Care Sheet

Leopard Geckos (Eublepharis Macualrius), are members of the Gekkonidae family. These geckos originated in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq. In the reptile hobby there are many different patterns, colors, and even eye morphs. This is what sets the leopard gecko apart, there is a gecko for everyone’s taste. Normal geckos reach an adult size of 6-7 inches. However the giant morph reaches a larger size of 7-11 inches in length. Be sure to always quarantine new geckos for a minimum of 30 days. During the quarantine process, if you notice any health problems a fecal sample or vet visit may be needed.

Housing From my experience, a normal sized leopard gecko can live its whole life happily in a 10 gallon sized enclosure. For larger geckos, a 20 gallon long is a good choice. These ground dwelling geckos love to hide under cave type hides. There should be a “humid” hide on the warm side of the enclosure. You can use paper towels or sphagnum moss, misted daily to obtain the correct humidity. As a general rule, males should never be housed together. Females can usually be housed together, however sometimes females will fight and become competitive for food. They should then be separated. Geckos of different sizes should never be housed together. The bigger gecko will always “bully” the smaller gecko, getting all of the food. This will stress younger, smaller geckos and may end in death. These geckos are nocturnal, so they will come out at night. Geckos have very sensitive eyes, and should never be exposed to natural sunlight.

Heat You must provide a temperature gradient in your geckos enclosure. Unlike most reptile species, leopard geckos do not require UVB lighting, or heat lights. The best way for a leopard gecko to receive heat is a UTH (under tank heater). The UTH aids in food digestion with geckos by absorbing the heat on their bellies. Be sure to keep a close eye on the temperatures in your gecko’s enclosure. You can buy a very inexpensive digital thermometer with a probe online to check the temps with. The floor on the warm side of the enclosure should be around 89°F-92°F. The cool side of the tank should be around 70°F or so.

Substrate This is the touchiest subject with reptiles today, especially with leopard geckos. Everyone wants to use a natural looking substrate that makes the reptile a center piece of furniture. This may make the reptiles more visually appealing to us, but this harms most reptile species and can cause death. With Leopard geckos, the most common is sand. Sand has been proven to impact and kill countless number of leopard geckos. I have personally seen a picture of a gecko and a tube of sand removed from its belly. I will never keep any of my geckos on sand. Other harmful substrates are bark, fish tank pebbles, and walnut shells. Of course many people continue to keep geckos on sand and other harmful substrates. I decided I would never take the risk. It is more likely to be a problem with younger geckos than older geckos. I suggest using a solid substrate such as, paper towels, Repti-Carpet or Tile.

Supplementation Geckos are insectivores, eating live crickets, mealworms, superworms, roaches, and waxworms. Be careful not to feed them anything larger than about 3/4 the size of their heads to prevent choking. Waxworms should only be fed once in a while because they are high in fat and geckos can become addicted to them. You should dust your feeder insects with fine calcium powder every other feeding. A vitamin supplement is also needed once a week. You can put the prey in a plastic bag along with some supplement and shake them up to get dusted prey. Without correct supplementation your gecko can and will suffer from MBD (metabolic bone disease). MBD has been known to disfigure and kill geckos. I also keep a small dish (Gatorade lid) with calcium in it inside the tank. This way the gecko can lick up calcium when they need it. If you begin to see “air pockets” behind the front arms you should stop offering calcium for a few weeks. As a side note, the prey fed to the geckos should be well gut loaded. You can buy gut loads online, or just provide nutritious food like whole grain cereal, collards, squash, kale, apple, or carrots.

Shedding Leopard geckos shed their skin every 2-4 weeks. Leopard geckos eat the shed skin as they peal it off their bodies. You may or may not ever see your gecko shed or see shed skin in the enclosure. This is why it is important to keep the humid hide sprayed down with water everyday to help aid in the shedding process. It is important that all of the old skin comes off the gecko. Pay close attention to the geckos toes, if they have shed skin left on them it can cause infection, and ultimately loosing their toes. If a case of severe stuck shed occurs, you can soak the gecko in warm water and remove the stuck skin yourself.