Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I wanted to know if it is possible to change the leos sleeping habits to mine?

From my experience's with geckos, and leopards is that they are very active at night (IE. nocturnal). It isn't always the case though. There are a few different factors involved in your gecko coming out of hiding other than to eat.

Terrium size is probably the biggest factor. You would want a larger size terrium and lots of rocky type structures (or actual rocks) in the terrium. Only one or two hiding spots. 20g. terriums usually won't cut it, the leo's and almost all terrestial geckos will hide 24/7 in a smaller cage.

Then to get them to sleep with your schedule, you'll just have to do the opposite of what your doing now. If you use a UVA/B, and heat light, you will want to turn them OFF during the day, and keep them on over night. So then it simulates day time while your asleep and just make sure its fairly dark during the day (at least where their terrium is).

Thanks for the info.
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Leopard Geckos Rule

As far as I know, no, you can't. Being nocturnal is encoded into the genes. Atleast I assume it is, why else would someone choose a sleep schedule like that =)

Not to mention the stress envolved. Ive heard of people turning the light on at night, and off during the day. This is far to stressfull imo, i wouldnt try it.

M.N

Its not anymore stressful to them than having them couped up inside a 20g. cage. Or having them couped up in a cage at all.

The light you provide to the leopard geckos is typically simulated (e.g UV-A/B, and heat lamp). This type of light is NO where near the amount of UV's that the sun puts out, nor does the heat dissipate the same way. So changing the timing schedule of your simulated light will not effect their stress to much. Also lizards sample much differently than humans do (e.g the refresh rate of a lightbulb being not as fast as the light from the sun), so they already know they are not in the sun, or if they have been captive their entire lives and never seen the sun they think the artificial 'sun' is all they got. My point being that most leopard geckos we own have never been in the wild, and don't know what it is like to roam in the sun, or the night. So changing their sleeping schedule is not a big deal, as long as about 12-14hours of the day there is light, and 12-10 hours of the day their is darkness.

Of course it may stress them out for a few days while they make the transition, but in the long run their is no problem with this. I have done it with my leopard geckos for years, and they always live healthy, and are very active. Of course, I have always kept them on the same lighting schedule since day 1 though.

-peace