Leopard Gecko Care

1. Leopard Gecko Care By: Heather Crawford

2. Info on the gecko Enclosures Substrates Shelters Lighting Feeding Morphs Sickness Sexing Breeding Gravid Females Getting ready for eggs The Eggs Temp Humidity Raising the babies Credits Table of Contents

3. Info on the gecko Scientific Name: Eublepharis Macularius Life: over 20 years, have been known to live up to 30. Size: Adults:7 to 10 inches, Hatchlings: 3 to 31/2 inches Weight: Adults: 45 to 110 grams. Females can be less weight than males. Sexual Maturity: 10months to 11/2 years Productivity: up to 10 years, but most of the eggs are fertile between years 2 and 5. Breeding Season: Jan to Sep (you can make them breed all year round) Clutches per year: up to 8 Eggs per clutch: 1-2

4. Enclosures Best to use glass tanks with screen lid. 1 to 2 leos can go in a 10 gallon tank just don’t put 2 males in. 4 can go in a 20 gallon long tank. NEVER put 2 males in a tank. NEVER use heat rocks. 20gallon leopard gecko breeder tank

5. Substrates You may use sand but I would tell you its not a good thing to use. If you use sand I would say T-Rex brand is best I would not use any other type of sand. Sand can cause impaction. You may use Paper towels or newspaper. Or some people use reptile Carpet.I say Reptile Carpet is best.

6. Shelters You will need a humidity hide box. This is a box that is filled with moss or soil you mist it every day to keep the humidity up. The tank will all so need some other hides. Like a log or a rock that they can get under (not heat rock). You will need to put at least 3 hides in the tank. One on each end of the tank plus if you count the humidity hide box that will make 3. Moist Hide

7. Lighting Have a heat lamp on the tank. Never let the heat go over 94F in the day and never let it go under 77F and night. Use UV bulbs its the best for them. You don’t half to have a night bulb but some people use them. Some people use a UTH (under tank heater). If your thinking of breeding you will need to have 12 hours day light and 12 hours night light for them.

8. Feeding They will eat crickets, mealworms, wax worms, super worms, pinkies, and silk worms. I would never feed them any thing bigger than there mouth plus don’t over feed them. If crickets feed 5-7 every 1-2 days OR if you feed any of the mealworms feed like 9 every 1-2 days. For super worms feed 5 every 2 days. For the wax worms only feed 2-4 every week or two. Or you can feed 1-2 pinkies every so often just don’t feed pinkies and none of the other feeder. ONLY full grown leos should have a pinkie. If you mix feed than just feed 3 crickets plus 1-2 of the worms every 1 to 2 days. Dust the food before feeding to give the leo calcium. Crickets contain the highest calcium values, while maintaining the lowest fat and calories from fat than the others. All ways have a bowl of water in the tank.

9. Morphs Leopard Geckos come in different morphs. You can find all kinds out there. A morph is a color they come in. There is not one but MANY morphs in leopard geckos. You can all so get a Het leopard gecko. This is a Leopard gecko that was bred with a morph and does not look it. Just say you breed a normal leo and a blizzard leo. When you get the babies and they look normal and not blizzard that is a het. It means if you breed that baby with another leo you could get a blizzard out of it. Chii is a female Blizzard Geico is a High Yellow female Gecky is a Normal female Leo. Sesshmoru is a male Temper Albino

10. Sickness There are many different kinds of sickness leos can get. One major one is impaction. Impaction is a sickness when the leo eats to much sand and it gets stuck in there belly and can’t pass any food. A leo can die from this. Another sickness is Mouth rot. This happens when a leo cuts it’s mouth and they can become infected and cause lots of pain for a leo. A female leo can get egg binding just like a female bird. That’s when a egg gets stuck and she can’t lay it. Other sickness are Respiratory, bad shedding, coccidia, Gastroenteritis, Hypocalcaemia, and many others. Some good signs of a sickness are Anorexia for long periods of time, extreme lathargy, abnormal stool (runny, green, bloody ect), difficulty moving, and abnormal coloration in the underbelly. If any of these signs show up on your gecko the best thing to do is take it to a vet SOON as you can. Dragon died from a internal infection

