Care Guide - Leopard Gecko

Can they be Cohabilitated?

What size do they get? -

When will i see them?

Costs to keep

How much will it roughly cost you to keep an individual Leopard gecko well including the setup and ongoing costs, this does not include unexpected vet bills or the rising cost of products over time or secondhand equipment.

Used for energy calculation : https://www.sust-it.net/energy-calculator.php

Distribution -

Image captured from iNaturalist

Rating - (Ease of care) - Beginner - ★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Setup Requirements-

You can keep these guys happly in a 2x2x2ft enclosure without sacraficing the ability to have a heat gradient, however i do reccomend using a 3x2x2ft if you have the space.

Substrate options and decor -

There is alot of talk online of sand being an issue for these guys however this is somewhat unfounded and in alot of cases the issues with impaction people seem to think is because of sand is acctually due to dehydration of the animal where it is not able to pass out the loose substrate as it doesnt have the water in its body to do so.

The only substrate i would advise against using is builder's sand this has shown to be a compaction risk as the grains are rough and clump together so even with a hydrated lizard proves to have a higher rate of impaction.

I have personally experimented with 2 substrates in one enclosure, one side is leolife which is a sand and gravel based substrate and then an eco earth like substrate.The reason for this is to allow one side (Cooler end) to have a higher humidity and the hot side to have a drier arid enviroment. This works really well in my experience and allows me to control the enviroment alot better than just keeping it dry and sandy.

If you are worried about loose substrate you can go more sterile and use paper towels, slabs of slate tiles or a mix of rocks with a loose substrate to break up the ammount of floor space with the loose substrate this will also give the enclosure a more naturalistic look.

Also always do your research elswhere as this can be a contensious subject for some folks and its best to make your own mind up by researching from multiple sources.

Heating and lighting-

In terms of heating modern techinques of looking after these guys require you to use a heat bulb rather than the older methods of heat mats , the reason for this is because heat mats do not penatrate below the surface level of the Geckos body so there organs do not get as much energy as they do in the wild so they then to not eat as much as they cant digest as efficiently which can be stressful for the animal and the owner.

So buy a 25-40w heat lamp fixture either with a halogen or a standard tungsten bulb with an ajustable thermostat and heat guard to aviod any avodable burns, Even though these guys are mainly terestrial they will climb and there is a potential they could burn themselfs without one. The hot side needs to be around 30c and the cooler side needs to be in the lower 20s to the gecko can self regulate its temprature.

A small 8w T5 UVB lighting system can be used for that essential UVB that these animals require, they dont need much but it is debated still in the community wether they do acctually need it, i personally believe they do and there is strong scientific evidence to back this up, they dont live in boxes in the wild and they have access to the sun so by my logic that means at some points they will be in contact with the suns rays and to further this they do bask under a lamp when they need to.

I have personally found that the new arcadia luminize range works perfect for this as the ajustablility allows for dimming of the UVB to its natural daytime levels the animal would experiance and my Female Gecko Nadja has one installed in her enclosure for the last 6 months and she definitly basks under it from time to time.

Diet and nutrition-

There diets are easy but i do reccomend variety as with must reptiles below is a selection of foods i give my ones.

• Standard crickets
• standard 4th locusts
• Adult black crickets
• Meal worms
  
• Wax worms
• Small Dubia roaches
• Calciworms

Feed them once every 3-5 days per each individual feed them a bowl of between 3-10 meal worms as part of there standard diet

Another thing they enjoy is wax worms these are a great treat to use to train and tame them down. They are smart enough to understand whats going on around them and they crave these sweet treats so will become tame fairly quickly if done enough.

Misting is required with this species in there hides every 2-3 days if you have a substrate mix of half sand half topsoil you can spray the topsiol section lightly to keep a humid side of the enclosure for them to shed and self regulate in.  and it is important to spray the caves as this keeps the humidity higher for them to shed correctly. I would also suggest keeping a water bowl on the cooler side of the enclosure, as there enclosures are big the risk of the humidity being raised by this is low and should not cause problems. They definitly appreciate the water bowls as i have seem my males drink from them often.

