Housing

Leopard geckos can live in a 10 gallon tank their whole life, but a 20 Gallon tank is the perfect balance of space and comfort. If you want to house two leopard geckos together, you will need a 20 Gallon. For four, you will ned a 40 gallon, etc.

Make sure you never house two male leopard geckos together, because, just like Chinese Fighting Fish, two males will fight. However, you can house two females together, or a male and a female of you want to breed them.

Heating

Heating is one of the most confusing aspects of keeping a leopard gecko.

What you want to do is buy an under tank heater, or UTH. This is a heat pad that is thin and adheres to the bottom of the tank. Place the heat pad on one side of the tank. This will be the warm side for your leopard gecko. The warm side should be around 88 - 90 degrees F. The under tank heaters get too hot for the leopard geckos though, so you will want to get a thermostat, which you can buy at the pet store or online (http://www.reptilesupply.com/product.php?products_id=77). Keep the heat pad on 24/7. Heat pads are great, because leopard geckos are terrestrial, meaning they heat themselves with heat from their bellies. In the wild, they come out at night and lay on the warm rocks from the daytime, absorbing the heat through their bellies.

Another option is to use a heat lamp. You will want to get a 75 Watt RED bulb and a clamp lamp for day and night. Leopard geckos cannot see red, so it will not irritate their eyes. Red bulbs heat the air, not the bellies, so you may end up wanting to get a heat pad instead.

It is important to have a warm side and a cooler side, so incase they get too warm, they go to the cool side, and vice versa. The cool side will be a little bit warmer than room temp, about 80F. Do NOT put any heating devices on the cool side.

Use a digital thermometer (http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752177) to moniter the temperatures. This is very important to the leopard gecko's health. Stick-ons and dials are inaccurate. Place a thermometer on each side of the tank. However, you can use a stick-on on the cooler side. Stick-ons are cheaper and the cooler side is not as vital to the health of your leopard gecko as the warm side.

Lighting

Many people use UVB lights or white lights in their tank. These are not needed. However, leopard geckos do need light during the day and darkness at night to know when to wake up and go to sleep. Instead of using a bright UVB light, just leave a room light on or open the window shades in the room in which the leopard gecko lives.

Setup

The first thing you want to lay out is substrate, which is a reptile enthusiast's way of saying bedding. Leopard geckos come from rocky areas in Pakistan, so there is no need to use sand. Sand has many risks, including Impaction. Impaction is an illness in which the intestines are blocked. In this case, when they leopard gecko eats, it would pick up the sand or loose substrate and over time will get impaction. They also may even lick the sand, which will cause impaction as well. The packages say it is good because of the calcium, but it will only hurt your gecko.

Some great substrates include:

-Reptile Carpet

-Shelf Liner

-Tiles

-Paper Towels (this is too thin for a heat mat, so avoid this if using one)

Never use any loose substrates. These include:

-Sand (Calci, Vita, OR Playsand)

-Woodchips

-Pebbles

-Newspaper scraps

Lay out the substrate.

Now, you will need 3 hides. You can buy hides from the pet store. (see pictures below of hides) Place 2 hides on the warm side, the side you have placed the heat lamp or heat pad on. One of those hides is for a warm place to sleep. The other is for humidity. Leopard geckos shed their skin about two times a month. They need humidity in order to shed properly.

Take one of your hides and fill it with some paper towel. Mist the paper towel daily with water. Placing the humid hide on the warm side will create humidity. If you put it on the cool side, it will just be cold and wet, whereas moisture mixing with heat creates humidity.

Now that you have the hides in place, you need to put in the food and water dishes. These will go on the cool side. On the warm side, the water will evaporate, creating more humidity as well. You can place any decor, including rocks (bought, not natural), reptile hammocks, fake plants, and pieces of wood from the pet store (the pet store also sells things like vines).

Feeding

Leopard geckos eat live insects, including mealworms, crickets, phoenix worms, small locusts, pinkie mice, superworms, and waxworms. Mealworms and crickets can be feed as a staple diet. the others can be feed for 2 feedings a month. They are fatty (waxworms), hard to digest (superworms and locusts) and only online (phoenix worms). Pinkie mice should be fed once a month, but your leopard gecko should be full grown and 10 inches long. Baby leopard geckos need to be fed every day. Feed them 5-6 crickets or mealworms, dusted in calcium every other feeding (you can buy calcium powder from the petstore). For adults, feed every other day, 5-6 crickets or mealworms. If the lizard does not eat all of the crickets in 10 minutes, take out the remaining. They will nibble on your leopard gecko and stress it out. Mealworms can be kept in a food dish at all times. They will not crawl out or stress the leopard gecko.

