Leopard Gecko Caresheet - 2024 Updated

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Updated Care Guidelines for Leopard Geckos – 2024

Difficulty: Low

Leopard geckos are small terrestrial lizards native to semi-desert, grassland, and dry forest areas of west Asia — namely Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. Within this habitat, they tend to secrete themselves in holes, crevices, and even under tree bark. Leopard geckos are primarily active at night, and spend most of this time hunting for insect prey.

Unlike most geckos, leopard geckos have lidded eyes and no sticky toe pads. They do have, however, a large head, blunt snout, robust elongated body, relatively short legs, short toes, plump segmented tail which ends in a point, vertical pupils, and bumpy skin. The tail can regenerate if lost, but typically has a different shape from the original. “Wild type” leopard geckos have a yellow base color overlaid with a pattern of dark spots, and a pale underside. Captive breeding, however, has produced a variety of alternative colors and patterns called “morphs”. These geckos grow to 7-10” long as adults.

Leopard geckos are extremely popular pets due to their ease of breeding, docile temperaments, handleability, and general hardiness. With good care, a pet leopard gecko generally lives 15-20 years, but longer lifespans have been recorded.

What You Need for a Bioactive Leopard Gecko Enclosure

36”L x 18’W x 18’H enclosure, front-opening
Exo Terra Reptile Glow Light, small
50w Arcadia Halogen Heat Lamp
Bio Dude Digital Thermometer / Hygrometer, x2
Arcadia T5 SO ShadeDweller 7% UVB kit
22” Bio Dude Glow & Grow LED
Zilla 24/7 Digital Timer Power Center
Terra Firma Bioactive Kit 40 breeder
Leopard Gecko Clean Up Crew Pack
Leopard Gecko Starter Plant Pack
Environmental enrichment items (caves, hollow logs, low branches, rocks, etc.)
Food and water bowls
Repashy Calcium Plus supplement
Bio Dude Bug Grub
Zoo Med Stainless Steel 10" Curved Feeding Tongs

For best results with your new bioactive setup, allow things to “settle in” and get established for at least 1 month before introducing the leopard gecko occupant.

Terrarium Size

Leopard geckos should be housed in nothing smaller than a 36”L x 18”W x 18”H enclosure (or equivalent), although larger is preferred. This allows sufficient space for the exercise of natural behaviors such as regulating light/heat/humidity exposure, climbing, burrowing, and hunting. For maximum convenience and less risk of frightening your gecko, use an enclosure that opens from the front rather than from the top. The enclosure should also be well-ventilated with a screen top and/or generous wall vents.

Leopard geckos are not considered a “social” species and are perfectly happy when housed singly. Attempting to house multiple individuals within the enclosure can be done successfully, but requires at least twice as much space as the minimum for one gecko, as well as the provision of multiple hides and basking areas to reduce the likelihood of resource competition.

Lighting

Leopard geckos are crepuscular, which means that they are primarily active at night, particularly around sundown. This means that they can survive without exposure to UVB radiation, but doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t benefit from it. In fact, current research indicates that they do benefit when it is provided. Reptiles use UVB light to create the vitamin D that their body needs to function properly. Appropriate UVB provision also helps strengthens the immune system/reduce illness and stimulates the production of endorphins. UVB even helps keep the enclosure free of pathogens, which is especially important for bioactive setups!

We recommend installing one of the following UVB bulbs above the terrarium mesh at the listed distance:

UVI 0.5-1.5

Arcadia ShadeDweller 7% UVB kit — 10-18”
Zoo Med T5 HO Reptisun 5.0 with Zoo Med hood — 13-24”
Arcadia T5 HO Forest 6% ProT5 UVB kit — 16-24”

UVI 0.5-0.7

Arcadia ShadeDweller-Max — 12-14”

Why do you need to pay attention to the distance between your gecko and the basking platform/branch? It’s because UVB strength decreases with distance from the bulb, so measuring distance is important to get the right exposure. The right basking UVI for a leopard gecko is 0.5-1.5, depending on how much pigmentation it has. The abovementioned distances are an estimate based on 35% mesh block from Zoo Med and Exo Terra enclosures, so it’s best to check your actual basking UVI with a Solarmeter 6.5 if you can.

