Leopard Gecko Care

These are the titles for each section in my leopard gecko care guide, please use a link below to jump to that particular section or take your time and have a good read through the lot.

Introduction Information Housing Heating Feeding Substrate Lighting Breeding Incubation Hatchlings Handling Cleaning

Introduction

Before purchasing your Leopard Gecko there should be a few questions you must ask yourself first.

• Am I prepared to keep my gecko for the next 20 years of my life?
• Can I offer it a home and food all year round?
• Will I have the time needed to care for my leo?
• Can I be sure that if my leo becomes ill I can pay for the treatments?

After asking yourself these questions do you feel comfortable to still get your Leopard Gecko? If yes then next you need to decide where you will purchase your gecko. I cannot stress enough the fact to think about buying your leo from a reputable breeder.

I have many reasons for saying this as store bought reptiles generally carry parasites. Breeders have been known to buy a leo from a chain store only to have it wipe out there entire collection, but where ever you decide to go here are a few things to look for in a healthy Leopard Gecko.

• Bright eyes and a nice, fat, original tail,
• Alert to the presence of people around the enclosure,
• All limbs and especially toes should be intact ( they should have 5 toes on each foot ),
• And should be interested in eating (ask the breeder or store to put in some crickets ).  
• When you get your new leopard gecko home you should allow him/her to settle in for a week before handling.

Now that you know what to look for I will tell you the things needed to keep your Leopard Gecko successfully.

Before purchasing your leo you should ensure you have covered all of the requirements provided in my leopard gecko care sheet and that your enclosure is setup a week before Introducing your new Leo.

Information

• Leopard Gecko's are one of the most successful species in the herpetocultural world,
• The Leopard Gecko's latin name is (Eublepharis macularius) Ub-ley-far-is Mac-u-lari-us,
• They are native to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Northwest India,
• The Leopard Gecko has proved to be very hardy when kept in captivity and is very appealing to any reptile hobbyist be it beginner or experienced as they come in a variety of different colour and pattern morphs,
• They can live for up to 15 years on average but a record of 27 years has been recorded,
• They are Nocturnal which means they are mostly active at night,
• Leopard Gecko's can drop their tail as a defense mechanism against predators, this is called "autotomy",
• When Leopard Gecko's shed they will eat there skin to regain calcium and other nutrients instead of wasting it.

Housing

Housing leopard geckos is very easy and takes up little space, this makes them excellent pets to keep.

• One Leopard Gecko can be housed comfortably in a 10 gallon aquarium,
• For each extra leo add another 5 gallons,
• Never house 2 males together as they will fight to the death,
• You must provide at least 2 hides for one leo. One for the hot side and the other the cool but if housing 2 leo's then 4 hides are required and so on,
• You can add paper towel or sphagnum moss inside the hides which you then moisten to create a Humid hide, this will help your Leopard Gecko to shed properly,
• A food dish,
• A calcium dish,
• And a water dish.

This is what your Leopard Gecko setup should look like.

Some people prefer to use Rack Systems to house there leos, these can be made quite easily out of melamine and do not cost alot. They are beneficial for when keeping alot of leopard gecko's as they do not take up much room. This also makes them ideal for caring for very young hatchlings.

Below I have shown my small rack and the top drawer.

Heating

• Heating leopard geckos is also very easy and they are quite forgiving if the temps are slightly out.
• Leopard Geckos require a hot spot around 90°f and a thermal gradient down to a cool spot of around 82°f,
• You can have a nighttime drop down to about 75°f but it is not neccessary unless you are ( cooling ) your females for breeding,
• Heat mats or ( UTH ) are the most commonly used form of heating but must be controlled by a thermostat or rheostat,
• The UTH should only cover one third of the floor space,
• Over head lamps with a low wattage bulb can also be used.

