New guy, preparing for first leopard gecko

[Noob]

I used to work at a fish and reptile store but I'm a little rusty and in an area with no real stores to provide help, (other than *****) so I guess I mean there's still no stores to help me. I used forums for when I was learning about reefs for when I started keeping reef tanks and that was always the biggest help. I'm doing my research right now and have some questions. And there are so many conflicting articles as well so they are not much help either.

I have a 15 gallon tank for my first gecko, and that's it. What now? I just want to hear what everyone says. I want this to look as natural as possible without running the risk of impaction or anything like that. I've kept and successfully bred Chameleons so I know a little and could probably do fine on my own, but I want to have the best I can offer for any creature I keep. I want them to thrive, not live

Do I need a heat pad AND heat lamp? Do I also need UVB? What about substrate? How many hides? And where do I put the heat source(s) in relation to their hides? And what should the feeding schedule look like?

Thanks so much for any help you can provide, I'll be definitely using this a lot. I will probably also become addicted to these guys just like I am to reefing. Thanks,

~Ryan

 

[jemjdragon]

Hello, welcome to the world of leopard geckos. =]
A 15 gallon tank is fine. You need a heating pad that will cover at least 1/4 of the bottem of the tank. You do not need a heating lamp or a UVB lamp. In my tank I only have a lamp to give my gecko some idea about night and day.
You should have 3 hides. A moist hide for shedding, a hide on the warm side and a hide on the cool side.
Provide the gecko with a bowl of calcium without D3 and a bowl of water.
As for substrate, I would say don't use any loose substrate but it is up to you on what you use. If you do decide to fo with a loose substrate (sand, etc) do not get any that is fortified with calcium (and maybe feed your gecko in a different enclosure or put its food in a bowl just incase). If you you want a non-loose substrate you can use paper towel, newspaper, reptile carpet, and/or tile. I use slate tile in my tanks and think it looks nice and a "tiny" bit natural.
If it is an adult, you should feed every other day and once a week dust the insects with reptile vitamins and reptile calcium with D3.

Here is a picture of one of my recent setup with slate tile:

The side with the bowls is the cool side. The other side of the tank is the warm side. And Mift is peeking out from his tree-hide. =3

Also to regulate the heat of the mat so your gecko doesn't burn on accident, you should get a thermostat.

 

[Noob]

Awesome, that helps a lot. Could I just do a moist hide on the cool end of it's enclosure instead of having three. I like the idea of having a seperate feeding enclosure as well bc I would really like to have sand. To me, it's easier to clean. What kind of sand would you recommend?

Now my next question, can you recommend any websites that are good for ordering a gecko or would a chain retail store be ok as long as the eyes are clear, cloaca looks normal, and the behavior seems consistant with a healthy gecko? I'm not wanting any special morph, I would just like a normal (abberrant?) leopard. Idk the name of the ones they sell at the chain stores.

And is there any way you could just give me a shopping list of things I will need? And is direct sunlight not good? I was thinking about putting the tank on a ledge in front of a window.

 

[Quantumhigh]

Awesome, that helps a lot. Could I just do a moist hide on the cool end of it's enclosure instead of having three. I like the idea of having a seperate feeding enclosure as well bc I would really like to have sand. To me, it's easier to clean. What kind of sand would you recommend?

Now my next question, can you recommend any websites that are good for ordering a gecko or would a chain retail store be ok as long as the eyes are clear, cloaca looks normal, and the behavior seems consistant with a healthy gecko? I'm not wanting any special morph, I would just like a normal (abberrant?) leopard. Idk the name of the ones they sell at the chain stores.

And is there any way you could just give me a shopping list of things I will need? And is direct sunlight not good? I was thinking about putting the tank on a ledge in front of a window.

You can use two hides main thing is to keep one generally the cooler one for me damp when you see them starting to shed. I general spray my adult hides every other day and when they shed I make sure its really nice and damn and replace paper towels or moss I have in there regualar.

Id highly recommed using paper towels and/or tile combo. Sand can be dangerous to all reptiles in most cases. They ingest while eating or looking for extra calcium. It acts like cement in there stomach. Most people use tiles like in the picture. Very safe and super ez to clean. Sand youll always miss tiny pieces of poo or urine.

No sunlight, it can prevent them from regulating there body temps. You can cook them just like a animal in a hot car.

 

[Quantumhigh]

Nice setup by the way Joanna. I like your fella chillin in the tree hide, ready for a cricket to come walking by.

