Normal Color, Leopard Gecko

Leopard geckoes need heat from overhead and underground sources.

Leopard geckoes must eat live prey such as crickets, mealworms, and waxworms.

Not every leopard gecko will enjoy being handled.

Caging

An adult leopard gecko needs a cage at least 18 inches long, 10 inches wide, and 12 inches tall (about the size of a 10 gallon aquarium).  “Sweater boxes” are often used by breeders to keep up to one male and three females together.  Do not keep two males together or they will fight!

Substrate

Coarse-grained sand, newspaper, paper towels, or indoor-outdoor carpet may be used.  Due to Arizona’s low humidity, a leopard gecko needs a “humidity box”.  This can be a small plastic container filled with slightly damp long-strand sphagnum moss.  This can double as a nest box for a breeding female.  Make sure to cut a hole in its side that is between 1 and 2 inches in diameter so the leopard gecko may easily climb in and out.

Heat and Light

A basking light, typically a 25 to 40 watt spotlight, should be set-up on one end of the tank and should be on during the day and off at night.  An under-tank heating pad designed for reptile enclosures should be placed under the enclosure on that same end and left on at all times.  The temperature underneath the spotlight or above the heat pad should reach 85 to 90°F.  The other end of the cage should be about 10-20°F cooler but never dropping below 70°F.  You may use an infrared (laser) thermometer to directly measure the temperature of the enclosure and your lizard (but don’t point the laser at its eyes).  If it spends all its time under the light, the cage may be too cool.  If it spends all its time at the cool end of the cage, the basking spot may be too hot.  Make sure you have a hide box and humidity box at both the warm and cool ends of the cage so a leopard gecko doesn’t have to choose between temperature and hiding or moisture!  You also need one hide box per leopard gecko to prevent fights!

Diet

Crickets dusted with mineral and vitamin supplements should be offered two to three times a week.  Mealworms and phoenix worms may be offered weekly.  Younger leopard geckoes need to eat every day.   Recommended dusts are Reptical with Vitamin D3, Nekton-Rep, Miner-All, or a crushed multivitamin-mineral supplement designed for children.  Waxworms and pinkies should be fed sparingly, it at all.  Some leopard geckoes will learn to eat their prey out of a bowl.  A shallow dish such as a jar lid filled with coarse calcium (Rep-Cal without vitamin D3) should be available at all times.

Water

Fresh water should always be available.  Disinfect the bowl with a solution of 1 tablespoon bleach to 1 cup of water at least once a week and rinse thoroughly with fresh water before refilling it for your leopard gecko.  In Arizona, leopard geckoes benefit from  twice weekly soaks in shallow water. This is especially important when they are shedding as the skin on the tips of the toes may not come off on its own if the humidity is too low.  Some leopard geckoes learn to drink from the light stream of a handheld garden sprayer.

This leopard gecko did not have access to a humidity chamber and is having difficulty shedding.

Leopard geckos often need help getting the old skin off of their toes.  A bath in shallow warm water for 30 minutes will soften the skin so its peels off easier as you gently rub the toes. Sometimes you may need to do this several days in a row in order to remove all the skin stuck on the toes.

Handling Tips

Small leopard geckoes under 6 inches long may be skittish and don’t like being handled.  Larger leopard geckos may learn to enjoy being held and petted.  Children under the age of ten should always have an older experienced bearded dragon handler help them hold the lizard.

Due to the risk of salmonellosis, wash hands thoroughly with warm water and soap after handling your leopard gecko.  You may check out our page, Salmonella, or see the original material online at http://www.arav.org/SalmonellaOwner.htm

Preventive Medicine

Regular fecal parasites examinations are essential to detect parasites that can impact your leopard gecko’s health.  If you don’t plan to breed your female leopard gecko, it should be spayed to avoid problems such as retained eggs.  An annual check-up is recommended to monitor your leopard gecko’s health.

Common Problems Requiring Veterinary Attention

Beside the examination, we may order certain diagnostic procedures to identify what is causing your leopard gecko to be ill.  The following list is not intended to be a complete list of what may go wrong with a leopard gecko, but a general guide to some of the common problems we diagnose.

• Lumps and Bumps: Abscesses, broken bones, and tumors.
• Poor Appetite: Dehydration wrong size of prey, calcium deficiency, gastrointestinal parasites, impaction or constipation, stress, breeding behavior, kidney failure
• Weight Loss: dehydration, wrong size of prey, calcium deficiency, gastrointestinal parasites (especially Cryptosporidium), kidney failure
• Diarrhea: Parasites, Infection; Inappropriate Food; Stress
• Lack of Feces: Sand Impaction; Poor Appetite (see above); Parasites; Infection; Kidney Failure; Internal Masses; Dystocia (retained eggs)
• Eye Problems:  One of the most common causes of eye problems in leopard geckoes is substrate!  Fine sand, dusty mulch, and peat moss can all get beneath the eyelids of leopard geckoes and be very irritating.  The gecko may squint a lot and develop a watery to crusty discharge from its eyes.  Another common problem is impaction of unshed skin and pus beneath the eyelid.  (See our webpage Leopard Gecko Eye Problems for more information.)  The leopard gecko may need to have its eyes flushed and cleaned under anesthesia and started on antibiotic eye drops and a pain reliever and anti-inflammatory medication.  In severe cases, the eye may die and need to be surgically removed.
• Shedding Difficulty (especially on the tips of the toes): Insufficient Humidity (the #1 cause!); Infection; Nutritional Seconday Hyperparathyroidism (also known as metabolic bone disease or calcium deficiency); Kidney Failure
• Trembling: calcium deficiency, kidney failure, infection, trauma
• Reluctance to Move: calcium deficiency, kidney failure, infection, trauma
• Abnormal Shape or Posture: Nutritional Seconday Hyperparathyroidism (also known as metabolic bone disease or calcium deficiency).  Legs may appear bent and swollen. The jay may be turned under or not close properly.  The spine may appear crooked.  The gecko may be unable to lift its belly off the floor of its cage.  This may be caused by calcium deficiency, lack of vitamin D3, or kidney failure.

Copyright 2008
Kevin Wright and Jay Johnson
Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital, LLC
744 N Center Street
Mesa, AZ 85203
info@azeah.com