Behaviours - 

There is a distinct behavior between Males and Females from my experience, Male leopards geckos seem to be more aggresive/defensive in general, this can range from mild defensivness to diminent aggresion depending ont he indevidual. I personally have one Blizzard Morph called Gregor who is very food motivated and anthing that enters his enclosure is seen as a threat so these two factors mixed together makes for a fun time when cleaning his enclosure and feeding him, I have found that he will come out of his enclosure and walk on me happly when he wants to but if im in his area and move him so i can spot clean he will occasionally flip out and attempt to bite. I have tried to discorae this behavior by avoiding spots that he is activly in while im encroaching on his space and allowing him to be more settled with me being around his vivarium.

The other Male Leopard gecko i have called Raul a mack snow morph is more chill, he will happly let me move things about and acts less aggressive however will flip out when handled so i now only handle on his terms when he is at the glass and activly looks like he wants to be held, this has worked so far and is the technique i will be using to further my progress with these two males.

On the other side of the spectrum is My female Leopard gecko called Nadja, she is extreamly chill most of the time and has never attempted to bite or screech in fear, i can quite happly pick her up most of the time and move her around while im spot cleaning, i will occasioanlly get a mild fear response of her running but she settle very quicky.

If i was to give advice for selecting a Leopard gecko i would recomend a female for someone who wants a pet thats easier to tame down and handle, this might just be from my case but i have heard similar reports from others online and there is also some evidence to say certain morphs have differnt tempraments.

Day and night Cycle -

The day and night cycle range of the leopard gecko is as follows in the table below. This is the next stage of husbandry once you get your enclosure up and running to the reccomended temps you can adjust them to suite there range during the year, The location within there natural range i used for this is called

Common health issues-

The most common health issue with Leopard Geckos is Metabolic bone diesease (MBD) and this seems to be mainly caused by keepers not supplimenting enough calcium and D3 into there feeder insects along with an unvaried diet. very preventable with these changes.

Another common health problem is overweight Geckos, this is another preventable problem and easy to do. Some less experienced new keepers come into the hobby with the mindset that there gecko needs to eat alot on a regular basis like a human when infact these guys do not have the same matabolism as humans and do not require alot of food. To fix this simply weight your gecko if you ssupect them to be overweight, generally an adult male should not weight more than 80 grams and a female no more than 70 grams. To tackle this half there food supply and weight them weekly if you suspect there overweight, keep doing this until there is a noticable change in there weight. There can be exceptions to this rule of you have a larger super morph of leopard gecko which can get to about 100g on average.

You can also visually see when a gecko is overweight when there abdomen sharply dips down to there legs and there tail buldges out as far as there body. On the other side of this an underweight gecko will have a thin stick like tail and can be a sign of sickness if the weight was lost in quick sucession, this can be a result of parasites or other health issues and you should conult with a vet if this is the case.

Temperature requirements - 

Cleaning - 

Spot clean the enclosure when you notice urates and faeces, they will defacate in the same place usually which makes it easy to monitor and clean, clean a few peices of decor a week and replace the substrate when you feel is nessisary to do so, you can generally tell by the smell.

Brumation -

Morphs - Leopard Geckos are one of the bigger lizard species due to there hardyness and low cost of entry care wise so it was only a matter of time before morphs appeared, its a big market and there is a higrachy with it all, in the table below i will go over some of the more common morphs, personally im not a massive fan of morphs, the Leos i have i picked up as an when more for there attitude than looks.

This list covers a fraction of a fraction of morphs there are hundreds of morphs and people seem to breed new looks every year and trends and busts appear regulaly.

Avalability -

There is no question about this they are the most common repile kept in the industry and quite possibly they are oversaturated in some countries exotics markets. You can pick some of these guys up for less than £35 and some of the rarer morphs are alot more afordable than they where a few years ago especially some of the blizard and mack snow ones going from 60-100 in general. The high end of the market in 2024 are the black night Leopard geckos and these can be in excess of £400, im not sure if they will get much cheaper due to the difficulty in breeding them.

its almost garenteed that an exotic pet shop will have one in stock and if not tehy are able to get them very easy for you.

References-

Gallery -

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