Soon to be owner - What am I missing?

[Itharius]

I'm hoping to get a leopard gecko in a day or two once my thermostat comes in. Which should be tomorrow. I'm just wanting to make sure I have everything I can get before I get the leo. So please advise me if theres anything I'm missing. The thermostat I'm getting is also a helix.
Keep in mind the leo will be a juvenile.

At this point I have the following:

-20 gallon long tank (zilla critter cage - has a snaping screen top)
-2 hides (1 for each side)
-some random driftwood to take up space
-2 digital thermometers (acu-rite) (1 for each side)
-a water dish placed on the cold side
-a food dish
-a UTH for 10-20gallon tanks
-2 lamps (1 day, 1 night) for helping with the cool side's temps. they are set on timers
-40 watt daylight incandescent bulb
-25 watt night incandescent bulb
-dish for pure calcium
-repti-carpet (I plan on getting some ceramic tile soon)

Everything put in the tank was disinfected before use.
I also have a few questions about feeding...
For the most part I plan on using crickets so...
What is a good gut loader?
How do you dust them exactly?
How many times a week in pure calcium? with D3? vitamins?
what is a good vitamin to use?
when I first get the gecko how much should I expect him/her to eat (average size of about 2-4 inches (I'm bad at estimating from memory))?

For the temperatures I have an understanding of 88-92 degrees on the hot side 78-82 on the cool side. Are these correct values?

I am also having some trouble with the humidity. its staying about 62% when I heated the tank up earlier. It was higher before that (about 72%). Is this going to be a big problem? Will I still need a humid hide? How can I lower it if this is a problem?

I'm thinking the tank size may be a problem initially due to the size of the leo starting out. Will this be much of a problem?
also I understand the lack of need of light and on plan to use the lamps when necessary to keep the temperatures up

Camera is no where to be found at the moment so no pictures of setup =/

Thank you for any help and advice you can provide ^.^

 

[thegeckoguy23]

The light stresses them out you don't need to worry about the cold side temps...



You can use carrots or anything basicly as gut load try codys pro gecko gut load from pro geckos for gut loading.

You put the crickets in a cup with a lid add some calciuem and shake it until there all whiteish.

Some people use reg cal in the cal bowl and d3 on the feeders i use D3 in everything i just don't give a ton of it.

As a vitman I would recomend supreme gecko gut load.

It depends on the gecko as a indivual.

as long as its 88-92 degrees on the hot side the cold side dosen't matter.

As long as you dont spray the tank or as long as you keep the tank clean you should be okay and not have to worry munch about humidty. I would give a humidty box although i do not feel they are needed all the time.

If you have a thermostat on your UTH then you don't need the lights or timer.




Jake