If you have a low-pigment morph such as albino, patternless, etc., providing a lower UVI of 0.5-0.7 will help prevent “sun” burns.

The bulb must be used with its recommended fixture listed above, not an under-counter light fixture from the hardware store. The bulb must be long enough to cover roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of the enclosure’s length and placed next to the heat lamp(s). So for a 36” long enclosure, you will want a 12-22” T5 HO bulb. Resist the temptation to use other brands — when it comes to UVB, brand matters!

Your UVB bulb must be replaced every 12 months to maintain its output.

Because this is a bioactive setup, you will also need a plant light to encourage healthy and robust plant growth. We recommend the Bio Dude Glow & Grow LED light strip for this purpose, long enough to span most of the enclosure’s length. Leopard geckos with red/pink eyes may be extra sensitive to bright light, so if this is your gecko, make sure to provide plenty of shade opportunities within the setup via foliage, cork hollows, stone stacks, and caves.

Heating

Like other reptiles, leopard geckos are poikilothermic, which means that they need a range of temperatures within their enclosure so they can regulate their own body temperature as needed. Areas of heat speed up their metabolism and promote activities like digestion and healing. Cool areas slow the metabolism and promote activities like rest and energy conservation.

Leopard gecko temperature gradient:

Basking surface: 94-97°F
Warm hide: 90-92°F
Cool zone: 70-77°F

Heating should be turned off at night, but temps should go no lower than 60°F.

To create a basking area for your leopard gecko, you will need at least one (preferably two) incandescent heat lamps such as the Arcadia Halogen Heat Lamp bulb and a small ceramic dome fixture like the small Exo Terra Reptile Glow Light. More wattage may be needed for warmer temps, and less wattage may be needed if things get too hot.

For best results, place one of the hide boxes directly under the heat lamp to create a warm hide. Then put a piece of flat stone on top of that hide to create a basking surface that will absorb warmth from the heat lamp.

If your warm hide does not get warm enough with the heat lamp alone, we recommend adding a small heat mat under the hide and covered with ~1” of substrate. This heat mat should be connected to a thermostat programmed to the target temperature, with the probe placed inside the hide.

To monitor your temperature gradient, place a digital probe thermometer like the Bio Dude Digital Thermometer / Hygrometer in the basking area, and then put another one on the cool side, preferably inside the humid hide.

Research by leading experts suggests that it is likely to be much more effective to provide basking heat to reptiles according to the source’s Infrared-A power density rather than by using temperature as the primary metric. Optimal range for reptile basking is between 200-350W/m². If you would like to use this method for setting up your leopard gecko’s basking area, you will need a power density meter in hand and adjust basking distance accordingly. This method is very similar to installing UVB lamps based on UVI output.

Humidity

Leopard geckos are often thought of as a “desert” animal, which is more or less true depending on your definition of “desert,” but this general perception means that they are often kept in bone-dry conditions. As a semi-arid species, this is not healthy for leopard geckos, and such treatment often leads to dehydration and related health problems. The good news is that when you keep a leopard gecko in a healthy bioactive setup, the naturalistic substrate and live plants do a lot to prevent humidity levels from dropping dangerously low!

Ambient humidity: 30-40%
Moist hide humidity: 70-80%

The key to keeping your leopard gecko appropriately hydrated is 1) providing a shallow dish of clean water at all times, and 2) providing a humid hide/retreat on the cool half of the enclosure. The hide should contain moistened substrate to help maintain appropriate humidity levels. Do not use sphagnum moss or paper towels inside this hide, as they have been known to be accidentally ingested during shedding.

To monitor the humidity levels in your leopard gecko’s enclosure, use a digital probe hygrometer like the Bio Dude Digital Thermometer / Hygrometer, with one probe in the middle and another probe inside the humid hide.

To raise the humidity in your gecko’s enclosure, use a spray bottle like the Exo Terra Mister to mist the enclosure as needed. Don’t forget to water your plants separately as needed! Light misting isn’t usually enough to meet a plant’s needs for water, even the drought-tolerant ones.

Substrate

A thick layer of bioactive-compatible substrate is essential to creating a bioactive leopard gecko enclosure. This layer of substrate should be at least 4” deep (preferably deeper if you can, as this facilitates deeper and more functional burrows).

