# Am I ready to get a Leopard Gecko?



## kjett (Oct 16, 2016)

Hi! 

I've been thinking about getting my first leopard gecko for a while now and decided to do it. I have done a load of research into them and I think I'm now all set. I just thought I'd ask for any more advise. 

I own a corn snake so I'm not entirely new to reptiles but obviously Leopard Geckos have different needs. 

I will be buying him from a family friend who owns a small aquatic/reptile shop. He breeds them all himself and gives them the best care and I trust this will be the best option..and he's giving me a discount.:lol2:

I will be using a tank thats about 60x40cm and I will be using reptile carpet so theres no risk of impaction. I will get two hides (a moist one and a hot one). I will be using a heat mat and no light as lots of research suggests its pointless and is just a fire risk.

I will get calci-dust and nutrabol for vitamins to put in a bowl as well as dust the food with. I will buy a water bowl and homemade bottle cap bowls for calcium and mealworms. His main diet I think will be '4th moult black crickets' from my local pet shop. *I think that is okay? How many crickets (12-18mm) should I first buy to start off with for the first few weeks?* I don't want to be wasting money on way too many and them dying before I use them. 

Thank you!:2thumb:


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## DaveH (Oct 17, 2006)

Hi,

Your setup sound ok. You just buy a single prepack tub of crickets. You'll get loads, probably too many to use. I suggest you get a cricket keeper and keep them in there. They are quite fast and will want to run and hide in dark places. What I used to do was to put a cricket keeper tube in the fridge for a short while to make them slow and docile. I'll then dust them whilst in the tube and then shake a few out into the viv for them to eat. If they don't get eaten I like to try and catch them again as they hide away in dark corners and and up pooing and weeing all over the place.


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## FishForLife2001 (Sep 23, 2014)

Hi,

Firstly I would get a bigger setup, 60x40cm is too small for an adult leopard gecko although I suppose a young gecko would be fine.

Don't use carpet, if you absolutely must use a solid flooring tiles are ok and I used to have slate tiles cut to size as a substrate. However a loose substrate is the best, allowing the lizard to dig. I use 'prorep leo life' but you can make your own or use other suitable brands (both of which I cant help with).

You need a bare minimum of one hot, one cool and one moist hide. More is better.

Heat mats are fine as leopard geckos are most likely to get heat from surfaces and are unlikely to bask in the way more diurnal species would. UV lights are in fact useful, some would say essential.

Whilst D3 can be given through supplements, this is not allowing the animal to synthesise it for itself and so make the amount it needs. Artificial D3 is basically guesswork on whether it is providing too much or too little of the vitamin. Definitely get a UV light, it is not harmful and is only good for the animal.

My leo eats some calcium from her bottle lid in, so I don't bother dusting food with any. Her supplement (Arcadia Earth Pro-A) contains calcium anyway. Nutrabol also contains calcium and is designed to be fed with every feed, so the above applies here too. 

That being said I wouldn't recommend nutrabol as it contains the artificial D3, and so isn't as good as using the correct lighting to allow D3 synthesis. 

I don't understand why some people provide a bowl of mealworms. This is not beneficial and will only make a greedy lizard overweight. It also becomes difficult to properly gut load and dust them so I wouldn't bother.

You will need a few more food items. Black crickets are fine as are mealworms, but also add a few more species like cockroaches for example. Mealworms have three life stages so this can be an easy way to provide variety. I would aim for 5 main feeder types. 

I would recommend starting some feeder colonies so you get free food and waste isn't an issue. With a single lizard it will be difficult to provide variety yet avoid wastage if you buy tubs of food from the shop. 


Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk


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## CrazyReptileLady (Oct 17, 2016)

You've done your research well!
I'll try not to repeat what the others have said, all I'll suggest is to use either tile or kitchen roll (paper towel) for the substrate. Carpet has to be washed thoroughly everytime it is soiled by your gecko, where as kitchen roll can simply be replaced and tile can be wiped and disinfected. This'll simply make things easier for you, in my opinion 
I'd also get another hide for their cool side of their enclosure, so that they can also hide away when they wish to cool down.
Hope this is helpful, good luck with your new little one!


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