New Leo Owner

[Kystaubi]

I just purchased a young captive bred Leopard Gecko last night after doing a couple days of research on their care. I got him from a pet store, but the young woman there personally bred these particular hatchlings, and seemed to care about them in a way... So I'm sure that it is healthy.


I have 'him' in a 10 gallon tank, with paper towel lining the bottom of the cage. I have a 60 watt Nighttime Black Heat Bulb sitting in a 5'5" reflector on top of the cage. I'm not sure if the Night Time Black Heat bulb is the right one for a leopard gecko, there were several others to choose from, and the research I did mostly said to get underheat pads, but I got the light/fixture this morning because I knew that the gecko was too cold.

Underneath the cage in the same corner as the light, I have the smallest heat pad you can get-- the one for 1-5 gallon tanks (not thinking properly about heating the entire enclosure, I should have gotten the one for the 10 gallon.)

I put a half log right on top of the heat pad/underneath the heat lamp. The gecko has been staying in the half log the entire time, on top of the heat pad. I felt the area and it doesn't feel overtly warm, so I'm pretty sure he's not getting burned. I think he's still too cold, so I'm not sure what to do?

He hasn't really been exploring too much, but of course I didn't see what he was doing at night time. I didn't feed him last night, because I didn't think he'd want to eat with being in a new container. I went and got crickets today, dusted them in Calcium powder with D3, and he only ate one. After that, he went back under the log and back to sleep.

I also have a small hut with damp paper towels in it to provide humidity, but he hasn't gone into it at all.

Is there any changes I should make in choice of heat bulbs/heating in general? Or do they commonly sleep most of the day? I also don't really know how often/how many crickets to feed him at a time--He's only about 4 inches long--I assume once he feels more comfortable, he'll eat more?

 

[bman123]

Do you have a digital thermometer to measure the temp In his hide? If not get one now.
Just because it doesn't feel hot to you doesn't mean it's not hot. Figure your body temp is 98.5 degrees so unless if it feels hot it's probably way too hot for your leopard gecko.

A 5gal size uth is fine in a 10gal tank. You want to provide a heat gradient in his tank so he can go cool off when he wants to or not. If you don't have a thermometer go to walmart in the electrical section and get the accurite digital thermometer. It is $10 it has a probe. It measure temp at the unit and humidity at the unit plus the temp at the probe.

Place the probe in his hot side hide on the floor of the tank. I didn't notice what your using for substrate but if you can put the probe on the tank floor right above the uth. The probe has a sticky pad on it and will stick right to the tank.

Your temp is probably too hot inside the tank depending on your room temp. A uth can hit 100degrees and you have a light there too so it's probably too hot. Get that thermometer i said and measure temps. You may need to put the lamp on his cool side to bring up temps or you may not need it at all. Younwont know until you get a digital thermometer and measure your temps.

 

[Kystaubi]

I never thought of it like that--that "warm" to me would feel different. I live in Upper Michigan so it gets to be from 40-60 at night time, and I was worried because I can't control the house thermostat (I rent the upstairs apartment of a house, the thermostat is downstairs) and I was a little cold in my room with just a t-shirt on.

I was unsure of what kind of thermometer to get, thanks for the advise on that. I think he's feeling more lively now though, he's been exploring the aquarium more.

 

[Kilikina]

i think bman123 did a good job answering your heat questions-- once you get your thermometer, you'll have a better idea if you do or don't need the lamp. just remember the warm side should be 90-95 degrees. i use the UTH by itself unless i notice the heat dropping into the 80s. i have a lamp that i use when that happens, which is usually only in the winter but sometimes also at night. generally, though, the UTH is enough. just keep an eye on the thermometer and base it on that.

to answer your question about sleep-- yes, they usually do sleep most/all day. my leo is unusually active during the day, but i think that's just when i come or go from my room. but even then, she sleeps almost all day and then comes out at night. so don't worry that you haven't seen him come out yet!

 

[bman123]

Yeah you need a good thermometer and that accurite digital one is the best inhabe found that is cheap it's only $10. I'd say run out and get that thermometer and come home check the temps and see what you get.

Check the hot side temps with the light off. You maybe surprised at the temp and you may need or may not need that lamp. It's good to know the temps in the tank as if it's too cold they will get a respiratory infection or too hot and burn themselves. Plus if it's too hot or too cold they may not eat right.

I don't know if you've owned any reptiles before but it's more complicated then the pet stores makes it seem. They will tell you to use a lamp and sand as substrate for a baby Leo and that's no good. They should have belly heat instead of a lamp but sometimes you need a lamp to control the ambient temp if your room or house is cold.