 

[jemjdragon]

Thank you Aaron for the comment. =]

Anyways, as a shoping list, this is the website I used when looking for leopard gecko caresheets and a shopping list. I'll link you to the shopping list section.
http://www.thegeckospot.net/leoquicklist.php
They have many in detail care sheets for geckos (mainly leopard geckos).

Edit:
As for buying a gecko, My first gecko was from a chain-petstore and she was very healthy. My second was from a local reptile store/breeder and he is doing great as well. However not all chain-petstores keep their animals in the best conditions (the retail pet store near me keeps all their harchlings in the same tiny cage, on calcium sand, and there is usually diarreah in their tanks, while the same chain a few miles away has their animals on reptile carpet and each cage is somewhat spacious, clean, and contains only 1-2 animals in it) and this goes with not all breeders keep their animals in the best conditions (for example puppy mills are usualy bad dog breeders and I'm guessing there are "gecko-mills" somewhere). If you see the gecko (weither in person or from recent photos) and they look really healthy, with great weights, clear and bright eyes, are housed correctly then I would say its fine to choose this gecko. As for choosing specific breeders, you will have to browse for them, looking at the site sponsers is a good idea, as well as, going to reptile shows if they are available to you. =]

 

[Noob]

gotcha, that's helpful. So here's my idea, when I first get the baby, I will keep it on just papertowels. After about a couple months, depending on it's growth, I will place tiles in the bottom and lightly cover the tiles with sand, either reptisand or play sand, just for the natural look. I will feed in a seperate container. If I supplement properly and feed outside of the cage, wouldn't that safeguard adequately against impaction? Or is it still that big of a risk?

Second, would it be harmful if I used a UVB light on the cage as just a normal day light?

 

[Grogshla]

it would not be harmful to use a uvb light on the cage.
hope you enjoy your leo when u get it. I wish we could get them in australia but we can't

 

[Noob]

Thanks man. Looking foward to getting this all finished and set up so I can post some pics and share!

 

[jemjdragon]

When using play sand, remember to get fine playsand. And since you're thinking of getting a baby, they usually say you can place your leopard gecko on sand once they are 6 inches, preferably more than 6 inches. Hope that helps. =]

 

[Noob]

Well I was thinking about using reptisand, it has no calcium in it and it's really fine.

 

[jemjdragon]

Okay. Good luck. =]

 

[Noob]

Is reptisand better than playsand? I'm just using papertowels for the first few months.

Just got all of the tank furnishings and supplements ordered. Will be here next week while I am out of town, so should have the tank set up within 2 weeks. BTW my tank is actually a 20gallon, would it be ok to keep a male and female together?

 

[acpart]

If you keep a male and female together, they will likely try to breed. If they are too young it can be damaging to the health of both. If either is too aggressive someone will get hurt. If they are the right size and not too aggressive then you will have gecko eggs which should really be incubated and the hatchlings housed separately, maybe more than you want to get into. There is a chance that you could have a male/female pair that will live together peacefully and produce few or no eggs. I've seen it happen, though one of my neighbors with that situation recently had the male drop his tail because of being harrassed.
Two females are a better bet for living together and even that is no guarantee. If you want 2 geckos my advice is to get 2 females and be prepared for the possibility that they will need to be separated (I have actually kept my females in groups for years with no problems). If you decide later that you want to breed, you can always get a male and one male with 2 females is much less stressful on the females.

Aliza

 

[Noob]

Ok, I'll probably just stick with one then. I would like to breed for fun at some point, I've bred chameleons and bearded dragons so I'm sure I can handle it. Thanks for the help, everyone.

 

[Tony C]

If you are interested in a naturalistic vivarium type enclosure Gregg M and slayer have posted threads on the subject and could give you advice on setting up your own.

Bio-active substrate!!!

Just felt like posting some pics......

 

[Noob]

Hey thanks a lot. Most of what I have read so far does support the idea that impaction comes mostly from the leos being dehydrated. Has anyone here done any research about giving your geckos baths? I saw a video of a guy bathing his leos in a bathtub, he just partially filled the bottom of the tub so that they could have a shallow end and just let them swim around. He claimed it helped cure impaction and prevent it. Any thoughts?

 

[Tony C]

Soaking shouldn't be necessary in a properly set up enclosure, but it won't hurt anything either.

 

[Noob]

I also see it as a different type of stimulation. Using just tap water would be harmful for them if I were to bathe them, correct?

 

[Tony C]

I also see it as a different type of stimulation. Using just tap water would be harmful for them if I were to bathe them, correct?

Tap water is fine for reptiles.