11. Sexing Adult Males have a V-shaped row of enlarged per-anal pores between the back legs and hemi penal bulges at the base of the tail. The Female does not have the bulges and she may have a V-shape but its not enlarged per-anal pores and you cant really see them on the female at all. You can sex Juveniles around 4 months of age. Female Male

12. Breeding Leos are one of the most easily reproduced gecko species, and usually mate without any extensive pre-breeding conditioning. Before considering breeding your leos, thought should be given to your ability to provide the proper conditions and requirements for the eggs and baby geckos. You will need an incubation system for the eggs, extra housing and food, and a source for your surplus animals, unless you plan on keeping and caring for all the juveniles. The first consideration to successfully breed leos is to have sexually mature pair, in good health and of acceptable body weight. Most females reach sexual maturity between 10 months to 11/2 years of age, and are usually between 40 and 60 grams in weight. Many breeders will not even consider a female for breeding until she has reached a weight of 60 grams (I don’t till they are 50g). Females should be offered calcium supplemented food items, and vitamin/mineral in a small dish several months prior to breeding, to help build up their calcium reserves for egg production. All so feed the female a pinky every few weeks. Males should be in top condition and minimum of 10 months of age. Geico and Dragon breeding

13. Gravid Females Females usually deposit their fist clutch anywhere form 15days to a month and a half after a successful breeding. The abdomen of gravid females will bulge slightly from the developing eggs. The shelled eggs will usually become visible through the distended abdomen as she grows near egg deposition time. Egg laying chambers should be checked regularly for eggs, and freshly laid eggs removed for incubation. You can see the eggs some what near the time of laying

14. Getting ready for eggs Before the female leos lay there eggs make sure the Incubators are ready. You will need containers (deli cups) to place the eggs in for incubator And a Digi thermometer for monitoring incubation temperatures. The best Incubator to use would be the Hovabator. Hovabator Incubator

15. The Eggs Fertile eggs should be placed in a suitable container such as a deli cup or plastic container with a moist medium for incubation. The most commonly used medium is vermiculite. The vermiculite should be moist. Eggs should be placed in the containers on their sides and half buried in the medium, and the container placed in to the incubator (don’t rotate the eggs). Mark containers with dates they were laid. To keep humidity levels high within the incubator, a container of fresh water can be placed inside the incubator. Fertile eggs will remain light colored and feel somewhat leathery to the touch and feel like a old marshmallow. Infertile eggs will feel like a hot water balloon. As incubation period progresses the eggs will appear pinkish as blood vessels start to form. Towards the end of the incubation the eggs will appear larger and darken somewhat as the baby grows. Two fertile eggs Two unfertile eggs

16. Temp Leos are temp sexed. The temps can go form 79F to 90F. If you want females set the temp to 79F-83F. If you want males set temp at 87-89F. If you want a mix set temp at 84F-86F. 90F some times gives Hot Females which will not breed. The high end of the temp scale will hatch in as little as 35 days while eggs incubated at lower temps can take up to 100 days.

17. Humidity Make sure the humidity is between 70%-88% in the incubator. Don't let the humidity get to low or get to high. If the humidity gets to high the eggs can become water logged or mold. If the humidity is to low they will fall in or harden up and die.

18. Raising the babies Pin head Crickets Baby leos are delicate when fist hatched. They should be housed individually and have paper towel in the tank NOT sand. They should eat after there first shed (that’s in a week after hatching) and fed pin head crickets, or baby food, or fruit flies. It can take between 1 to 2 hours to hatch Babies are very small after hatching

19. Credits Thank you for your viewing. This is a free care sheet made for leopard gecko owners. You may not sale this to any one. Http://wrwildwolf.tripod.com/leopardgeckogold/ wrwildwolf@cox.net