Herphaven has everything down pat, but i'll try to put this into terms without the run-ons. I only make suggestions, this is how I keep my leopard, and he is doing fine. I'm by no means telling you how to keep your animal.

I, personally, would lose the sand and bark altogether. I purchased 3 12x12in pieces of slate at Home Desperate for something like $.78 each, and those have been working well for me. My only issue with the slate is that it's a tad thick, so it doesn't distribute heat like i'd like it to. There are, however, tons of tile that will fit a 10g (that's what you said you had, right?) Just experiment. I like the hard surfaces and not paper towels because they seem to be easier for me to clean, and there is no worry of ingestion.

There is a digital themometer made by Flukers that I have in my Dart Frog's tank which works well, I think it was about 20$. My leopard's enclosure has one with a 6ft. probe that I was going to use for my tortoise's heated house, but I decided against it. They are extremely accurate. The probe is nice because you can move it around wherever you'd like, and it tells the temperature inside the tank and out. I got this at Target for something like 20$.

Post a picture, we want to see it. :D

The problem with the gauges that stick to the glass is that they are not reading the surface temperature, which is what your gecko needs. Air temperature and ground temperature are extremely different. The air can be cooler or hotter than the actual ground is, so it would be better if you could figure out what the ground temperature is, that way you could fix your lighting set-up and aid your gecko in it's thermoregulation. If you do get a thermometer with a probe, just place it on the ground above where the middle of your heat pad is so you can determine what the temp. is.

My gecko, like I said before, rarely lets me see him shed. You're not finding anything on the ground because they eat it. The reason you probably saw some on it when you were at the store is because that store probably didn't have a humid hide for the geckos, so they were in different stages of bad-sheds.

Your gecko laying on it's heat pad when you wake up leads me to believe it is not hot enough in it's cage. Where are you guys from?

Lastly, like herp said, Petco is full of..well, I won't type the words. They're just regular old retail associates trying to BS customers into buying things. I'm glad you found the forum, now you have the knowledge of fellow Leo Keepers!

Now, for some pictures of Mr. Gecko (my girlfriend and I are very unoriginal) and his set-up. He is currently in a standard 20g aquarium.

That is the day I got him. :D


That is his baby cage


That is him in December (i'll take more recent pics)




With proper care, your gecko will turn out the same! Good luck!

[ Hide Replies ]

• Help! - JustAMom, Mon Apr 9 11:03:22 2007
• RE: Help! - AndrewFromSoCal, Mon Apr 9 15:00:02 2007
• RE: Help! - JustAMom, Mon Apr 9 19:16:41 2007
• RE: Help! - herphaven1, Tue Apr 10 00:03:07 2007
• RE: Help! - AndrewFromSoCal, Tue Apr 10 02:23:15 2007
• RE: Help! - LeoLady420, Tue Apr 10 13:16:35 2007
• RE: Help! - JustAMom, Tue Apr 10 22:25:48 2007
• RE: Help! - Charlee13, Tue Apr 10 13:30:12 2007
• RE: Help! - JustAMom, Tue Apr 10 22:30:11 2007
• RE: Help! - Charlee13, Wed Apr 11 09:10:08 2007
• RE: Help! - LeoLady420, Wed Apr 11 09:23:40 2007
• RE: Help! - AndrewFromSoCal, Wed Apr 11 14:22:27 2007
• RE: Help! - LeoLady420, Wed Apr 11 14:51:32 2007
• RE: Help! - AndrewFromSoCal, Thu Apr 12 02:04:51 2007
• RE: Help! - LeoLady420, Thu Apr 12 09:26:56 2007
• RE: Help! - AndrewFromSoCal, Thu Apr 12 22:54:55 2007
• RE: Help! - LeoLady420, Fri Apr 13 09:37:39 2007
• RE: Help! - LeoLady420, Fri Apr 13 09:39:33 2007
• RE: Help! - AndrewFromSoCal, Fri Apr 13 14:33:42 2007
• RE: Help! - JustAMom, Fri Apr 13 19:25:29 2007
• RE: Help! - AndrewFromSoCal, Fri Apr 13 19:38:47 2007
• RE: Help! - JustAMom, Fri Apr 13 20:58:35 2007
• RE: Help! - JustAMom, Fri Apr 13 20:59:57 2007
• RE: Help! - Shadow4108, Fri Apr 13 23:08:34 2007
• RE: Help! - Shadow4108, Fri Apr 13 23:13:48 2007
• RE: Help! - AndrewFromSoCal, Sat Apr 14 02:45:24 2007
• RE: Help! - JustAMom, Sun Apr 15 09:31:04 2007
• RE: Help! - AndrewFromSoCal, Sun Apr 15 14:25:06 2007
• RE: Help! - JustAMom, Mon Apr 16 19:25:48 2007
• RE: Help! - leolady420, Tue Apr 17 13:45:54 2007