Feeding

• Leopard Geckos are Insectivores which means they eat insects,
• You can feed your leo crickets, mealworms, super worms, locusts, silk worms and wax worms,
• Wax worms are very high in fat and very addictive to your leo so they should only be given as a treat,
• A good staple diet can consist of mealworms or crickets but you can use either or both but a variety of all is best,
• Crickets can nibble on your leo if left inside the tank so take care not to feed too many at once,
• All food should be dusted with a calcium supplement 2 times per week for adults, everyday for hatchlings and every other day for juveniles,
• A rule of thumb is feed your Leopard Gecko as much as it will eat for 10 min's everyday for hatchlings or every other day for adults and juveniles,
• All food items should be Gut loaded prior to feeding, see my ( Gut loading ) page,
• Prey items should be no bigger than the head of your leo,
• Clean water must be provided everyday.

Substrate

• There is alot of debate on which substrate to use but I would personally recommend using paper towels for beginners. They are cheap, easy to replace and very very hygienic.
• Paper towels are the safest and cleanest option when keeping Leopard Geckos,
• Babies and juveniles should be kept on paper towels to prevent impaction from sand or any other dangerous substrate,
• Fine grade, washed, children's play sand may be used but i'd recommend using it only for well established adults.

Lighting

• Leopard Geckos do not really require any lighting as they rely on belly heat but it can be used.
• You can use red glass bulbs for night time viewing ( not painted red ).
• As Leopard Geckos are nocturnal they do not require any form of UV lighting.

Breeding

The breeding season starts around February and ends in November, so you have plenty of time. From November to February you should use this time to fatten up your female for the next breeding season. The whole breeding process is relatively simple. Some breeders use what is a called a ( cooling period ) to help induce breeding. This is where you will simulate winter.

You can slowly reduce your temperatures over a 2 week period down to around 66°f. Keep it at this temp for a further week and reduce feeding to a bare minimum. Then begin to slowly raise the temps back up to the normal 92°f over another 2 week period. This should make your leo's think that winter has been and it is time to breed.

It is usually best to introduce your female into the males enclosure. Breeding should occur rather quickly if the female is healthy and ready, If they do not mate leave the female in the enclosure for around 6 days but monitor them closely incase any fighting breaks out or injuries occur. Normally the mating process is quite violent, the male holds the female by biting onto her neck throughout the mating.

The female can store sperm through the season and can produce 4-10 clutches of 2 eggs depending on her age, younger females may only lay 1 egg for the first few times. Many books advise that a leo can be bred around 35g, although I would strongly recommend waiting until your leo is at least 50g, this will reduce the risk of early death or growth stunting. You need to provide extra calcium after breeding so the eggs can develop healthily and she should be fed as much as possible.

Providing you do all of this you should start to see eggs forming in her abdomen just before her 2 back legs, if you do not see any sign of eggs put her into a plastic see through container and shine a torch through her back, you should now be able to see if she is gravid or not. If it is the females first time breeding then her first clutch of eggs may be infertile. You can use a method called ( candling ) to tell if the eggs are fertile or not. Shine a small torch through the egg, if it gives off a pinkish hue it is fertile and if yellow then infertile.

This is what a gravid females belly should look like.

Photo courtesy of Lisa Magil

If your female is gravid you now need to give her a lay box. This can be an ordinary hide with sphagnum moss, eco earth or vermiculite. You should keep this over the UTH so that it can get very humid and keep it moist as much as possible, it needs to be around 80% humid. Your female may begin to start digging in her lay box and will be restless, she may also not eat or eat very little, but don't be alarmed this just means she will lay in the next few days. Try not to handle your female if she is gravid unless you really need to.

Around this time you should start to setup your incubator you should check your lay box everyday to see if your female has laid. When searching for the eggs do so very gently, the embryo inside attaches itself to roof of the egg when it is laid, if you turn the egg you may drown the embryo. If she has laid you now need to mark the eggs on the top using a soft tipped, non toxic pen and then very gently move them into your incubator.

Incubation

Incubation can be relatively simple provided you have the right equipment. First off you will need the incubator, you can use either a homemade one or purchase one relatively cheap. A good incubator you can buy is the "Hovabator" and can be bought from most reptile stores, if they don't have any enquire and they should be able to get hold of one for you.

Below I have shown the Hovabator and a digital thermometer measuring the temperature inside the egg container.

And a home made incubator using styrofoam as the main container, an underwater heater and a plastic container tub.

