Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi , I am about to get my leopard gecko's and am setting up my tank for them now. What temperature should the water be? JUST JK! But i am a little confused on what i am supposed to be measuring for the temperature in the terrarium. The air, the ground? what? The air is ~82 degrees (I'm working on bringing it up a bit) on the warm side, while when I left a thermometer on the ground on the warm side it went up to 100 degrees (because of the UTH). So to sum it all up, am i measuring the ground temperature, or the air temperature?

I am using repti-carpet for my substrate because they are hatchlings that i am getting, and there is too much of a risk of impaction because they are so small. I will switch to calci-sand when they are older. I haven't measured the cool side yet, i haven't got that far...

Another question, the humid hide box, should it be on the warm side ( i would think so) or the cold side?

Lastly, i'd love to see some pictures of other people's hatchling or juvenile leopard habitats. I could use some ideas!

Thanks alot

K!LOS

From the info I've read here are my humble observations.

90 degrees air temp/belly temp is preferred. Humid hide on the warm side. I've switched from perlite to vermiculite to papertowel as a humid hide substrate. They kept eating the first two. I also use carpet. Its very easy to vaccuum using a small shop vac. This is all for my adult leos. My hatchlings are all in small sterlite boxes. No substrate, Humid hide, food and water dish only. Simple and easy to clean.

Thats me

Jeff