Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got my Leopard Gecko today and I'm a little nervous. The salesman wasn't very clear about what I needed. For instance, he gave me this sand called Bone-Aid Calci Sand, but some of the manuals I've read over say that young geckos like mine shouldn't have sand becuase it can become impacted in their system. Is this something I need to be concerned about? If so, whats the best way to watch for it? Also He gave me a lamp and a 50 watt bulb so heating, how long do I need to have this on each day? Well thats all for now, any other info would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Jackal

alrighty, lets get you going,calci-sand sucks and so does play sand your better off using paper towels as thier cheaper and more sanatary,make sure you have 2 hides one on each end,choose which side you want to be the hot side by placing the light on that side of the tank,make sure your temps are about 85-88 at day and around 80 at night,you need a humid hide and thier simple to make,get a small plastic rubber maid tub cut a small access hole in it fill it with moss or paper towels and mist it every other day.make sure the humid hide is near the hotter side of the tank.im assuming you have a water/food dish and basicly thats all you need to get going.

kali

Leopards under 6" should never be on a granular substrate. Geckos over 6" may be on playsand or calcisand but there is some risk of deadly impaction, even in older geckos. This risk can be eliminated by using a non-granular substrate such as tile, slate, or paper towels. Beacause of this, many people feel geckos should not be on any kind of granular substrate, as it is an unneccessary risk, however small.

Forget the lamp, get an undertank heater and a thermostat to control the temperature. Geckos on average do MUCH better with an undertank heater than with lamps. The belly heat is valuable for them, I believe. May people come on here with geckos that won't eat and are not growing, and when it is not illness, 90% of the time they are being heated with lamps, and when they are switched to a UTH setup they start eating and growing.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

Actually I have raised leopards with UTH's and lamps, and never had a problem either way. However, it is much easier to heat a smaller tank and get a good gradient with a UTH. In a 10 gallon tank, it is really hard to get a good heat gradient with a lamp but in a 20 long it is easier.

I am not saying it is impossible to have a passable set up with a lamp, I know some people keep animals this wasy and they do ok, but others don't do okay, and it is most definately true that it is easier to have a bad heat setup with a lamp. I had a gecko loose in my house for 5 months in winter and it didn't look bad when I found it, leos can be pretty hardy creatures. That doesn't mean I'd recommend people let their geckos run around the house eating spiders and living under the refrigerator. People are frequently coming on here animals not eating much etc...and it clears up when they switch to UTH. I firmly believe belly heat is optimal, helps geckos grow faster and eat well. I can't think of a single good reason to use a lamp instead of a UTH with thermostat.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

My daughter and I are pretty new too (got our girl in August.) I know the feeling because we felt really overwhelmed with the mix of info. I've gotten all good info here and some really innacurate info at the pet store.
Some things not already mentioned are:
Let your gecko alone for a week or 2 and don't try to handle it a lot.
This might seem kind of obvious, but I had a hard time getting our humid hide humid (I'm going to sound really stupid here) because I was just using an upside container with moss and didn't realize it was meant to have the lid on it to keep the humidity in. (kinda slow.)
The 2 hides (1 on each side) are really important. You can use more plastic containers, doesn't have to be fancy.
And if you get the UTH you need a rheostat or thermostat to keep it from getting too hot.
Either way, you need some kind of thermometer to know what the temperature is, because as already mentioned - temperature is important.
Already mentioned, but I'd like to 2nd it - NO SAND. Just use paper towels.
GeckoGirlsMom