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Leopard Gecko Care

Here you will find everything you need to know about caring for your Leopard Gecko, from setting up your vivarium to supplementing and feeding your Leopard Gecko. Click on the content links below to get to your desired information

Leopard Gecko Feeding

Leopard geckos are insectivores – they do not eat salad, vegetables or fruit – just insects.

Live food

There are a range of live food you can use as a staple diet for your Leopard gecko, from crickets to locusts, young dubia roaches or mealworms these are all available at your local pet store or online.

There are other insects available such as waxworms, pheonix worms and pinkies but these have a much higher fat content so should not be used as a staple food source, and only be given as treats or to a gravid female.

Make sure after feeding your Leopard gecko you do not leave crickets, locusts or dubia roaches in the vivarium as they will hide and potentially nibble on your soft geckos skin which will cause stress. If you do happen to loose a couple make sure you put out a little food (vegetables/salad/fruit) for the insects to nibble on.

Gutloading

All live food must be gutloaded, this is the process whereby you feed your live food vegetables/salad/fruit a day or so prior to feeding them to your gecko. Your live food must contain all the nutrients they need to be healthy and well fed which then gets passed to your leopard gecko.

Leopard Gecko Supplements

Supplementing you live food is essential to maintaining a healthy gecko. The supplements helps make their bones stronger and prevents them from getting certain ailments such as metabolic bone disease (MBD).

The easiest way to dust all your live food is to put the insects into a clear plastic bag, put a little supplement in the bag as well and shake it until all of the insects are covered.

A small dish of calcium powder should be left in the vivarium with your leopard gecko(s) at all times so they can help themselves.

Leopard Gecko Vivarium Cleaning

Generally Leopard geckos do not require too much work on the cleaning front. They tend to defecate in one area and as soon as you see it you can scoop it out and the mess has been cleaned.

However, this will not last forever and unfortuanetly the live food defecate's anywhere and everywhere so I recommend you clean and disinfect the vivarium and all decorations once a month or so to kill any germs. Make sure to use a reptile safe disinfectant available online or in your local pet store.

Leopard Gecko Water and Hydration

A shallow dish of water should always be provided for your gecko encase it is dehydrated. Make sure it is a shallow dish to ensure your gecko will not drown.

Leopard Gecko Decorations

For your leopard gecko enclosure you can decorate it how you like. As mentioned above they like places to hide during the day, but they also like to climb so providing long branches, logs and rocks for your leopard gecko to explore will be enjoyable for them and will also look good.

Feel free to add plastic plants and foliage all around the vivarium although using live plants could increase tank humidity too much and may also cause infections for your leopard gecko.