Photo courtesy of Lisa Magil

You will then need a reasonable Thermostat to control the temperature inside, once you have that you can hook it up and begin to calibrate it to your required heat setting. Be patient as this can take a few hours to align correctly.

Next you will need a container tub for your eggs to go into. I tend to use decent sized ice cream tubs as they work great and are usually fairly large. Once you have that you will be needing some perlite, vermiculite or sphagnum moss. Different people use different substrates so experiment and find what suits you. You will need to put an inch of this into your container, and then spray it with a pesticide free water sprayer. Give it a good spray then put the lid on and give it a good shake to spread the moisture throughout the medium. The required humidity inside your tub needs to be around 80% - 90% so more sprayings may be required to reach the desired moisture content.

I have shown below an example of how to setup your conatiner tub.

It is always a good idea to use a good digital thermometer with a probe, place the probe inside your container tub where the eggs will be to make sure the temperature is dead perfect!

With Leopard Geckos you can determine the sex of the hatchlings by what temperature you incubate the eggs at. If you incubate between 78-82°f you will get all females and from 86-90°f you will get all males. And if incubated 82-86°f you will get a mix of both. The first 2 weeks will determine the sex of the hatchlings, the eggs should take around 35-90 days to hatch but obviously the higher the temperature the quicker they will hatch.

This temperature determined sexing can come in handy when you want to produce a specific sex. Be warned though if you incubate for females then raise the temps to 90°f for a quicker hatch rate you may end up with what we call ( a hot female ), these females will be extremely aggressive towards males and will probably never breed! One way to prevent this though is to make sure that you allow the first 3 weeks for the sex of the egg to be determined but when using one incubator this will not be possible.

Hatchlings

Newly hatched leopard geckos should be removed from the Incubator into your desired housing for them. Once removed it is best to leave them be for a day or two. At this stage your young gecko will not feed until it's first shed which can occur from 2-5 days. Usual signs that this has happened can be a stool inside the enclosure. You can now feed your gecko on either pin head sized crickets or small meal worms with a dusting of calcium powder at every feeding. I generally use small mealworms as they are much easier to handle than pin head crickets.

Daily dusting with calcium powder is critical in rearing a healthy leopard gecko hatchling, without it your gecko will not survive long. If MBD ( Metabolic Bone Disease ) starts setting in it is crucial that you up the calcium to try and reverse the MBD.

It is also very important at this stage of life to keep your damp hides constantly damp to help with the aid of shedding. Hatchlings are prone to having unremoved skin on their toes and this can cause a loss of digits quite rapidly if not watched.

Hatchlings can be housed seperately in small rack systems or together in larger numbers. I will first go through the housing requirements for seperate housing.

I generally find it better housing hatchling leopard geckos seperately to rule out a number of common problems that can arise from housing together. To house individuals a small shoe box sized enclosure is perfect with adequate airflow, you will need to provide a damp hide, food bowl and water bowl. All of these items are easily found in any household.

Below I have shown suitable housing for a hatchling leopard gecko.

Below is how I have my hatchling rack setup.

Handling

Never grab your Leopard Gecko by the tail because they can drop it as a defense mechanism against predators this is called " autotomy", it will eventually grow back but it will never look the same. Leopard Geckos can be handled and do become quite tame. If you have an adult leo chances are it is already use to being handled.

If it is a hatchling or juvenile then sometimes they can be quite resilient to being handled until they are older but you can let them get used to you. Simply place your hand inside your leo's enclosure for a few minutes a day and eventually he/she should become curious and investigate. Over time you can try offering a mealworm in your palm to get them used to being on your hand. Once this bond has been completed you can then start to lift your Leopard Gecko out of the enclosure slowly and over time you should be able to handle your leo comfortably.

Cleaning

Cleaning your leopard gecko is a breeze, if you use paper towels this should take no longer than 5 mins for one leopard gecko.

• Your Leopard Gecko should choose an area of the enclosure to defecate in,
• Some choose corners and others choose hides,
• The enclosure should be cleaned with boiling water once a month but sometimes this is not possible when using wooden vivariums,
• All hides and food bowls should be thoroughly cleaned at least once a week,
• And water dishes should be cleaned every day.