The General Care and Breeding of the Leopard Gecko(Eublepharis Macularius)
Natural History- Leopard Geckos come from Asia.

Aquisition- When getting your leopard gecko, make certain of obvious signs of health. Make sure that there are no intestinal problems and try to get one that has been captive bred. Because leopard geckos are so popular right now, this shouldn't be diffucult. A healthy leopard gecko will have bright eyes, bright colorful skin and shoud be alert and attentive. Even a hyper one that runs and jumps is healthy, although that is not typical of their behavior. Try to see the gecko eat, and/or dirnk, and always get one that relates to you.

General Despciption- Leopard Geckos, unlike most geckos, do not have lammele on their feet, which meens that they cannot climb on glass walls, which should be considered when chosing an enclosure. They also have eyelids, which is not common of most geckos. A male can reach lengths of 11 inches, females usaully reach 9-10. Colors of leapard geckos will usually consist of yellow and dark purple bands with black spots (hence the name leopard). There are also some new morphs coming out, high-yellow, striped, ghost, leucustic, and my favorite, jungle. For a complete list and pictures of them, go here.

Housing- Leopard Geckos do not need a lot of space. A ten gallon aquiarium works well for one, and maybe two if there are enough hiding places. But a 20 gallon is needed for three. Like all reptiles they need heat to digest food. Heating can be accomplished in two ways, a heat pad or a heat lamp. NEVER use a heat rock, these can short out and burn and kill your pet. If a heat pad or heat block is used, put it under the cage, this helps prevent things from getting too hot. Heat lamps should be positioned in a area for about 85-90 degree basking spot and 85-80 in the cooler part of the cage. Substate can be a HUGE problem if the wrong stuff is used. One of the most popular, sand, is bad becuase babies can ingest it and become impacted, adults however, do well on sand. Other substitutes can be reptile bark (too big to ingest) but be careful becuase it molds easily, Reptile Carpet can also be used if it isn't to rough. There is a new product called Jurassic Sand which claims it causes no impactions, personally I find that hard to beleive, but hey, you never know untill you try it. Hide boxes are neccesary as well, and try to have as many as possible, so your leopard gecko can and chose their favorite. A shalow water bowl is also needed. Although they come from the desert, they do drink water, if you chose not to use a bowl, hydration can be acheived by misting about twice a day.

Feeding- Leopard Geckos will do great if they are fed mainly crickets, they can also be fed wax-worms and meal-worms occasionaly. Young ones will have to be fed every day and adults every other day. These food items will all have to be dusted with vitaman and calcium powder, juveniles will have to have the supplements every feeding, while adults will have to be supplented every other feeding. I usually feed my geckos three to five crickets every time, and sometimes I'll throw a meal-worm or two as a "treat". When adults, they can even be fed pinkie mice about once a month.

Breeding- This is supposed to be fairly easy, Ron Tremper told me it's as easy as putting two together, (male and female of course) but there are always other things to do to secure a better clutch and to get them "in the mood". A cool-off period of a couple months isn't nessesary, but people do it anyway. All I did was cut the basking time. Instead of turning on the heating pad from 6:30-6:30, I gradually changed it to 9:00-4:00, this will give the impression of shorter days. One major thing to do to make sure that the eggs are being produced properly and the female is getting her share of the calcium, is to supplement calcium into her diet every feeding, instead of every other feeding. Another thing to do is to put a shalow dish of calcium powder for them to lick whenever they want. Developing eggs can be seen throught the slightly transleceunt skin on the belly. At this time it is advisable to put in a nest box, or a place to lay the eggs. One thing I learned (this is important) is that female leopards lose their appetite when they are gravid. My gecko stoped eating for 2 weeks, I got freaked out and went to the vet and did just about everything, but it turned out that she was just gravid, and a few days later she laid two eggs. So if your gecko stops eating after mating, don't worry, and congradulate yourself. This is easily accomplished by getting an empty and clean margerine or cool-whip tub, cut a hole in the side so the gecko can enter or leave as they please; then punch a bunch of small holes in the lid. Fill the tub with moist vermiculite or spanghum moss. If a nest box is not used, the gecko will find a place in the substrate to lay. This can be a problem. One, since it is not in a place with high humidity, so the eggs will dry out and die if they are not found in time. Or, a gecko will accidently trample the eggs. So check for eggs inside and outside of the nest box frequently. Also, check out my page with some more tips on breeding them, for that go Here.

Incubation and Hatchling Care- After being laid, the eggs will have to be incubated. If you live in a hot climate, just placing the eggs in a place where they will not be disturbed is sufficient incuabtion. But for most of us, artificial incuabtion will be neccesary. Place the eggs without shifting thier position into another tub with tiny holes poked in the top. Then half bury the eggs in moist vermiculite or spanghum moss. Getting the right ratio of water to substrate is diffucult at first, it can not be too dry, or the eggs will die, and it cannot be too wet for mold will form. Don't panic if you see mold on the eggs, I have read some post's at Kingsnake.com and have two tips for treating this. This first is to put a little bit of Anti-Athletes Foot powder on and around the eggs, then to prevent the mold from totally taking over, give them a quick dip in a mixture of 90% water and 10% bleach. The mold should go away in a couple of hours. Incubation tempertures shoud be at about 84-86 F. Lower temps at high 70's and low 80's will be mostly females, and those incuabted at high 80's low 90's will be mostly male. Females hatched at this temperture will be aggressive and are usually sterile or a bad choice for breeding. So it is best to incubate at about 85. This will be a mix of both male and female hatchlings.
After being born baby leopard geckos are very cute and only about 3 inches long!! Caring for them is a tad more difficult than adults, mainly because they are young and more succeptable to diseases, heat burns and they require higher humidity. Many people buy Rubbermaid sweater boxes and raise the babies in those. They will have to be placed on paper towel or newspaper substrate because their tiny digestive systems can't pass sand and impactions from sand are common. Baby leopards will not eat for their first week after birth, and then they shed for the first time and then start eating (they don't eat for a week because there is still enough yolk to keep them alive). They will need to be fed "pinhead" crickets, which are week to two weeks old. The basic rule of thumb for feeding them is not to feed them any thing begger than 2/3 the size of the their head. Again, they will need to be fed and supplemented every day, and will be full grown between 10 and 12 months.

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