interesting species of gecko makes this reptile an ideal choice for beginers and experts alike. We will try to give you the benefit of our acquired experience in the following pages of our care sheet.
Housing
First things first, you should never house multiple male Leopard Geckos together. They are territorial and may fight each other. You shouldn't house a female and a male together either, unless you want babies. However, you can house multiple females together, but you must watch them carefully because there can be situations where one may be a leader. Some signs of "bullying" would be marks on one of the geckos, one getting more food than the other, or one of the geckos getting a good bit larger than the other.
Life Span
Leopard geckos are long-lived compared to some reptiles. On average you can expect your gecko to live six to 10 years, but many males live 10 to 20 years.
Shedding
Shedding is a natural process that occurs about every 2 weeks. Your gecko will get very pale, almost a white color the night before he sheds. A moist hide is essential for thorough shed. Refer to the essential section to see how to make your own moist hide. Geckos should finish the shedding process within 2 days. A lot of times, especially as babies, Leopard Geckos don't always complete their shed. The hard areas to get shed off are the toes and head (sometimes around their eyelids). I let my geckos attempt to get the shed of for about 4 days before I help them. You should soak your gecko in 1 1/2 inches of lukewarm water for 15 minutes (even though he/she won't like it). Then take a q-tip and slowly rub off the "stuck shed". Your gecko will become nice and bright after shedding.
Caging
A 10- to 20-gallon aquarium houses one or two leopard geckos from hatchling to adult size. Larger tanks tend to cause the geckos to stray away from their proper heat and hide box. Although visibility is reduced, many people use plastic storage boxes as housing. Any cage you choose should be at least 1 foot tall. Be sure to have a secure screen top on your gecko cage that will support a light fixture, provide good ventilation and keep out bothersome cats.
A hide box filled with moist moss or vermiculite is needed, so your leopard gecko can shed its skin properly. This secure setting also is needed for egg laying if you plan on breeding geckos.
Lighting and Temperature
The best way to heat your leopard gecko is by using an undertank heating pad or tape. These are available at any pet store or online. Heating one end of the cage is best. This allows for a temperature variation that your lizard needs. Heat rocks tend to become too hot for leopard geckos and should be avoided due to the risk of burns.
For viewing, a simple low-wattage light can be placed overhead on the screen-cage top and left on 12 hours a day.
Because leopard geckos are active at night (notice their vertical pupils), they do not need to bask under a special UVB light.
Albino leopard geckos are light-sensitive for the first few months of their lives, but they do fine as a pet.
The ideal temperature in the hide box is 86 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit at all times. The ambient air temperature of the room they are housed in should be above 73 degrees.
Substrate
Newspaper, pea gravel, artificial turf, flat stones or no floor covering are OK. A young or debilitated leopard gecko might consume sand or fine-particle products on the cage floor, and this could lead to intestinal impaction.
Leopard geckos actually have a "bathroom" in one corner of their cages, and that area can be spot-cleaned without disrupting the entire system.
Do not expose your gecko to commercial plant soils or sands that may contain fertilizer or pesticides.
Food
Live insects are a must for your gecko; they do not eat plants or veggies. The best items to use are mealworms or crickets, but you can treat your pet to waxworms or superworms once a week if you wish. We have used regular mealworms. Avoid feeding leopard geckos pinky mice.
All insects must be first given a nutritious powdered diet for at least 12 hours before being fed to your leopard gecko. This process is called “gut loading,” and it is very important to the health of your pet. Chick or hog mash is available at all feed stores, and several good commercial diets are available for this purpose, as well. Simply place the insects in a tub of gut-load diet with a piece of potato to serve as a source of water.
Dusting your insects is one way to deliver important vitamins and minerals to your leopard gecko. Insects and the dusting powder can be placed in a plastic bag or deep tin can, and shook gently to coat the insects’ bodies. When adding the dusted insects to the cage, be sure not to let the powder get into a gecko’s eyes.
Another way to give the extra powdered supplements to your gecko is to keep a small jar lid filled with vitamin-mineral powder at all times. The gecko knows how much its body needs, and it will lick up the powder accordingly.