Because leopard geckos require relatively low humidity levels, no drainage layer is needed. Instead, you can jump right to the dirt. You will need a soil-like mix that mimics a semi-desert to dry forest environment and provides enough drainage not to stifle drought-tolerant plants. If you want to make your own bioactive mix, you will need a base mixture of approximately 60% organic topsoil and 40% play sand. This should be mixed with enough bark chips, gravel, leaf litter, and sphagnum moss to help with drainage and help feed the CUC. Add 1 dose of 36qt Bio Shot to inoculate your soil with beneficial microfauna.

Alternatively, you can let The Bio Dude do the work for you with The Bio Dude’s Terra Sahara bioactive substrate kit!

To make the substrate fully functional, make sure to add CUC organisms like powder blue/orange isopods, dwarf white isopods, and arid springtails. You can also add other drought-tolerant species like blue death-feigning beetles.

Decorating the Enclosure

Enclosure décor is about more than just making your setup look good. It’s also an important part of providing environmental enrichment to your lizard, which enhances your pet’s quality of life by providing opportunities to express natural behaviors. Although your leopard gecko may not seem particularly active to your perception, they’re usually quite busy at night. Use things like logs, cork flats/hollows, rocks, caves, ledges, and plants for your gecko to explore and hide in. Don’t be afraid to clutter it up and make it interesting! A sparse enclosure is likely to be a stressful and/or boring home for your pet. Plus, your CUC will shelter and breed under the humid microclimates created by these items.

Live plants in particular are critical to helping your mini-ecosystem function properly. Make sure the plants that you choose are drought-tolerant and won’t be too bothered if their roots get disturbed. Good candidates include aloe, gasteria, haworthia, iceplant, opuntia, crassula, agave, and ponytail palm.

Feeding Your Leopard Gecko

Leopard geckos are insectivores, which means that they need to eat mostly insects in order to be healthy. The general rule is to offer 2 appropriately-sized bugs per 1 inch of your leopard gecko’s length, or however much they will (reasonably) eat in 15 minutes. Juveniles should be fed daily, and young adults fed every other day/every 3 days. Adults whose tail is fatter than their neck should be fed smaller portions.

Make sure to feed your gecko as large of a variety of foods as possible:

crickets
dubia roaches
discoid roaches
red runner roaches
black soldier fly larvae
mealworms
superworms
darkling beetles
hornworms
silkworms

Feeder insects should be no wider than your gecko’s head. ALL FEEDER INSECTS SHOULD BE LIGHTLY DUSTED WITH CALCIUM SUPPLEMENT BEFORE FEEDING.

Calcium & Vitamins

To ensure that your pet is getting all the vitamins and minerals they need, you need a calcium powder and a multivitamin powder. Take care not to use these too often; too much vitamins can be just as deadly as too little. Repashy Calcium Plus is a good way to provide a safe dose of each at the same time.

Gutloading

In addition to dusting feeder insects with a supplement on the outside, for best nutrition, you need to make sure they’re not just an empty husk. Keeping your supply of feeders appropriately fed and watered is a good first step, but that’s not gutloading. For 2-3 days prior to feeding, place your gecko’s intended meal in a separate container with water crystals and a specific insect gutloading formula like Bio Dude Bug Grub.

Water

Your gecko should always have access to fresh, clean drinking water. Choose a bowl that is shallow enough to prevent drowning. The water should be changed whenever it gets soiled. Scrub the bowl with an animal-safe disinfectant like F10SC or Rescue at least once a week.

Handling Tips

When you first bring home your new pet gecko, resist the temptation to immediately start playing with it. You’re huge compared to a leopard gecko, and s/he needs time to figure out that you’re not going to eat them. Let your new pet settle in for at least 2 weeks before you start handling.

Once your gecko has established confidence in his/her new home and is eating regularly, you can introduce yourself. Let them watch you outside of the enclosure. Rest your hand in the enclosure and allow the lizard to familiarize itself with your hand.

Young leopard geckos are usually more skittish as juveniles than adults. But eventually they’ll stop running away from your hand and get used to your presence. This is when you can start to handle them. But just because you have reached this step does not mean your pet trusts you. Trust and friendship (as far as it goes for lizards) takes time and regular handling.

Handling Techniques