Rescued a leo, but no idea what kind...

[Foshizzle11]

Long story short we rescued a leopard gecko yesterday. He is in a 10 gallon terrarium. We bought him a new hide with some moss to go inside. We switched out the sand to a mat and got a new heat light because the floor heater thing wasn't hot enough.

Here is a pic:

This is our first leopard gecko but we are not new to owning reptiles. We currently have two panther chameleons and a bearded dragon. We have a bit of a zoo at our house at the moment.

We are gutloading the crickets, and feeding super worms, wax worms and butter worms as a treat.

I am trying to get the temps in the hide on the warm side of the terrarium at around 90 degrees, the heat pad isn't hot enough so we use an overhead heat bulb.

Does he look healthy?

 

[Foshizzle11]

Also, I can't seem to get the temp up from just the heat pad under the tank. There is only the glass, then a mat and then the hide. The temp in the hide is just a little bit warmer than room temp. We are using a lamp above the cage to get close to 90 degrees in the hide. I don't think we can accomplish those temps without the lamp.

So my question is, is it harmful to leave the red coloured basking light on all night or should it be turned off and let the temp drop to about 76-78 degrees at night.

Any suggestions?

 

[indyana]

How are you measuring the temperature? The floor surface temperature of the floor inside the hide should be 90 F, not the ambient air temperature. Usually, an under tank header works, unless the pad is undersized for the 10 gallon aquarium. Should look like it takes up about a third of the tank bottom. Most folks recommend measuring the surface heat with an infrared temp gun.

I suppose there is also a chance the heat pad is malfunctioning (unless you bought new). Just seems weird because if I didn't control mine with a thermostat, it could easily get up over 100 F.

As for the temperature drop at night, I would not be concerned as long as it's 70 F or above. I'd say go ahead and turn off the basking light at night to give him some time in complete darkness.

 

[Foshizzle11]

I have since improvised a new setup with some left overs from our baby chams and am using a mesh cage. We have sandwiched the under tank heater between two pieces of flat rock.

So far since Friday when we got him/her we haven't seen her use the warm side of the tank. Is that normal?

 

[Foshizzle11]

And here are some more pics.

We tried to set it up so there are three hides as suggested and a cool side of the cage. We got him some new hides as he just had the one log before and that seems to be his favorite hiding spot.

Thanks for the comments and advice, it is much appreciated!

 

[indyana]

I would suggest getting a reptile temp gun and checking the surface temp on the warm side. That's the only way to really be certain it's at the correct temperature (~ 90 F). If the gecko never goes over there, even to digest food, it may be too hot.

Otherwise, the setup looks good, as long as the gecko cage is kept in a warm room where heat loss isn't an issue.

 

[lisa127]

I agree. Unless you are using a temperature gun to measure the floor temps you really don't know if you are achieving the correct temps.

 

[Kristi23]

Moved this to the general care for more traffic.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Air temperature doesn't matter as much as floor temperature (like others have said) If your air is 90 degrees it is usually far too hot in the tank. I like glass enclosures as they allow for fewer drafts and more heat retention. I don't recommend over tank lights as they tend to dry out the environment and over heat it (usually problems in glass enclosures so they might be better in your mesh one). I would get a probe thermometer or temp gun as others have said and measure your temperatures carefully. Too hot is far worse than too cool so be careful! Your setup looks awesome otherwise