Leopard Gecko Caresheet

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Leopard Geckos come from Pakistan. They live in a hot, dry rough terrain. To give your Leo the right requirements read the whole care sheet as well as the rest of the site to get a pretty good idea of what to buy and what to do to take care of your new friend.

Housing- My general rule of thumb is up to one Leo per ten-gallon tank and three Leos per twenty gal long tank. It kind of depends on the size of your Leo so look at the cage and decide if you think your gecko would be comfortable sharing it with another gecko. After you’ve picked out your cage find a safe place to set it so that your Leo won’t be stressed because of too much noise etc. Never put it in the kitchen. Leos are pretty clean but there’s always the chance of salmonella. Leos are one of the few geckos that cannot walk up the sides of the tank because instead of adhesive pads they have a tiny claw at the end of each toe. They are incredibly good climbers so I highly recommend a cage top.

Light and Heat- Leopard geckos actually don’t need a light bulb since they don’t bask. We use red light bulbs though. Leopard Geckos can’t see red light so you can successfully watch them eat at night with out them knowing. Since Leos get their heat from soaking it up through their belly, they will need an under the tank heater (UTH). It needs to cover half of the tank so there is a warm side and a cool side. Leos will choose which side they want to relax in depending on their body temperature. The cool side should be at about 80 degrees and the warm side at 90 degrees. A rheostat can help you regulate the temperature so you don’t burn your gecko. PLEASE do not use hot rocks. Geckos have delicate skin that burns easily. They don’t know when to get off the hot rocks so they end up burning themselves.

Substrate- Different people have different opinions on the use of sand as a sub. Some have had good results, others have not. Our opinion on this is “Why take the risk!” All geckos no matter what size are susceptible to impaction, a condition that could end up killing your gecko. If you do decide to use sand, please wait until your gecko is at least six months old. After that, you can decide what will work best for you. The reptile-carpet is not really a good idea either. Your gecko’s toenails can get caught on the strings and hairs in it. Sometimes that can pull the toenails off. Instead, use slate, paper towels, tile and other products that a Leo cannot eat. Tile is really easy to clean (just wipe it off) and it looks nice.

Accessories-

Since geckos are nocturnal they like to hide/sleep during the day. You’ll need to supply them with a few hideouts (at least two). One will need to be a regular hide on the cool side, the other a humid hide that will be placed on the warm side. The humid hide will help your gecko shed and will give females a place to lay their eggs.

Humidity- Leopard Geckos do not need a lot of humidity. Too much humidity can cause respiratory infections. The only place they need humidity is in their humid hide. Some care sheets say to spray them. Don’t. This will cause high humidity and plus they have their water dish if the want something to drink.

Food/Water- Leos are insectivores which means they eat bugs. For example, mealworms, wax worms, super worms, crickets and when they get older, they will occasional eat a pinky (day old mouse). We do have another page that gives you the basics for breeding mealworms. You can use mealworms as the staple diet as long as you properly gut load them first and cover them with a calcium supplement, which you can get it at any pet store. You can leave a dish of meallies in the cage at all times. Even though Leos come from a dry and hot terrain they do need water at ALL times. Put a small to medium water dish in their cage. Fill it with water; make sure it isn’t deep enough for them to drown in.

Calcium supplements- It’s important to leave a calcium dish in the cage. Leos know when their body needs more calcium so they will go searching for it. This is where the sand as substrate problem comes in. They start eating the sand because they think that it has the calcium they need but actually they end up killing their self because of impaction. Get a milk jug cap and fill it with the same calcium supplement you use to cover their food with and set it in the cage.

Sanitation- To keep your gecko healthy you’ll need to keep their cage clean.

Clean out their cage once a week. Change the water, fill the calcium dish, wipe down the tile etc. You’ll need to spot clean everyday. Do a total cleaning about every 6 months. Take everything out and bleach it, even the tank.

Leopard Geckos are pretty clean for the most part. They pick one place in the whole tank and do their business there. If you want to pick the place that you want them to do their business, you can take a stool and set it where you want them to go. To make clean up easy you can place a butter container lid in their business spot. All you have to do is pick up the lid to clean the area.

In addition, you can check out a few books. We recommend:

Leopard Geckos – Identification, care and breeding

Written by: Ray Hunziker

The Leopard Gecko Manual

Written by: Ron Tremper, Brian Viets, Philippe de

Vosjoli, Roger Klingenberg, DVM