leopard gecko

[snake_goth]

i have all ways whanted one of these (2nd to a corn snake) how hard are thay to keep what type of set up should i use,

[Pontus]

they are very relitivly easy to keep
they poop in one area usualy so that makes it easy to clean
they can be housed on sand
when there younge u can feed them crickest and when they get older u can toss in a few meal worms and silkworms and some people give them a pinki mouse every now and again as a treat

when there young u feed them every day but when they get older they eat every other day or so
i would say there one of the easyer herps to take care of other then corns

[Rebecca]

Don't put them on sand it may impact them. They are how ever very easy to care for, but VERY addictive ;)

[Tim and Julie B]

They are a fantastic species! They are active, friendly, have wonderful personalities, clean, un-smelly, and yes, very addictive!:D House them on paper towel, newspaper, or blue shop towel, never sand! They need a warm spot, a cool spot, a couple of places to hide, water dish and calcium&vitamins on their insects. Regular light is good, you don't need UV. And there are a lot of colors and patterns to choose from!

[snake_goth]

how do u put the vitemens on there food it the food pre killed

[Tim and Julie B]

No take a small plastic bag, put some vitamins in, then put in some crickets. "Shake and bake" the crickets until they are covered in the vitamins and then feed them to the lizard. Always live crickets.

[snake_goth]

o thanks i wasent shure how big is a tank fot a adult ft wise

[geckoguy157]

well one adult can be housed in a 20 gallon aquarium easily and at the minimun a 10 gallon tank

[snake_goth]

so a 4ft by 2 by 2

[alex_33]

Nope, A 20 gallon is more like 20 inches by 13 inches. Good luck with your leopard gecko(s) they're an awesome species.

[Bartman]

i have three leopard geckos. At first i said i would only get one and a week later i had three. As Rebecca said they ARE very addictive. I keep mine seperatly in hopes to breed them easier. They each have a 15 gallon tank with a heat lamp, water dish, and a hide or two. That is basically all you need. There are a lot of good websites/caresheets on them that explain everything in great detail. Good luck with your leopard. There really cool coloured animals :)

[LISA127]

u can keep calcium w/D3 in a shallow dish in the cage at all times. they will lap it up when they need it. u also need to have a humidity hide in their cage at all times. a plastic container w/a hole cut in the top or side. fill it w/soil, moss, or vermiculite and keep it damp. if u don't have a humidity hide in the cage, a leo will probably have trouble shedding, especially on the toes. any age leo could eat both crix and mealworms. i feed both.

[drewlowe]

you can house them on bed a beast, slate works well also, and there are several other subtrates, (but i would recommend staying away from sand, or that calcium sand chance of impaction, and repti carpet, thier little nails could get caught and rip out.) also when older if you start out with a baby or juvi under 6 inches i would suggest paper towels until they are bigger. food items can range as a stable diet crix. and meal worms,superworms(when big enough), & silkworms Treats waxworms, butterworms, and pinkies. Make sure to shake food items in calcium and vitamins. You may also leave a shallow dish with calcium in there for them. Housing should be at least 10 gal. for 1 adult but would be better off in a 20 gal. With several hides and a water bowl. and a humidity hide or make sure around the time they shed you mist the cage lightly. You want one end the warm end and the other end the cool end. Make sure you place the water dish on the cool end. Always make sure they get the shed off. If not you may end up with a gecko missing a toe. they general poop in the same place & they generaly do not smell. But if you accuire more at a later time from your original purchase make sure you quartine before placing them with the older ones.

I might have left a few things out but i'm sure other leo keepers will fill in the blanks.

[Dragon_Slave]

Hi there, right now I have 3 leopard geckos. I have been keeping them for 2 years now and they are wonderful little creatures!
Food: They eat crickets and mealworms, as well as waxworms(as treats). For young leo's... they should eat 3/4 to 1/2 inch crickets. And adults can eat 1/2 inch to 5/8 inch crickets.
Substrate: I have used sand before but took them off when they started getting it in their mouths when going after crickets. They are now on repti-carpet. I highly recommend repti-carpet, but you do have to be careful because they CAN get their little claws caught in the threads, however... none of mine have had any problem within a year that I've used it. If you do not decide to go with carpet, I would recommend papertowels, they are not very pleasing to the eye, but they work! All granular substrates such as sand, wood chips, etc... just put a big X on those.
Housing: The minimum for one adult leo is 10 gallons. However, it is really hard to get a gradient temperature in such a small cage. So I would say a 20 gallon long would be best. Also, for more than one gecko, 10 gallons per gecko is the rule of thumb. (ex. 3 leo's= 30 gallon)
If you'd like more information, feel free to contact me at dragonfreak7189@hotmail.com.
Also, my 3 leopard's are for sale, so if you are interested and live in the U.S., I can ship most places. :D

[Dragon_Slave]

P.S.- As it's been said, these are VERY addictive reptiles... one should NEVER count on getting just one! Lol.

[snake_goth]

well ime puting it of (intil my mums gerbil dies then i can put it in his tank) what is repti-carpet all so can u put 2 females together in a tank(not for breeding i aint dumb)

[Zoe]

repti carpet is just like a piece of rug that you use as substrate. yo uneed 2 pieces the same size you can clean then frequently.

You can keep 2 females together provided tehre is enough food/water, hides and space.

Zoe

[snake_goth]

ok thx might be doing it as soon as ive built my snakes adult tanks ime going to have a cabnet style thing my corn at the botem then my bp top left then if i get them 2 lepord geckos on the top right

[matt_winter]

My advice is to get a leopard geckos manual. i have it and it helps alot. It covers feeding, health, sexing ...etc.....