Keepers can offer two appropriately sized insects for every inch of a leopard gecko’s total length. A meal every other day is fine. Therefore, a 4-inch-long gecko would receive eight mealworms three to four times a week
Water
A shallow water dish with fresh water must be available at all times. It should also be stable, so it cannot be spilled. Cage substrate should be kept dry, so be careful about spillage. Make sure that young and adult leopard geckos can climb easily out of the dish you use. Vitamin drops should not be added to the water.
Handling and Temperament
In general, do not handle leopard geckos on a regular basis until they settle in and are more than 6 inches in total length. Once your gecko is large enough, it is best to sit on the floor, and let your gecko crawl through loose fingers and hand-over-hand for 10 to 15 minutes per day until they are accustomed to your touch. This taming process takes only five to seven days. Never grab or hold the gecko’s tail, or it might be dropped. Often the tail regenerates in less than 40 days.
Cleaning
This section is short, but very important. You should clean the cage every week. If you are using tile as your substrate, you can clean it with a wet paper towel. If you use paper towels as substrate, just replace them. And finally, with reptile carpet, you should always have two of them for each tank. So you just remove one and put it in the washing machine to get cleaned, while the other one goes in the tank for a week. About once a month you should take everything out of your tank and do a thorough wash and cleaning of the glass and everything. This will help keep away harmful bacteria.
Morphs
One very neat thing about geckos is that fact that they have morphs. You may have noticed when looking around at pictures, that all of them are different looking. The different morphs are created genetically during breeding. The “normal” Leopard Geckos are yellow with a lot of black spots on his/her body, head, and tail. I am going to list many of the popular morphs and give a short description.
APTOR - Albino, Patternless, Tremper, ORange colored.
Banana Blizzard - Yellow body, white head, white tail, and blue eye shadow.
Bell Albino - A ranging amount of small brown spots on the body, some can have lavender colorings, and pinkish eyes.
Blazing Blizzard - Usually pure white body, head, and tail with a red eye.
Blizzard - A range of white, shades of gray, or even yellow colorings on their body, head, and tail. Shades of gray can change depending on mood.
Bold Stripe - An usually yellowish color with two black lines running along the outside of their ventral surface.
Diablo Blanco - A white body and solid red eyes (mix between blizzard and RAPTOR)..
Enigma - As a hatchling, their spots are usually blotches. As an adult they tend to grow more spots, and they sometimes turn into speckles.
High Yellow - Less spotting on a bright yellow body.
Hybino - A mix between a Super Hypo and an Albino, creates a pure yellow body without spots, and albino-colored eyes.
Mack Snow - A gecko with a white and black spots, body coloring sometimes yellow.
Mack Snow Patternless - A mix between a Mack Snow and a Murphy Paternless, completely white with no markings.
Murphy Patternless - A body consisting of colors ranging from yellow to purple, "baby spots" disappearing around the age of 10 months.
Normal - The only "natural" morph consisting the look of a wild Leopard Gecko. A yellow color with black spots, spot size and number varies.
RAPTOR - Ruby eyed, Albino, Patternless, Tremper, ORange colored.
Rainwater Albino - (A.K.A. Las Vegas Albino) Smaller, darker, and lighter than the other albinos.
Reverse Stripe - Unlike the Bold Stripe, this gecko only has one stripe running directly down the center line of him/her.
SHT - Super Hypo Tangerine, tangerine color (orangish) with no body spots.
SHTCT - Super Hypo Tangerine Carrot Tail, tangerine color (orangish) with no body spots and an orange tail.
SHTCTB - Super Hypo Tangerine Carrot Tail Baldy, tangerine color (orangish) with no body spots or head spots and an orange tail.
Stripe - A lighter stripe runs down the center of the back, and two darker, larger stripes running along the sides. The tail has no pattern, just random coloring.
Super Hypo - A gecko with less than 10 spots on his/her body is considered a Super Hypo.
Super Snow - Hatchlings tend to look like blizzards, but around one to two months old, they get a very high contrast between black and white coloring. Usually a solid black eye.
Super Snow Enigma - White bodies, solid black eyes, and tiny, black speckles.
Tangerine - An orange colored gecko.
Tremper Albino - Light color eyes and tend to have light colored brown markings on them. The first and most common kind of albinos.
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