Reptile & Amphibian Forums

where can i get a healthy,cheap leopard gecko? What should his setup look like?How old do they live to be?Size?Breeding?ETC.

Hey, good to see your interested in leopard geckos. Good call on choosing a nice animal.
1) Setup - setups can be as elaborate or simple as your like. The basice requirements are about a 10 gallon cage per gecko, or a general ratio of 10 gallons to 1 gecko. The cage should be long or wide, but not every tall, as leo. geckos are a terrestrial species.
One end should be heated by an undertank heater (UTH) and have a general temperature of 84-89 during the day. Make sure that there is a warmer side and cooler side of the cage so the gecko can adequatly heat or cool itself. This is not difficult, all that is needed is a UTH at one end of the cage.
A good substrate (ground covering material) is just plain paper towels. Sand is not a good option, nether are things like wood chips and rocks. The leopard geckos do not live in deserts, but dry, ariad regions. Paper towels are easy to clean and do not look bad (as long as they are not covered in goofy prints)
Places to hide should be availabe, such as plastic caves and dens, which are sold at all pet stores. One of these should be a "moist hide", filled with damp material to aid the gecko when sheding or laying eggs. I use sphagum moss or frog moss, ether are availabe at pet stores.
A water dish with clean water should be availabe, and whatever other decorations you would like in the cage. It could be simple, or highly elaborate.

2) The gecko itself grows up to about 8 - 10 inchs, beutiful colors, and a life span of 10 - 15 years. Very easy to keep, feeding is as easy as throwing down a few crickets and worms every day or so, and breeding practiuly happens by itself.

For more info, go to www.google.com or any other search engine and type in "Leopard Gecko" or "Leopard Gecko Care Sheet", and hundreds of sites will pop up.

Just one thing, leos can actually live 20 or more years :-].

Hey, good to see your interested in leopard geckos. Good call on choosing a nice animal.
1) Setup - setups can be as elaborate or simple as your like. The basice requirements are about a 10 gallon cage per gecko, or a general ratio of 10 gallons to 1 gecko. The cage should be long or wide, but not every tall, as leo. geckos are a terrestrial species.
One end should be heated by an undertank heater (UTH) and have a general temperature of 84-89 during the day. Make sure that there is a warmer side and cooler side of the cage so the gecko can adequatly heat or cool itself. This is not difficult, all that is needed is a UTH at one end of the cage.
A good substrate (ground covering material) is just plain paper towels. Sand is not a good option, nether are things like wood chips and rocks. The leopard geckos do not live in deserts, but dry, ariad regions. Paper towels are easy to clean and do not look bad (as long as they are not covered in goofy prints)
Places to hide should be availabe, such as plastic caves and dens, which are sold at all pet stores. One of these should be a "moist hide", filled with damp material to aid the gecko when sheding or laying eggs. I use sphagum moss or frog moss, ether are availabe at pet stores.
A water dish with clean water should be availabe, and whatever other decorations you would like in the cage. It could be simple, or highly elaborate.

2) The gecko itself grows up to about 8 - 10 inchs, beutiful colors, and a life span of 10 - 15 years. Very easy to keep, feeding is as easy as throwing down a few crickets and worms every day or so, and breeding practiuly happens by itself.

For more info, go to www.google.com or any other search engine and type in "Leopard Gecko" or "Leopard Gecko Care Sheet", and hundreds of sites will pop up.

Hey, good to see your interested in leopard geckos. Good call on choosing a nice animal.
1) Setup - setups can be as elaborate or simple as your like. The basice requirements are about a 10 gallon cage per gecko, or a general ratio of 10 gallons to 1 gecko. The cage should be long or wide, but not every tall, as leo. geckos are a terrestrial species.
One end should be heated by an undertank heater (UTH) and have a general temperature of 84-89 during the day. Make sure that there is a warmer side and cooler side of the cage so the gecko can adequatly heat or cool itself. This is not difficult, all that is needed is a UTH at one end of the cage.
A good substrate (ground covering material) is just plain paper towels. Sand is not a good option, nether are things like wood chips and rocks. The leopard geckos do not live in deserts, but dry, ariad regions. Paper towels are easy to clean and do not look bad (as long as they are not covered in goofy prints)
Places to hide should be availabe, such as plastic caves and dens, which are sold at all pet stores. One of these should be a "moist hide", filled with damp material to aid the gecko when sheding or laying eggs. I use sphagum moss or frog moss, ether are availabe at pet stores.
A water dish with clean water should be availabe, and whatever other decorations you would like in the cage. It could be simple, or highly elaborate.

2) The gecko itself grows up to about 8 - 10 inchs, beutiful colors, and a life span of 10 - 15 years. Very easy to keep, feeding is as easy as throwing down a few crickets and worms every day or so, and breeding practiuly happens by itself.

For more info, go to www.google.com or any other search engine and type in "Leopard Gecko" or "Leopard Gecko Care Sheet", and hundreds of sites will pop up.

Heres what i do care wise for my leos :-]

I keep mine in a vision tank that is equal to 20 gallons long (a real nice size for a leo, plenty of rooma nd not cramped. You should use an UTH with a termostate (the termostate regulats the temperature and keeps it on the set value). and the temps should be around 88 degrees on the warm side and 78 or room temp on the cool side. Since leos are nocturnal there is no need for UV lights or lighting. I recomend paper towels for substrate but another alternative that looks more natural is slate or tiles. You should have a hiding area on each end of the tank and also a humid hide box (I make mine out of cool whip containers filled with peat moss or bed a beast). You should also have a water dish and a calcium dish.

For feeding I feed my babies every day with a variety of crickets, superworms (small size) and mealworms. and my adults are feed every other day with the same insects. I dust the insects every other feeding with mineral for babies and ever few feedings for adults (unless the females have eggs, then they get calcium every day).

I have not breed my leos as of yet so ill leave the breeding questions to the experts :-].