A healthy leopard gecko pet makes an admirable pet. They are small, have minimal care requirements, and can be left alone for several days. They are quiet, doesn’t smell, and don’t need attention. Leopard geckos are cheap and easily available from pet shops and breeders. This type of reptile pet does not require a large amount of space. They have a wide variety of color and pattern variations. This small exotic animal breed is the perfect lizard pet.
Leopard Gecko care is a very easy thing to do. It would not need a lot of things for it to be taken care. The First main to have in taking care of a Gecko is its housing. It is a place where your pet Gecko can stay. The most common used are tanks. A baby Gecko can live in a ten gallon tank. Adult Gecko needs a bare minimum of ten gallons but the recommended size is a twenty gallon tank. Leopard Gecko is not capable of climbing walls; therefore length is needed instead of height. Purchase a twenty gallon long instead of twenty gallon high tank. Make sure you have a secure cover on your tank, as these guys can get out if you don’t. It also prevents crickets from escaping.
Shelter is also needed in a Leopard Gecko care. It is a must since Leopard Gecko’s loves to stay in the dark. In a tank, you should at least have three boxes. Put two boxes on each end of the tank and put one on the middle. The one on the middle should be humid and can be doubled if you plan on breeding them. The humid hide must be misted as needed, filled with moss, and vermiculite. Make sure that all the hide boxes are stable and steady. A collapsing hide boxes might get your Gecko injured or even worse, die.
Substrate is also important in a leopard gecko care as they are active at night. If you use a loose substrate, your Gecko might swallow it at some point when hunting crickets or searching for food items. This is more concerned on baby geckos than adults. Using of paper towels make it easier to be cleaned up and replaced while not hurting your pet gecko. If you have your heart set on a loose substrate, use fine grain sand. It works well. The sand should be 2-3 inches deep in the tank, allowing them to dig. Other substrates that work well are newspaper, tile, or reptile carpet.
Temperature is also an important part on a leopard gecko care. They came from a fairly high temperature places so they need to be kept on the same temperature which they came from. Their basking spots should be 90ºF, placing it under heaters works best. Leopard Gecko’s absorbs heat more from their bellies than their back. Heat lamps also works fine but you have to replace bulbs frequently to avoid your leopard geckos from getting burned.
Leopard gecko tanks do not require to be misted because their natural habitat is mostly desert. Providing a water bowl is enough to keep your gecko hydrated. Make sure that you mist that humid hide though.
Also a part of a leopard gecko care is cleaning. Cleaning a leopard gecko’s tank is extremely easy. Be sure to spot clean and remove feces when they appear, or 3-4 times a week. If you are using a loose substrate, replace it every 6 months. Wash or replace reptile carpet every 1-2 weeks.
Breeding leopard geckos can be entertaining and exciting if you know what you are doing. They should be housed in a 20+ gallon tank. Never keep two males together because they will fight to the death. You can have two females and one male though.
The females will need a lay box that can be a plastic box filled with vermiculite. Make sure that the female can easily make it through the entrance and that there is plenty of room for digging. Female leopard geckos will lay their eggs in clutches of two. After laying a clutch a week, you will receive on average, 12 eggs. You could get as much as 20 though. Once the eggs are laid, don’t rotate them when removing. Doing so will kill the embryo inside.
When you place them in the incubator, you can decide whether you want males or females from the temperature. If you want males, incubate at 87-88ºF, if you want females, the temperature should be set at 81-83ºF, and a mix can be incubated at 85ºF.
Be prepared for the babies before they hatch. Make sure that you have food, housing, shelter, and substrate.
The last one on a leopard gecko care is hatching. Alright, you got your geckos to breed and your eggs to hatch. Babies won’t eat before their first shed, which will be about a week. Once they do eat, feed them pinhead crickets or small mealworms. Be sure to feed them everyday. Monitor that they are all eating because you do not want any to be left out. Hatchlings can be kept separately in plastic shoeboxes properly ventilated until they grow four inches. Another way to house them is have five per 10 gallons until they are four inches long. Once they are four inches, two can live in a 10 gallon. Once they hit 6 inches, they should each get their own 10 gallons.