Leopard Gecko Care Sheet

Description: The leopard is quite a robust gecko with a big head and movable eyelids. The skin is furnished with a lot of tiny wartlike tubercles. The grey-black ground color of the body and thick tail is covered with yellowish blotches and leopard-like spots. The males possess pre-anal pores, which can already be seen when they are still juveniles. The young Leopard's colors are very different from the adult animals. When they are babies they have broad dark and light bands across their body and tail1) 1)10-20 gallon aquarium or similar----about $7-10 2) Screen top that closes securely----about $10-12 3) Paper toweling for babies, sand for adults and sub adults (at least 6-mo. Old) Watch them on the sand though. If they are scooping up sand when they dive for a cricket put them back on the towels, or newspaper (or you can feed them by hand with tweezers).----$ varies 4) Hide box (I’ve found an old check box to work well here. Cut a hole in the side. Or they sell little caves at the pet store. Anything so they can hide if they want to. Also, the little houses they make for hamsters are good and a little cheaper also.)----$ varies, could be free if you use your imagination. 5) Heating pad from pet store to go under ¼ to ½ of the cage. (You can use a human neck heating pad but be aware that they may pose a fire hazard as they weren’t made to be put under a fish tank.)----about $10-15, NO HOT ROCKS!! I don’t care what the pet store people say, do not buy a heating rock! All they do is heat up the belly of the animal, not the air. 6) Shallow water dish that the lizard can get his head into. (Maybe ½ inch deep) 7) Low branch for him to climb on. Doesn’t have to go up high as they don’t climb much. 8) With a larger tank you can put in more “furniture” for them to hang out on, or in. They are very curious lizards, especially at dusk, and it makes their lives more interesting to have “things” to explore. If you have a smaller tank, say the 10 gallon, don’t overcrowd the bottom. They need some flat area to walk around on. 9) Crickets to eat. Can be obtained from the pet store at like $.10 each or less if you buy a lot. Keep in mind that one Leopard Gecko can eat 10 crickets a day when it is growing. Keep them in a closed container with a screen top or holes poked in the top. Provide the crickets with an orange slice (for moisture and vitamin C) and fish flakes or ground up dry dog food. “You are what you eat” so you need to “gut-load” the crickets before feeding them to the lizard. When they come from the pet store they are empty shells with very few nutrients in them. Let them munch on some food and orange slices before feeding them to your lizard. Also feed mealworms once in a while. They can also be obtained from the pet store. Feed less of these though as they aren’t as nutritious. 10) “Rep-Cal” or similar calcium supplement. “Shake and Bake” the crickets with some calcium supplement at every feeding until the lizard is about 6-7 months old. Then only dust them every other feeding. Only feed as many crickets as the lizard eats within about 10-20 minutes. Otherwise they hang out in there irritating the now not hungry lizard. They can even damage sleeping lizards.----about $4-8 depending on the source. Keep in mind that these are very general guidelines. There is a really good book out there on Leopard Geckos called “The Care and Maintenance of Leopard Geckos” by Philippe de Vos Joli. It contains all the info you will need to keep one or more Leopard Geckos. The best part of the book is the price. It is only about $4-10 depending on where you find it! Take my advice and go buy it! It is well worth it.