DESCRIPTION & LIFE SPAN: Leopard geckos regularly reach sizes of 8 in. but can reach up to 10 in. in length. Normal phases have yellowish-brown and yellow bands on body as well as white and gray bands on the tail with a covering of spots from snout to tip of tail. Under good conditions, leopard geckos can live 15-20 years. Individuals such as a male at St. Louis Zoo have been recorded at 23 years.

DIFFICULTY: Easy, but keeper must focus on the animal's basic needs and provide the proper diet. Calcium & vitamins are essential.

PATTERN & COLOR MORPHS: Normal, Hi-Yellow, Jungle, Striped, Leucistic (patternless), Hypomelanistic, Hypermelanistic, Tangerine, Lavender, Snow, Pastel, Albino, Blizzard Lizard, and many more.

RANGE & STATUS IN THE WILD: The wild leopard geckos' habitat ranges from Iran, Pakistan, and India. They are still widespread in its habitat but populations decline as its environment is lost to human encroachment.

When housing adults, a lone leopard gecko may be kept in a strictly minimum 10 gal. tank. As always, larger living spaces is always better. A 20L can house a pair of adults, or even a trio if living quarters are not cramped. One other word of advice: never put males together because they will fight. One male may be housed with several females, but this may cause stress on the females if the male is persistent in his attempt to breed. Young juvenile males are more tolerant of one another but it is still highly advised that you don't place them together. Females may fight males and other females, but are much less likely to fight than males. Again, be sure to keep similar sized adults together, one may be intimidated out of feeding by its larger counterparts.

TIP: From my experience with my leopard geckos, I've noticed they like elevated hiding spots. Probably because this adds security from not being on the ground where predators may lurk. You can lean a piece of cork bark against the back wall of the terrarium, and stack another piece of cork bark on top. After they learn this is another hiding spot, they'll dart for that hide when they feel the urge to hide.

You should also add a water bowl, and, if you want, an elevated spot for basking. Contrary to most geckos, leopard geckos are terrestrial, so don't waste your money on a lot of things to climb, i.e. branches, etc. Keep the number of climbing things to a minimum.

You can use sand for your leopard gecko's enclosure. However, the use of this substrate is hotly debated. The use of this substrate is hotly debated because it may cause impaction in your leopard geckos. It is better to use a more sterile setup for hatchlings and young juveniles up to the point where they are approximately 6" long. Also, leopard geckos will eat sand as they do in the wild to fulfill their calcium requirements. When they are young, they want to get a better understanding of the world by tasting their surroundings, and that includes sand. Also, if you've ever seen a young leopard gecko hunt, you've seen how they lunge at their food and take whatever comes with it, including sand. You can use T-Rex's Calci-Sand which is a pure calcium carbonate and is 100% digestible. If you want a more naturalistic look, you can get Zoo Med's Repti-Sand which is a calcium carbonate and is 100% digestible.

Another substrate option is wood chips, which includes mulch. Aspen, cypress, and hardwood are acceptable types of wood to use as a substrate. Cedar and pine are a big no-no. Cedar and pine have a strong smell to them and can cause respiratory problems in reptiles and in some humans. However, there is no "digestible wood" and your leopard gecko may try eating the wood to fulfill their calcium requirements. given that wood chips are larger than grains of sand and have sharp edges, death from impaction is almost always the result. Also, wood chips may get wet from a water bowl that hath runneth over or from a leopard gecko who has just waded in the water. Misting your enclosure makes the wood chips wet. Wet wood chips cause mold and fungus to grow which causes respiratory problems in your leopard gecko.

There are several types of prey items you can use. The most common and easily obtainable are grey crickets. They come in various sizes from pinheads to six week old 1" long adults. There is one downside to feeding crickets but it can be easily avoided. Crickets left in the leopard gecko's living quarters may die and begin to smell. The ones that stay alive become hungry and often begin munching on the leopard gecko's toes. There are many horror pictures of leopard geckos with missing toes and nibbled tail tips. This can be easily avoided by removing excess crickets once your gecko has finished eating.

Another type of prey item that is easy to get is meal worms. Meal worms can cause impaction due to their hard exoskeletons. The best time to feed meal worms is when they've finished a molt and are completely white because they're lacking exoskeleton and they're at their softest. Again, don't feed meal worms that are wider than the distance between your gecko's eyes. I've noticed that worm type prey can be fed longer than the gecko's head because they pass through the body more easily just like spaghetti. I suggest you don't try king meal worms because they are given steroids to make them grow larger. The last thing you need is a drugged-up leopard gecko on 'roids. Their exoskeletons are also much harder due to the effect of steroids.

Yet, a third option is super worms. Super worms are basically big meal worms. Do not confuse them with king meal worms because super worms reach their large size naturally. Another bonus is that super worms don't have the hard exoskeleton that meal worms have. The only problem is the fact that super worms are big, so you need to wait until your leopard gecko gets big in order to eat a super worm.

Wax worms are another option but they should never be fed regularly, only as treats. I feed my leopard geckos one wax worm every two weeks. Wax worms are high in fat content and highly addictive and are comparative in nutrition to Twinkies. Twinkies are delicious, but high in fat content so it would be a bad idea for a person to eat Twinkies regularly. Wax worms should be fed once or twice weekly to gravid females due to the deprivation of fat from egg-laying.

There are also different types of roaches and fruit flies you can feed your leopard gecko. These are harder to obtain. Fruit flies will be turned down by the larger leopard geckos because they are very small, approximately the size of a pinhead cricket. You can also catch insects in your yard and feed them to your leopard gecko if you know that insecticides and pesticides are not used. This is also not the safest idea because some insects may be poisonous to your leopard gecko.

