Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am an experienced frog keeper and my hubby is an experienced snake keeper, and we have recently also fallen in love with geckos and have a 3 year old Leapord Gecko. I have done research on them, books and care sheets, but as with all animals, each varies and I want to be sure that I am doing everything the best I can to care for him. I have him in a 20L, screen lid, heat lamp above tank during day @ 85 degrees at warm end, room temp during the night @ 72-75 degrees, 12 hour light cycle, calci sand substrate, shallow water dish - treated water - changed daily, feed med to large crix - 4-5 every day - dusted with calci powder once a week, hides on warm end and cool end of tank, driftwood, background 3 sides, large rocks, etc. Here are my questions:
Do I need a heat light at night also?
Is the calci-sand a bad choice? If so, what is better?
Does his water need to be treated?
Does he need to have a humid hide? If so, what is the best way to do that - I was thinking possibly placing moss in one of his hides and misting it lightly each day???
How are they with being handled? Are they, as frogs, to never be handled unless required or more like snakes, in that if they are okay with being held and not upset by it, it is okay on occasion?
I hope I haven't asked too many things at once, just trying to get him set up perfectly. Also, if any of the experienced keepers recognize anything else I am presently doing wrong - or if you have any suggestions or advice, please feel free to let me know. I am here for knowledge and not to good to admit my mistakes and change them LOL.
Thank you very much for your time.
Becki
-----
Happy Frogging!!!

~Becki~

>>Do I need a heat light at night also?

Only if it gets too cold at night or you want to be able to see your gecko.

>>Is the calci-sand a bad choice? If so, what is better?

Vita-sand is better than calci-sand because its more fine than calci-sand.

>>Does he need to have a humid hide? If so, what is the best way to do that - I was thinking possibly placing moss in one of his hides and misting it lightly each day???

Get like a butter container or something and put either vermiculite or peat moss in it spray daily.

>>How are they with being handled? Are they, as frogs, to never be handled unless required or more like snakes, in that if they are okay with being held and not upset by it, it is okay on occasion?

Yes i hold my geckos daily and they are fine though sometimes they can be a bit skittish.

And also you might want to put a small dish of calcium in the tank so they can lick it when ever they need to.
-----
But thats just my 3 cents Email

Well to start with I have to say that we only have couple of Leos that don't mind being held, most don't mind being held, but some don't like it at all, so I guess that would just depend on your leo. I hope by saying this next statement that it doesn't start a "sand debate". I personally don't use calcisand anymore because we had a leo become impacted from it. We use papertowels, but I know alot of others use playsand. For older leos they say playsand is the best sand to use. After what happened to my leo though I'm not will to take another chance. Also the papertowel is easier to clean up. I'm not really sure as far as moss goes, I'm sure someone else will answer that. I don't know if I've helped you any, but I hope so...lol

1.2.0 Normals
1.5.0 Tangs
0.0.1 Stripe
0.3.0 Albinos
1.0.0 Giant Albino
0.1.0 Normal giant het for albino
0.1.0 Patternless
0.0.1 very very dark leo with circle back
0.0.1 "snow" looking leo