Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i'm planning on getting a leopard gecko this summer. (however, i want to have a perfect setup before i get the animal). i'm going to get a 20g long for it. this will be the first gecko for me. what are the ideal housing conditions (as far as substrate, etc.)? i've looked on the internet and keep coming up with many different answers. i've read it will need at least 2 places to hide, one on the warm side and one on the cool side. any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I would say paper towel is the best substrate. It's so easy to clean, and in all honesty it doesn't look that bad, just white. If you want something more naturalistic you could go for reptile carpet, but some people have said their gecko's teeth got stuck on it. I wouldn't recomend sand, of any type; calcium carbonate, or play sand. It can cause impactions. Two hides are good, you'll want a humid hide too, this can be your warm hide. It is easiest to cut a hole in a tupperware container, then fill it with paper towel or soil. I tried using soil and my geckos kicked it all over the tank. So basically you keep the paper towel or soil moist in that hide and it helps them shed and what have you. Your warm side should have a temp of about 90F and your cool side 75-80F (i believe)
anyway hope this helps
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- Melanie

2.0.0 cats
0.0.3 crested geckos
1.2.2 leopard geckos
1.0.0 Bernese mountain dog
1.1.1 red ear sliders
0.0.1 emperor scorpion
0.0.1 chilean rose tarantula
1 south american cichlid tank
2 planted tanks with dwarf cichlids and platies

i think i may use the reptile carpet.

i want to have two of them, would you recommend getting 1 to start with, then adding another? or getting both at the same time?

I would suggest start with one and get a female if you are wanting to get more later on. The 2 females must be around the same size else the bigger will bully the little one into not eating! Personally if you have nevery kept Leopard Gecko's i would use paper towel as repti carpet is not the safest of substrates. Hope this helps some. Check out my site for more info!

Gilbery's Gecko's

ok. i'll probably start on paper towels and move to something else later. i want to end up with a nice "pretty" tank for it eventually that looks kind of natural.