My tank is 93.2 hot side 76 cool side and it pretty much stays the same temp all day and night but we keep our heat on 76 and the air on 76 when it's hot so the temp is always the same. Also if you can don't put the tank by windows or doors that get opened alo or on a exterior wall as it will be colder when it's cold outside.

Just trying to help out man, it's not as easy as it looks at first but when youget the housig all down it is alot easier on you and your gecko. The last thing you need is a gecko that won't eat, the both of you will be stressed out.

 

[bman123]

Talking about sleep lol that's all my Leo does. He will stay in his hot hide almost 24/7 even tho his temps are spot on and both of his hides are the exact same. He normally gets up around 3-5pm and up at 9-11 pm then at 3-4 am the rest if the time he is sleeping.

They need awhile to get use to the new home. It may take awhile but as long as you provide what they need you generally won't have any problems. Don't worry if it doesn't eat much at first just get your temps right. As long as his tail is fat you will be ok for a week or so of not eating. My Leo doesn't eat much I mean a dozen superworms would last him a week and he's 9 1/2 inches long I'd say about 50-60 grams but I don't have a scale to weigh him. Maybe I'll go to walmart or somewhere and look for a cheap digital scale or some kind if cheap scale lol.

 

[Kystaubi]

I got a thermometer, and good thing because the heat pad is running at about 95-96 degrees. I'm using paper towel for substrate so I just doubled up a couple more pieces and put it over the area so that it wouldn't be quite as warm. He's now staying under the log, again, haha--so it must be more comfortable now.

He's still young, only like 3-4 inches long and fully striped still. His tail isn't really fat at all, but I figured this is because he's still pretty young?

 

[Taquiq]

Only use 1 layer of paper towels. 95-96 is what the heating pad temperature is, not the inside of the terrarium. Most people agree that high temps maximum 97 is the key to good digestion.

 

[bman123]

Did you get that thermometer I said to get? What are the cool side temps also.
My Leo spend 90% of his time inside his hot hide. Your hot side temps are great, what's the cool side at? Yeah he is little so his tail wouldn't be fat, just get him to eat.

Your Leo is still little so that's good. It should chase the crickets around and eat them. My Leo gets hand fed he's too lazy to chase his food, but he comes out and pushes his decorations around so he gets exercise.

See how he eats in the next couple of days. Little leos generally eat alot. Do you have a bowl in his tank with mealworms in it? If not I would do that also so there is always food in his tank.

 

[Kystaubi]

I was hoping to feed him mostly meal worms, but the pet store/girl who hatched them has only been feeding them crickets. She said something that if I give it too many mealworms it can get blocked? But I'll definitely add that to the tank.

He's only eaten one cricket in the last 24 hours... I got 3, because I was not sure if he would eat or not, and he "pursued" the other ones but didn't feel like eating them for some reason? I have the other 2 in a bag right now with a carrot and the calcium/d3 supplement. Since the pet store is so close/easy to get to I don't really need to breed my own crickets, it's kind of nice. I don't know if there's a particular time you should feed them, like if they are awake and moving around or if I should wake him to feed him?

He's pretty much just been sleeping a lot... I've added a few smooth rocks, about an inch or so in diameter for some decoration around his log/humid hut and he checked them out, but otherwise has been sleeping on the heat pad.




I was also wondering when it's okay to start trying to hold them? He gets very alert as soon as I stick my hand in the cage, but doesn't always run away when I'm near him.

 

[Kystaubi]

OH, and I did get the thermometer that you said from Walmart, it was $12 here, and displays humidity/temp/time.

The cool side is at around 72-73. I think that I'll stick the heat lamp over the cool side for around an hour to warm it up a little bit before bed. I think I'll get some kind of a timer though soon to keep the warming light on at night for a couple hours. I'm going to be moving into a new, larger apartment on the 2nd and will be able to situate him a lot easier with an actual tank stand and a power strip for all of the extras (Right now he's on my dresser and I have a couple of extension cords going, lol)

 

[bman123]

That is the best thermometer I have used it's a good one. Your temp on the cool side is fine, maybe you could stay up a little bit tonight with the light off and see what happens to the temp on the cool side with the light off.

You can get a timer from ace hardware for like $5 I would just set it to come on at a certain time for a hour then go off and come back on two or three hours later. That way it would cover your night time temps and not be on all the time saving some electricity.

He will eat when he's hungry, mine only ate 2 large crickets today.

 

[Kystaubi]

The heat pad in the middle (where I moved the thermometer to-- in the middle of the pad, which is under the aquarium, so the sensor is attached right to the glass above it) is reading around 107 degrees.... However, I do have 3 layers of paper towel over it so that it can absorb a lot of the heat....

