Heating/Lighting question

[jgkg1999]

I have a Med Low Exo Terra terrarium for my leopard gecko, Freckles. He is our first. We currently have a UTH, red lamp and a daylight bulb, but I'm still a bit confused as to where to put everything. Right now we are set up so that the UTH and daylight bulb is on one side and the red lamp one the other side. The red lamp stays on all the time and the daylight is on a timer which we are now gradually increasing the time it stays on to prepare for the longer days. He generally stays on the one side of the tank with the red lamp in his hide except at night when he comes out. He doesn't use the hide on the day side at all, even at night as we've observed him during all hours. I'm wondering if I have it set up wrong. He doesn't seem stressed at all and we've had him since just before Christmas and he's growing and his tail is nice and fat, no problems eating or with his bm's. Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Direct light can hurt your leos eyes and cause unnecessary stress. Over tank heat will dry the enclosure out and often make it too hot. I don't recommend people use either for leopard geckos. I recommend people use the UTH and only use heating lights if their house is under 65 degrees. I only recommend bright lights that indirectly fall on a leos tank, like a floor or table lamp several feet away from the tank. If you really want to use it I would recommend that you use at least a 30 gallon tank so that it's big enough to provide a heat gradient and you use the heating light over the warm side so your gecko can choose to be at 85 or 75 degrees if he feels he needs to.