Leopard Geckos - GTL Geckos Tips
What's next? Now, do you want the red pill or the blue pill? This is a guide by GTL Geckos to best help care for and ensure that your new buddy thrives throughout their lives with you. A lot of information on the internet is confusing and contradictory. We got your back. There are many ways to keep Eublepharis macularius (oh my what a fancy scientific name drop right there), we will never attempt to force-feed our ways of husbandry onto you. Instead, use GTL's Tips to help you hone in your husbandry. This is how we keep our leopard geckos, we strive to not only innovate and research but stay up to date with world practices and outside discoveries. Animals first and always foremost.
Supplementation:
Calcium WITH vitamin D3. No question. There is an old rumor going around that they can overdose from D3, Impaction due to the sheer amount needed for an overdose would be your issue. So please don’t worry about a D3 overdose!
A really awesome multi-vitamin to use would be Vionate and an awesome calcium powder to use would be Osteo Form SA, if you can’t find this then Repashy Superfoods Calcium Plus would be the next best thing.
I highly recommend using a 1:1 ratio mixture of Vionate to Osteo Form SA or Repashy Superfoods Calcium Plus, you can buy these on Amazon or other online retailers. (You would provide a small shallow dish and make sure you make this Vionate/Osteo Form SA or Repashy Superfoods Calcium Plus mixture available and easily found in the enclosure and top it off once a week and replacing it completely at least once a month.
GTL’s Special –
I’ve been supplementing “one/two feedings a month” organic bee pollen (fine powder) and “June and December” supplementing Healthy Gut Avian Probiotics. You would just dust a small amount on their food, and this will add a little more supplementation to provide a better life for your gecko! (of course, this would be up to you and would be optional)
Housing:
All of our leopard geckos are housed in tubs in the according increments:
Baby – 6qt Sterlite, 12qt (shoebox) Baby/Juvenile, Adults V-35s (females) V-28s (males)
Basic requirements are a guide. Here at GTL Geckos, we go beyond. This is our family. We recommend at least a 20-gallon tank or equivalent for one adult, but a 40-gallon tank (36x18x12 or 36x18x18) size seems to be the sweet spot for Leopard Geckos.
Keep in mind that Leos are a little mindless scale puppies who love to sleep and lay around. Currently, our leopard gecko adults are housed in tubs larger than the surface area of a 20-gallon tank!
Temperature:
I highly recommend a UTH(Under the Tank Heater) (I would recommend Zoo Med’s Repti Therm UTH which would be 8” Wide x 12” Long (would fit a 30-40 gallon tank) the heat pad should cover about ¼-1/3 of the tank floor area, it would be on the same side as your overhead heat lamp which I would recommend a Deep Heat Projector (DHP) the 80 watt bulb from Arcadia and the overhead heat lamp fixture I would recommend the 2 pack 5.5 in Deep Dome from Cavachew (found on amazon). Leopard geckos need belly heat to function properly and an ambient temperature of 88-86 degrees on the hot side and low 70’s on the cool side. Personally, I operate my racks off heat tape plugged into a thermostat and it’s always between 88 – 92 degrees on the backend of my tubs floor.
Temperature Cont.
You will need 3 hides located in different areas of your enclosure they are a (Hot, Humid, Cold)
Hot Hide – Give them a hide to escape the light and warm up on their hot spot.
Humid Hide – Leopard geckos shed their skin as they grow, they eat this in most cases, and they need it to be humid enough so the skin comes off easily rather than tearing, getting stuck on toes, tail tips, eyelids, etc. We, as keepers, offer moist hides to help with this “event”. The placement of your humid hide should be located near the middle of the enclosure (more on the hot side than the cold side) if that makes sense, this also needs to be filled with either Eco-Earth coco fiber or Zoo Meds Reptisoil, and this needs misted down really good once a week. (The humid hide I would recommend would be Zilla’s Rock Lair (Medium size or large size will work)
Cool Hide – Give them a hide to escape the heat and is a nice luxury as leopard geckos love to hide from the light during the day.