Water needs to be in a water bowl or dispenser and should always be fresh. Buy some water conditioner. This is a blue liquid from the pet store. It is used to condition the water -- remove all chlorine and add vitamins. Put one drop in the water every time you change it. You do not need water conditioner if you will use bottled water for your leopard gecko. You will not see your gecko drinking a lot, but you still need it there.

Gutloading Insects

Gutloading insects is very important. Get a box or a cricket keeper (found at petstore) to keep the crickets or mealworms in. Buy some cricket feed (pet store). Cricket feed can also be used for mealworms. Sprinkle some in the box. Next, place a piece of either lettuce, apple, orange, carrot, or celery at the bottom of the keeper. Also, put a damp cotton ball inside for moisture. What this does is make the insects healthier for your leopard gecko. It is also a good idea to put in a piece of cardboard so they do not lay on each other. The crickets and mealworms eat the veggies and feed, and when the leopard gecko eats the insects, it is healthier than the insect non-gutloaded. Make sure to change the fruit/veggies every other day. The goal is to keep the insects full of moisture. A dry insect is not healthy. Next, pour in the crickets or mealworms.

Feed the crickets to the gecko a day after you have gutloaded them. Make sure to dust with calcium powder!

Shedding

Like said, leopard geckos shed twice every month or so. The humid hide is vital to shedding. Sometimes, leopard geckos will not be able to get all of their skin off of their toes. Therefor, it is a good idea to soak the foot (feet) in warm water and pull it off gently. Make sure the water is not too hot. Use a soda cap to soak the feet. Leopard geckos will eat their shed skin. they do this in order to hide their being there from predators. Predators will know they are closse by if they leave their shed skin behind. So do not be shocked if you see your leopard gecko eating his skin! Leopard geckos will turn white before a shed, and will be hanging out in their humid hide a lot.

Maintenance

Daily Maintenance - Spot cleaning should be done at least every other day. Once you have had your leopard gecko for a while, you will notice that he poops in one corner all the time. The feces need to be taken out as soon as you see them. It is a good idea to place a piece of paper towel in that area for easy cleaning. You will also need to remist the moist hide's paper towel daily, as it will dry up. Take out any dead insects as well.

Deep Cleaning - Every month, you will need to clean all the hides and the tank. Take out all furnishings and substrate. Place the leopard gecko in a safe place, such as a conainer with a screen lid over it. To clean the tank, use your spray bottle to mist it down and wipe it up. For the furnishings, mix a small container of a bleach solution. A few drops of bleach and water. Use this to scrub the hides. Rinse the hides until there is NO smell if bleach left. For food and water dishes, Only rinse with water and dry. Dry hides as well. Use the bleach solution for plants, rocks and hammocks as well and rinse.

Handling

Leopard geckos love to come out to play sometimes. Make sure you wash your hands before and after handling your leopard gecko.

Wait about a week after you get your leopard gecko to start handling it. Try placing your hand in the tank every day for a few minutes for a week, just so that your leopard gecko will be used to you being there, and will not notice you as a threat. After a week of doing that, you can try picking him up. The best way to pick babies up is by setting your hand down and nudging them gently in the direction towards your hand. When they are adults, you can grab them gently and scoop them up, avoiding the tail (see next paragraph).

Sit somewhere near a surface, like on a bed or close to the floor, so if you drop him on accident, he will not fall far. Let the leopard gecko walk on your hands. Always have a hand there for him to crawl on. It is VERY IMPORTANT to never grab the leopard gecko's tail, it WILL come off in defense.

Picking a Healthy Leopard Gecko

Look for a leopard gecko with the following:

- Fat tail (leopard geckos store fat in their tails, and a fat one is healthy)

- Clear eyes

- High energy

Ask the employee if it has been eating/pooping well.

Warning Signs of Unhealthy Gecko

- Thin tail

- Rapid weight loss

- Foggy eyes

- Runny stool

- Lack of appetite.

Make sure the temps are right and contact a vet ASAP.

Gender

You can not find the gender of a leopard gecko until it is 6 months old. Here is a link on how to find out the gender. http://www.reptilecare.com/leopardgender.htm