WORD OF WARNING: DO NOT feed your leopard gecko fire flies. Fire flies are extremely poisonous to your leopard gecko and your gecko WILL die after ingesting a single fire fly. There are several web sites that describe the dangers of feeding fire flies in addition to horror stories of reptiles that have died from eating fire flies.

One extra note, you will need to gut-load your insect prey before feeding them to your leopard gecko. What this means is to feed your insects 24 hours before you feed them to your gecko. What are the pluses of feeding gut-loaded insects, you ask? Gut-loading insects increases their nutritional value because they are filled with food. Also, your leopard gecko will grow faster from being fed on full insects. You can feed your crickets different types of food such as fish food, or various vegetables. Provide slices of oranges to give your cricket something to drink. If you provide water, your crickets will die inevitably. I've had crickets drown standing up in the leopard gecko's water bowl. As for gut-loading your worms, provide potatoes and other "meaty" vegetables for food and water. No meal worm or super worm can turn down potatoes. Also, when feeding worms, provide a shallow bowl with the sides buried in the substrate, if possible, so your leopard gecko can see inside and eat the worms. If a bowl is not provided, the worms will burrow in the substrate, if possible. Make sure the sides of the bowl are high and smooth enough to prevent worms from crawling out, but not obstructing your leopard gecko's view.

One thing you do need to provide for your leopard gecko is heat. So, get yourself a heat lamp for your leopard gecko. Make sure that you put it on one side in order to provide a heat gradient. The temperature in the daytime should be between 85°-90°F on the warm side and 75°-80°F on the cool side. Leopard geckos come from the desert so they're fairly hardy and they can handle temperature fluctuations for short periods of time. You do not want to keep your temperature above 105°F on the warm side for longer than one day period. Your gecko won't die instantly but the temperature is just too hot.

For the night period, it is up to you if you want to be able to see your gecko at night when they are most active. If you do, get a red or black light heat lamp. This will provide a night period because your gecko cannot see red or the purple glow from black lights. If this doesn't matter to you, then get an undertank heating pad. Remember, a heat gradient is always important, and a necessity for your cold-blooded leopard gecko. The night temperature should be 75°-80°F on the warm side, and 65°-70°F on the cool side. Again, deserts are known for cold nights so your leopard gecko can handle lower temperatures for short periods of time with no ill effects if it should ever happen.

Why all the hub-bub hullabaloo over thermal gradients? Well, it's as simple as this. Leopard geckos, like all other reptiles are cold-blooded. This means their bodies don't stay at a constant temperature as ours do. Our bodies stay at a constant 98.6°F so we don't need to thermoregulate as the geckos do. Thermoregulation is when a cold-blooded reptile moves into warmer areas, such as basking spots, in order to raise body temperature to aid digestion. They will also move into the cool areas, like shade, to cool off and to avoid being toasted.

Once the breeding is finished, the female will become gravid (pregnant), and she will carry the eggs with her for approximately 2-4 weeks. Females have to sacrifice a lot of their body fat to the eggs so you should provide them with one or two pinkie mice per week. Once your leopard geckos have bred, you should provide at least one or two laying boxes. To do this, put in a butter tub or tupperware upside-down and cut a hole large enough for the female to pass through and place moss inside this tub which need to be misted daily to provide moisture when the female lays her eggs. Once she has laid her eggs, remove the tub and place the eggs inside an incubator.

Use moist vermiculite as a substrate in the incubator for the eggs. Take a piece and squeeze it between your fingers, if a drop forms, then it is too moist. The vermiculite should not feel dry but it should stick when it is squeezed. When placing the eggs in the vermiculite, bury them 1/2" in the vermiculite. During the entire incubation period, make sure the vermiculite stays moist or the eggs will dehydrate, and the embryos will die inside the eggs. Watch the eggs after a while, if any eggs look deflated, then they are not fertilized, or the embryos have already died. Fertilized eggs should look like full hot water bottles. Incubation period takes 55-70 days before the eggs hatch. Even as cold-blooded embryos, temperature makes a difference in incubation. Temperatures will need to stay warm. However, leopard geckos are temperature sexed. This means, when temperatures are cooler, more females will hatch. When temperatures are warmer, more males will hatch. Temperatures need to stay at a constant 79°-82°F (26°-28°C) if you want more females. If you want more males, the temperatures will need to stay at 88°-90°F (31-32°C). Temperatures that are too low or too high will kill the embryos. If you keep the eggs at temperatures 84°-86°F (29°-30°C), you will likely produce a 50/50 ratio of males and females. If the eggs are constantly kept at a temperature that is slightly too high, then you will have some babies which turn out to be "hot" females. The hot females will be aggressive and incapable of breeding because they'll be sterile and infertile. Hot females should be kept alone all their lives, as they are highly territorial towards other geckos, and will usually not tolerate human hands on their territory. In other words, their personality will contrast those of other leopard geckos that were kept under correct temperatures during breeding. Breeders usually do not hesitate to euthanize hot females because they are considered "a waste of time and money". This is because they are unsuitable as pets or breeders.

There is a way of making a homemade incubator which is much cheaper than using a store-bought incubator such as HovaBators. However, the idea makes me nervous because it includes water and I'm not sure I would want a newly hatched leopard gecko to fall in the water and drown. To make the homemade incubator: use a 10 gallon tank, fill it up halfway with water, put in an aquarium heater, and set it at a constant temperature between 79-90°F (26°-32°C), depending on whether you want more females or males. Put some bricks in the water, and place a pan on top of these bricks where you will put in the vermiculite and eggs. Obviously, this pan will need to be above water. Make sure the sides of the pan are high enough to prevent a newborn from going over and into the water. You could also add some type of screen for peace of mind.