Humidity:
The humidity level in your Leo’s enclosure should be between 30% to 50%, to track this I recommend the AcuRite Pro Humidity Meter & Thermometer (I would purchase 2 of these and put one on the hot side and one on the cold side of your enclosure)
Thermostats:
Thermostats are required to ensure your UTH (heat pad) (overhead lamp) doesn’t exceed the temperature needed for your leopard geckos while also ensuring It’s still hot enough to meet your lil bud’s or lady’s needs.
Thermostat brands that I would highly recommend are as follows: Herpstat 1 from Spyder Bobotics (this would run your overhead heat lamp and you would always select the dimming mode)
If you decide to go the cheaper route with a dimming thermostat for your overhead heat lamp I would recommend the dimming thermostat from ReptiTrip (you can purchase this item from Amazon)
For your UTH (Heat Pad) I would recommend the thermostat from Jump Start and you can purchase that off Amazon
Lighting:
Leopard geckos do not require any special type of lighting, they follow a more traditional nocturnal cycle in the wild contrary to popular belief they are crepuscular creatures. I have researched readings and published documents and papers by leading biologists studying Eublepharis in situ and they are most active from late twilight to midnight-1 am. Whether they can be active in the day in your terrarium does not negate the fact of how they evolved in the wild.
All this being said, they can benefit from light to replicate a day/night cycle, but that is all that is required. I would recommend a LED light that is put on a timer and the timer I recommend is Vivosun’s 7-day programmable digital timer (you can buy this from Amazon)
For the LED light I would highly recommend the Arcadia LumenIZE Jungle Dawn 23” LED Bar System that is actually operated by a phone app.
Substrate:
Leopard geckos can be kept on a variety of substrates with success, the main concern is impaction from ingesting certain types of substate. Always be aware that geckos lick and eat almost anything in their cage, in doing this they can ingest material that will cause a blockage in their digestive tract which could lead to major complications and even death.
The number one reason for loose substate impaction in the first place is improper supplementation, but it’s always better to error on the side of caution and not use very loose substate such as sand. I would either recommend using paper towels/Repti-Zorb liners purchased from Superior Shipping Supplies/or slate tile, or one more choice would be the Argconner Reptile Carpet (17.7 " x 118") which can be found on Amazon!
If you would like to go more Natural and mimic the natural wild for these animals, I would highly recommend The Bio Dude’s Terra Sahara (You would need to change this completely out once a year) and add only about 1 inch to a 1 ½ thickness of this substrate where the hot side UTH is located to achieve the proper belly heat temperature.
Food & Water:
I highly recommend feeding your leopard gecko a variety of insects like (Mealworms, Dubia Roaches, Black Solider Fly Larvae)
We hear at GTL Geckos feed Mealworms specifically, so offering other insects to your leo would be beneficial and they will love you for it.
If you decide to only keep Mealworms then I recommend you get those mealworms from Rainbow Mealworms they are very high quality, how to keep mealworms for a while would be put them in the side door of your refrigerator which is normally kept at 42-50 degrees and will stay dormant for 30-45 days.
For a food bowl, if you are only going to feed mealworms or black soldier fly larvae to your leo then I would highly recommend Lee’s mealworm dish (you can get a 2 pack from Amazon) if you decide to also feed your leo dubia roaches then I would highly recommend Boao 4 piece Reptile food and water bowl set that you can get off of amazon.
For water, you will fill up a bowl and keep that inside of your enclosure and change it out every 2-3 days, use soap and water to wash out the water dish, once you fill dish back up with water you will also add 2-3 drops of Reptisafe Water Conditioner 8.75oz bottle you can get off amazon to your water that needs to be bottle spring water or from a refrigerator that has a water filter attached to it.
I hope the experience you have with your new leopard gecko is very memorable and pleasing!
Good luck with your Lil’ one 😊