Leopard geckos make interesting pets, but they require the proper care. Setting up the right habitat for your leopard gecko is crucial to his health.
What You’ll Need
aquarium with screen cover
heat lamp
sand
adhesive heating pad
thermometer
hiding place
water dish
Instructions
Choose the right size aquarium for your leopard gecko. Leopard geckos need some room to walk around. Use a 20 gallon long aquarium or larger for a single leopard gecko. If you are going to keep more than one leopard gecko in the same enclosure, you’ll need a bigger one. Remember, though, you cannot keep two males in the same enclosure or they will fight and may injure each other. Your aquarium needs a screen cover for good ventilation.
Get a heat lamp that fits on top of the aquarium. You will use the heat lamp to provide extra warmth during the day and to mimic the bright sunlight in the desert, which is where leopard geckos originate. You will turn off the heat lamp every evening and turn it on again every morning.
Get an adhesive heating pad that fits on the bottom of your aquarium. The heating pad attaches to the outside of the aquarium, not the inside. The heating pad should cover one-fourth to one-half of the aquarium. You want part of the enclosure to be warmer than the rest, so that your leopard gecko can regulate his body temperature by moving to the appropriate part of the enclosure.
You need to purchase a thermometer for your leopard gecko’s aquarium. You can get one that sticks onto the inside of the glass. It is important to maintain your leopard gecko’s enclosure at about 80 – 90 degrees. It should be warmer during the day when you have the heat lamp on and slightly cooler at night when you turn the heat lamp off. To make sure you have the temperature right, set up your leopard gecko’s enclosure a couple days before you bring him home and monitor the temperature closely.
Put about two inches of sand in the bottom of the aquarium. You can use regular playground sand, but you should know that leopard geckos will sometimes eat sand and it can cause serious constipation or even an intestinal blockage, especially in young leopard geckos. To prevent this problem, you can purchase special sand that is made from some sort of calcium compound. A couple of brand names to look for include Calci-Sand and Bone Sand. It’s more expensive than regular playground sand, but it will be safer for your leopard gecko. It comes in a variety of decorative colors.
Your leopard gecko needs some sort of hiding place. There are a variety of such hiding places available, most of which look like a rock cave, but some of which look like other things. Choose a hiding place that is big enough for your leopard gecko to fit into comfortably, but one that is not too roomy. If it’s too big, you leopard gecko will not feel secure hiding in there.
You need a shallow water dish for your leopard gecko. This dish does not need to be very large. You will not need a food dish because you will feed your leopard gecko live insects that won’t stay in a dish, anyway.
You can add other items to your leopard gecko’s enclosure as desired, such as decorative rocks, driftwood, or a heat rock. A heat rock is an electrical appliance that looks like a rock, but you plug it into an electrical outlet and it heats up. Leopard geckos will enjoy lying on the heat rock.
Sources:
http://www.leopardgeckocare.net/. Leopard Gecko Information.
