I think I'm screwing up...

[corvettefan]

Okay, so I have everything down for caring for leopard geckos except for Vitamins/Calcium, Lighting, and Heating. The bulb I use is for light and heat but I know it doesn't give off any UVB light which the Leopard Gecko's need. My heating sucks. My brother has the light as the heat source and at night simply turns it off. I'm definetly going to make sure I improve on these things when I seperate the geckos, but I'm freaking out.

When should I use Vitamins/Calcium and what kind?

What kind of lighting/lamps should I get?

What kind of heating/bulbs should I get?

 

[Chewbecca]

You will want to leave a dish of calcium WITHOUT vitamin D3 in a dish/cap in the cage at all times. They will lick this as needed.

How you dust your insects, well, there's strong debate about that. Personally, I buy Repashy Calcium ICB and I dust all insects with that.

If you are going to use a bulb of sorts for heating, I suggest (and what we use) is an infrared heat emitter. The strength of the emitter? That depends on the size of your tank.

I also use heat tape for geckos that I DO NOT use the heat emitter bulb for.
We buy 3" heat tape.
We get it from proexotics.com. They have what you need there to set up the heat tape properly.

Hope this helps

 

[LizMarie]

Geckos don't necessarily need UV light some have even said they have encountered problems using them such as having lethargic geckos, etc. But I never used one so I can't speak from experience. The only "light" they need is the day/night cycle, which could be obtained by just letting their room fill in with natural sunlight or leaving a light one for I dunno is it 12hours a day?

I personally use an under tank heater connected to a rheostat (i really hate that thing if you have money get a thermostat much easier). And I try to keep that anywhere from 93-95 degrees all day and night even though since its a rheostat it'll go up or down a little depending on the room temps. I used a heat lamp when I first started and it was a P.I.T.A, replacements started to add up and those fixtures are expensive once you think about it and I could never get the right temps.

For Vitamins I use Repashy Calcium Plus ICB on all my feeders since it's suppose to be an all in one vitamins and smells really good. I like it because it's simple to remember, I used to use the combo of Plain Calcium, Calcium w/d3 and a multivitamin and had some like crazy schedule that I always screwed up on no matter how much I tried. Even though I still use Repashy Calcium Plus ICB I still have a cap full of PLAIN CALCIUM in the tank of all times. I use Fluckers because it was cheap but Rep-Cal is a really well known brand and good.

Hope that helps a little.

 

[VampyricAngelX]

I don't use UVB bulbs with any of my leos and they're fine.

For both vitamins and calcium I use the Rep Cal brand. I have a dish of calcium w/out D3 in the tank at all times. I also dust feeder insects with it every time I feed them. Every two weeks I dust insects with calcium that has D3 and vitamin powder (on different days).

The only tank I use lighting in is my 55 gallon for Dante, to keep the warm side warm enough. I just use a regular heat lamp and use a 75 watt night bulb. That keeps the temps just right on the warm side.

For the main source of heat I use heat mats sized for the tank their in. In Dante's tank I use this heat mat (that I've only seen on ebay), which is really nice because it has a dimmer with the option to set it on low, medium, high, or off completely. In Mikko and my female's tank I just use Zoo-Med's heat mat for 10-15 gallon tanks.

 

[Khrysty]

Yup, Rebecca's got it right. I'd just like to add this:

I know it doesn't give off any UVB light which the Leopard Gecko's need.

Not true. Leopard geckos are nocturnal animals and as such have adapted so that they don't need the UVB light. In fact, their bodies can't absorb it as well as other lizards.' As was mentioned, just dust with a vitamin plus D3 or a calcium plus D3 and your gecko should get all they need from that.

 

[corvettefan]

Yup, Rebecca's got it right. I'd just like to add this:



Not true. Leopard geckos are nocturnal animals and as such have adapted so that they don't need the UVB light. In fact, their bodies can't absorb it as well as other lizards.' As was mentioned, just dust with a vitamin plus D3 or a calcium plus D3 and your gecko should get all they need from that.

Okay, I know for sure I have a Vitamin cup with D-3 (says on cup) I also have some calcium stuff called 'Bone Aid' and the only ingredient is Calcium Carbonate. If I dust my Leos' food with both will that be good? How often should I do it? They're both pretty young I would say.

 

[Khrysty]

Every other feed is usually a good schedule for the little ones. One feed dust with vitamins, the next don't dust, the next calcium, the next nothing, etc..

 

[corvettefan]

Every other feed is usually a good schedule for the little ones. One feed dust with vitamins, the next don't dust, the next calcium, the next nothing, etc..

Thank you so very much!!