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I was just wondering if anyone else somewhat disagreed with leos being called nocturnal animals... Mine spends about half of his awake time during the day, and the other half at night. Is it possible for a animal that is normally nocturnal in the wild, to lose some of its nocturnal instincts after being bred in captivity further and further? Just wondering what you guys thought. Maybe its just my leo

MS

Leopard geckos are definetely nocturnal it's just that people have very erratic sleep schedules because of artificial light and the geckos will develop there own sleep pattern whether or not the lights are on. When you buy a young gecko they almost always hide until they adjust.

In the wild these guys live where the temperature regularly reches 110, 120 and sometimes even near 130 degrees so if they weren't nocturnal they would quicly fry out in the sun.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/climatology/monthly/AFXX0003

The highest average temperature that Afghanistan reaches is in the months of July and August of 89*F according to data published over the last 30 years.

In my opinion, Leopard geckos are more accurately described as being crepuscular, which is active at dawn and dusk.
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Steven Beckerman
E2MacPets

Alright maybe often was to strong a word but average temperature means very little here is something from another website. "summer _average_ temps may reach as highas 90 F (absolute maximum values can be much higher)" referring to The key to this would be what is in the parenthesis and I don't think geckos are mainly active at dawn and dusk because my leos almost always return to there hides before 2:00 AM and I have dealt with geckos that will not come out until 1:00 AM. Also I have read about method of catchiing wild leopard geckos and from what I've read it is usually done around midnight with the use of flashlights as it would be impossible to get them out of there burrows without very likely killing them.

My Leos almost always come out at dusk for a while but i dont see them out too much after that unlike my Tokays who come out and stay out till dawn.
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My posts and replies are my experiences only
1.2.6 Tokays
1.4.4 Leos(7 albino)
0.2.0 AFT's
0.2.0 Stenodactylus Petrii(Dune Geckos)

those are air temperatures. Rocks and surfaces get much much hotter, as anyone knows who has tried to walk barefoot on the beach or on cement by the pool on a warm day

Very true, but what are the ground temperatures at dusk/dawn as compared to midnight? What temperatures result in the greatest activity levels? What temperatures best aid digestion?

What time of day are insects most active?

In my opinion Midnight is the last time of day that you would see a leopard gecko hunting or basking. It's going to be the coolest part of the day and thus the slowest portion of the geckos activity cycle.
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Steven Beckerman
E2MacPets

Insects are very active in the middle of the night, I live out the middle of the woods and if you aren't in the basement you better learn to sleep with the crickets causing all kinds of racket (unfortunately now some crickets have colonized in the basement. I also currently have a male that refuses to come out with any light on at all even if I just use a handheld black light the only way for me to see him is to either peer into his hide or to wake myself up around three AM and turn the lights on quick enough to see him scurry back into his hide.

If that post sounded like I'm trying to start an argument I'm sorry for that, and that was a very good point Starling.

Yeah, that's very true. And climate and average temperatures also don't show irregularities, and just because the temps somewhere are in the 90s, it doesn't mean that in that country there are places at that same moment that are much hotter.

Many years ago, on a hot summer day, my thermometer, in the shade, read 135* F. The day was hot all over Miami, but not anything like that. Just sometimes microspheres have higher temps for some reason or other. It happens. And especially if you're talking about the ground, not ambient temps.

So, that's just to say that leos probably are strictly nocturnal in the wild, although they may be crespucular in our homes or even not pay much attention to what time of day or night it is if we aren't regular in our habits. I'm only assuming, though.
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