Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I've been researching Leopard Geckos (Crested, African Fat Tails, etc) for a few days and picked up a juvenile Leopard today. I bought a good $145 in supplies today also.

20 gallon tank
Cave hide
Half rock hide (half inside, half magnetized outside tank)
Heating pad
Cricket feeder rock
Water/food dishes
Two dozen crickets
Cricket gutload
Two thermometers and a humidity guage

I'm worried I might of set my tank up wrong. Right now, my little buddy is in his hide cave on the heating pad side. I'm using papertowels as substrate since he's just a juvenile. I didn't buy any peatmoss for hide humidity (I've read it's good for keeping a hide humid).

Can anyone give me some tips as to how to set up my tank? Also, I decided not to use the light that came with the tank and just stick with the heating pad (heating pad is on the lower left backside and not on the bottom of the tank itself.) The heating pad side is a little over 80 and the cool side is about 71 degrees. The humidity guage is at about 48. Are these okay temps? Please respond ASAP. Thank you to anyone that helps.

Oh and I'm not using the overhead light above the tank because it came with 100 watt bulb. Is that too much wattage for a juvenile or will it be okay? 80 seems like a low temp for the hot side. I want to also explain the position of my heating pad too. A background board came with the tank (you might of bought this same 20 gallon tank). The heating pad is on the lower backside of the tank because I didn't want to put it underneath the tank because it's on my dresser and not an open bottom table so you can see it. Is the background board going to take heat away from the pad? Should I put the pad on the bottom even if it's not an opened bottom? Should I use the 100 watt clamp lamp with the pad? I'm so worried about my leo.

Congrats on your new pet! You can use paper towels in the humid hide if you don't have any moss yet. You need two hides per side and you nee the humid hide on the warm side. Do you have a bowl of calcium? Leos are fine without an overhead light bulb but I use red light bulbs. You can get a two pack 45wt at Big Lots for $1. I would go ahead and ptu the UTH on the tank, the backboard is probably taking away from the heat. Also 71 on the cool side is a little cool. Try to up the temps to about 75 to 78 on the cool side and 85 to 90 on the warms side. Humidity isn't good for leos and since they don't live in a humid terrain it can cause problems when there's too much of it. Like Upper Resiratory Infections. Feel free to ask any more questions!
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Katie F.
Peach State Geckos
Breeding Mealworms
My Email

I have a bowl of calcium next to the water bowl, but he/she never touches it. I dusted the crickets that it ate today. I gutloaded them lastnight. Can you give me what you think would be a proper feeding schedule for a juvi leo? I kind of spoiled it a little when I got him home and fed him 4-5 crickets. I didn't think the pet shop fed him right when they had 10 juvi leos in a 5 gallon tank. I have a list of things I need to buy. Care to add to it?

Red light bulbs
Vitamin supplement
Peat moss

It may take him a while to realize the calcium is there. Mine lick up the calcium alot. Do you have calcium with d3 or without? Feed him about 3 crickets everyday, if he eats them feed a couple more. Your list seems good, I don't know what you have so it's hard for me to add to it.
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Katie F.
Peach State Geckos
Breeding Mealworms
My Email

Sorry I don't have time to answer your questions, but I just thought I would give you a link to my favorite leopard gecko web site. It has so much information that I wish I had when I was first starting out.

www.drgecko.com

I would try to up those temps to 90-95 on the hot side and anywhere from 70-80 on the cool. Where are you getting the tempature reading from? It should be from the base, NOT the sides (a mistake I had made for the first three years owning my little guy ).

Good luck with your little guy,

Lisa
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