This page covers the standard of care that has worked great for generations of healthy geckos.
*Note that the husbandry info provided below may need to be tweaked based on your specific conditions/climate. Most of the info below is based on a fairly dry climate and at normal home temperatures. Adjust your husbandry accordingly.
Leopard geckos are terrestrial (ground dwelling), nocturnal (active at night), and sometimes crepuscular (active at dusk/dawn) which makes their setup very simple. The cage does not have to be very tall like most arboreal (tree dwelling) species and does not have to be exposed to UV light like some diurnal (active at day) species.
Your enclosure will require the following:
This list is meant to get you started but is in no way complete. Most plants are considered safe for leopard geckos as long as it’s sap is non-toxic and there are no sharp spines or surfaces that can harm the geckos skin.
Leopard geckos can be kept on a variety of substrates, but keep in mind that they will eat or lick EVERYTHING in their enclosure. This can lead to impaction with certain types of substrates. Impaction is a major complication where the material they ingest blocks the digestive tract and can lead to death.
Reptisoil and play sand mixed 70:30
Deep Heat Projector or Halogen Basking lamp (daytime) with a Ceramic Heat Emitter bulb if your night-time temps are below 65.
It is very important to provide your geckos with the appropriate heat sources. Looking at leopard geckos in the wild, they absorb most of their heat from the rocks and soil that they wedge themselves in (thigmothermy). It is very important that they have a heat source under them so they can absorb heat through their belly. Leopard Geckos need a surface temp hot spot of about 85-90 F (ambient 80-85 F hot side) and if not given this they can have problems digesting their food.
As mentioned in the Dietary Requirements section above, our geckos are raised primarily on mealworms, superworms, and dubia roaches. Our hatchlings are raised on small mealworms and dubia roaches and then transitioned to larger dubia roaches and superworms as adults.
We offer the feeder insects to our geckos in escape proof dishes and an occasional calcium dusting. When your gecko is newly introduced to it’s enclosure, put a generous amount of insects into the dish and keep it full until acclimated
We feed juveniles every other day and adults every 3-5 days. Juveniles grow rapidly and require nutrients so the goal is to keep their dish full or only a small lapse between feedings. Once your gecko reaches 12-14 months, you can step back the feedings to every 3-5 days.
Watch your geckos body structure and reference the image here. If your gecko is getting obese, drastically cut the feedings back.
During colder months it is very common for geckos to reduce the amount the eat or to even go off of food completely.
It’s important to give your gecko a variety of different feeder insects. All our animals are raised with mealworms and dubia roaches as primary staples, but we supplement other feeders. Below is our feeder insect breakdown.
We will sometimes offer other insects as a “treat” for our geckos, but this is a very rare occurrence.
We DO NOT feed or recommend the feeding of crickets for the following reasons:
Licking Calcium: Vionate (vitamin) and Osteo Form (Calcium) mixed 1:1 OR ZooMed Repti Calcium with D3. These are left in a cup inside the enclosure for the gecko to lick.
Dusting Feeders: Repashy Calcium Plus is used to dust the feeder insects with a small amount of Human Grade Bee Pollen Powder (5%) added to it.
In a captive environment, geckos need to have adequate fresh calcium and vitamins every week or they can develop serious issues most commonly, but not limited to, metabolic bone disease (MBD).
We highly recommend using a 1:1 ratio mixture of Vionate to Osteo Form (Osteo Form SA is the same). To improve the mix and add some additional vitamins add a little Bee Pollen Powder (about 5% of final mix).
Provide the vitamin/calcium mix in a small shallow dish (jar lid, petri dish, etc), and make sure it is easily found in the enclosure. We also recommend topping it off weekly and replacing it completely at least once a month. With this method, dusting the feeders directly is not necessary, and by doing so will only kill the insects faster by clogging their pores.
You can sprinkle a little bit of the straight Vionate (and/or Repashy Cal plus) over the feeders in a dish on a rare occasion, and a little more often for breeding females and fast-growing juveniles.
It’s our belief that all living animals should have access to fresh water. You can provide your gecko with the necessary hydration several different ways. This is how we do it:
Prior to feeding your geckos, it’s recommended to “gutload” your feeders by providing them with high quality grains, fruits, and vegetables.
Our feeders are given the following items:
The internet experts have been pushing UVB lighting recently. We DO NOT use UVB and DO NOT recommend it for your geckos. There have been too many cases of improper use causing severe burns and harm to geckos. We have raised generations of leopard geckos without UVB and they have all thrived in its absence. If you must use a UVB, then the following guidelines must be followed:
(leopard geckos living with other species or other leopard geckos)
At Wildfire geckos, we DO NOT recommend the cohabitation of leopard geckos. Never house Leopard geckos with other species of reptiles and NEVER house males together. We also don’t recommend keeping female leopard geckos together. Contrary to popular belief, females can have many issues when housed together. It is best for the health of your animal that it has its own space. Females may be getting along and then “flip” one day without warning.
NEVER put a gecko you have just purchased from us directly into another geckos enclosure. This causes tremendous stress and can cause a disaster.
Leopard geckos will often utilize the same spot to do their business every time. This makes cleaning very easy.
This method has worked well for us and we’ve found that the soil freshening (as opposed to complete swaps) tends to keep our geckos from getting stressed or developing eating issues.
It should go without saying, but please… remove your gecko from the enclosure before proceeding with a deep clean. We like to keep a sterile tank or small container handy to put the gecko in.
Step 1 – Cleaning
Step 2 – Disinfecting
Step 3 – Drying
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