[snake_goth]

yeah i will probely have to get one of the net can u tell me anny on the net

[The_Omen]

Leos are a nocturnal species, so they don't need D3, just a good calcium-vitamin combination.
If you do decide to use a type of carpet with them, get one that is not a loop type weave as it can catch on the leos claws.

[Emily-Fisher]

Jack, leopard geckos need D3. They need the right ammount of D3 to help them absorb the calcium in their system. Repcal calcium powder has D3 in it already so I reccomend using that.

[snake_goth]

how do u get the crix frm the contaner thay come in to the bag and then to the tank do u just give them the hole contaner full

[Tim and Julie B]

The fact that leopard geckos are nocturnal is reason enough to give them D3. D3 is essential in the absorbtion of calcium. Diurnal species don't need the added D3 because they get it from their UV lighting. So a good multi vitamin combined with calcium&D3 is very important. Also be sure to vary the diet. Crickets, mealies, super worms, pinkies(for adults only) waxies, silk worms, fruit baby food occassionaly.:D

[snake_goth]

can sum 1 awnser my Q plz

[LISA127]

Snake Goth,
u need to set up a tank or home for the crix, so u can gutload them for a day or two before feeding them to the leos. a small aquarium or large plastic container is fine. feed them a commercial cricket diet or lots of different, nutritious foods. they need water, but be sure to put a sponge or cotton balls in so they don't drown. give them toilet paper rolls or egg cartons to hide in. then scoop out the required amount of crix with a small plastic or paper cup and feed to the leos.

[snake_goth]

i wont be geting them intil i build my reptile cabnet then i can put them in my corn snakes old tank then i can get some things for them, do i neet to keep then heated and what dus gutload mean?

[LISA127]

some ppl put a low wattage heat lamp on crix. they thrive in warm temps. but i have always kept mine at just room temp. gutloading just means feeding them on nutritious foods for a couple days, or at least 24 hours, prior to feeding them to reptiles. then the reptile consumes the nutrition that the crix consumed. a lot of pet stores that u buy crix from don't feed them well, and if u don't gutload, your lizards will not be getting the nutrition they need.

[snake_goth]

ok thank u ime going to do this in a few months wen i have my cabnet set up, what type of food should u give them?

[The_Omen]

So Leos need D3?
Wow!!!
Where do they get it in the wild? ;)

[LISA127]

You can use commercial cricket food, sold at pet stores. Or many different types of healthy foods.

[The_Omen]

I see a long debate on this one.. :)
D3 can actually be toxic to animals that are not depedent upon sunlight (uv) to process calcium.

Exerpt from http://www.thegeckospot.com/leocare2_2.html

"Although there is a lot of variation between the results reported from different sources, it is clear that it is not possible to provide an acceptable calcium : phosphorous ratio without supplementation of the food. Dr Klingenberg recommends that leopard geckos should not consume calcium with vitamin D, he recommends using a calcium-only powder 2 times per week and vitamin supplements every other week."


I am of the belief, that nocturnal animals have adapted to calcium absorption without the D3 that UV lighting synthesizes for them.
D3, after being produced, can create an over abundance of calcium, build up in internal organs and fatty tissues, eventually poisoning them.

D3, is often an ingredient in calcium powders, used for day walkers, that do not get a lot of natural light or UV lighting to process D3 naturally.

[Bartman]

they are probably one of the easiest lizard to own..IMO..all you need really is a heat lamp (red ones better for you, you dont need to turn it off causs they can not see it so it does not effect there sleeping habits), water dish, one or two hides..i would get 2...one on the cold side and one on the hot side..and you could use sand as your substrate but as you can see from this forum there is a lot of debate on impaction. I have kept mine on sand for a year already and its doing fine. When they are babies..1-6 months i would keep them off sand and on newspaper or toilet paper because there still small but i think when they are bigger its fine to keep them on sand. They do live on sand in the wild so i think from evolution they would have adapted to living on sand ;)
but a very good lizard to have...i had 1, than i bought another 2 and sold 2 of them causs i didnt have anymore space for them..as dragon slave said they are VERY VERY VERY VERY addicting animals :)

good luck

[snake_goth]

well after a whole day of thinking i desided not to get then for 3 resons
1)the crix will have to be cept in my room and i know that thay make a kind of load nose.
2)ime more of a snake man.
3)ime not a fan of insects so it will be my mum feeding them.(lol)

[andrea1784]

Omen,
I believe that in the wild the rocks that the geckos climb around and live in have calcium and D3 naturally in them (limestone maybe?). That is probably why hey lick the ground as they walk. Most minerals can be toxic in high amounts but thats the thing, you don't give them huge amounts.

You say that you believe that since leos are nocturnal that they have evolved to not need D3, but there is nothing that proves that just like there is nothing that proves the other point either. But you could be taking a big risk with not providing D3. Even though long term studies of the effects of D3 are not available since leos are so long-lived, but breeders have great success using D3 with gravid mothers and hatchlings. the fact that it doesn't hurt them at that critical point in development shows that it can't be hurting them too much.

I supplement 2x a week with pure calcium and keep a bowl of it always available and supplement with a calcium/d3 supplement around once every 10 days. My geckos seem very healthy, so I will probably keep it that way for as long as they do well with that formula.

~Andrea

[andrea1784]

Ooops, I double posted :o

Sorry

[andrea1784]

Or triple posted apparently, I don't know why because i pressed submit only once, oh well, sorry again

[JeffT]

Snake Goth,

No offence but can you try and use some grammar? Its really hard to figure out what your talking about. Maby try writing in full sentences instead of constant abbreviations for every second word.

[snake_goth]

sorry ive all ways been a bad speller