He got up for about a half hour and walked around--he kept sitting on the smooth rocks I put randomly about.

 

[bman123]

Did you have the heat lamp on when you had the thermometer probe on the uth? 107 is too hot you need to get the temp down. The paper towels are gonna warm up to that temp or close to it. Your Leo probably won't spend alot of time on the hot side with a temp like that.
If that was the temp with the heat lamp on then turn that lamp off and measure the temp. It needs to be between 90-97 degrees max. I have tile in my tank and I put the thermo probe on the tile right under his hot hide and temps are 94 hot 77cool. My hot temp will go down a couple degrees at night so it stays in range fine.

Can you go and buy some porcelain tile for your tank? It's cheap. I have a 20gal tall and it costs me only $5 for all the tile. I took all the sand out of my tank since he pooped today and had a little bit of sand in his poop. I just pit down one layer of newspaper all the way across the tank then put the tile on top of it.

 

[Kystaubi]

I turned the heat lamp off right away when I got the temperature probe, because I realized that the heat pad is mostly sufficient. The reading at 107 was NOT with the heat lamp on. I think the temp might be off because of the paper towel.... Before bed, I moved the hut over a little bit so just half of it would be on the heat pad, and I put some of the smooth rocks over the rest of the heat pad area... The temp went back down to around 95. When I woke up this morning, it was at 85, but now is going back up--So I assume that it gets cool enough here (since the people downstairs haven't turned on the heat at all) that it's not really 107+. Also, when it read 107 he was still sleeping under the log on top of it....

This morning I fixed it a little more, putting rocks underneath the side of the half log so that it will be a little higher up, and sticking them so that he can lay on them inside of it if he wants.


I'm also wondering if it's okay to just leave heat lamps on for periods of time? I obviously don't really need to, but I think it would be good to have it on for an hour or so in the morning to heat it back up. AND--how do the timers work, can you set them for intervals throughout the day or just for one or two periods of time in a day? (In my new apartment, it won't be such a problem because we will be able to control the heat)

AND one last question--how much does the heat pad/lamp up the electric bill usually?

 

[Kystaubi]

I checked the temp on top of the paper towel he lays on (after taking off the layers of Paper towel and just having one sheet over the pad), and its only at around 85......... I'm probably going to keep the lamp on the heat pad area. I have the 1-5 gallon heat pad by ZooMed I believe?

It's also pretty cold outside, so I put a note in the downstairs neighbors door to turn the heat up. It's snowing a little bit so I assume its around 30 degrees out. With the heat lamp it's warming up a bit, but I have class in an hour and a half for 3 hrs, so IDK if I should just leave the heat lamp on or not.

 

[bman123]

You can buy a timer that let's you set multiple times for it tomturn on and turn off. It has a dial on it with a bunch of pegs. You set the the current time into the timer and it will go off of that. You will either push in or pull out the pegs to set it to turn on or turn off. I think they are $5 at ace hardware or home depot.

I'm glad your trying to get the temp straight, alot of people never think of how hot the tank is above the uth and that's a problem. I don't know off hand how much it will run up the electric bill. I mean a heat pad is only like 8 or 16 watts but a bulb is 50 watts or higher.

Just play around with the flooring and try to get the temp constant. You will get fluctutations in the temp tho since your not using a thermostat. That's where the light comes in handy. If you can stay up a little late one night and see what the temps do.
You will see what time they drop and you can set the timer to turn on the lampmat that time.
It takes a little work but you'll get it sooner or later. Have you thought about using tile in the floor of the tank? It's very cheap and it holds and heats up pretty good plus it looks good.

 

[Kystaubi]

I'm going to get a timer soon then, for sure. The heat pad is regulated at around 90-92 degrees on top of the paper towe right where he laysl. I'll look into some tile, but I've already spent quite a bit of money getting everything/the gecko itself--around $140 dollars now.

I got some small mealworms and put them in a little cap with some calcium powder and some "water bites". I showed them to him and he seemed to nip at them, but doesn't want to actually eat them? I've kind of been playing around in his cage worrying about the temps so he might be stressed. Now that the temp is a little more regulated I'm not as worried, so I'll probably just leave the heat pad on when I'm gone.

I'm just going to turn on the heat lamp for about 10 minutes here and there if I need to, and when I get the timer I'll try to set it to keep it on for about 15 minutes every few hours. I haven't even had it on for 5 minutes just now, and it's already gone up to 94. I have a 60 watt Night Time Black heat bulb in there, so maybe I should get a lower wattage one if I need to keep it on longer. Plus the weather around here is so crazy, yesterday it was 70 degrees and sunny, and today it's snowing off and on, lol.