- We're back with our favorite Bob.
That's right, it's Jungle Bob from Howcast.
I recently watched some crested gecko care tips,
which I reacted to if you want to see that.
Today we're doing seven care tips for leopard geckos.
And that's right,
I'm reacting to videos that are eight years old.
'Cause everything I said eight years ago
when I was 13 years old was 100% true, factual,
and I don't regret a single thing I ever said
on or off camera.
So with that, let's jump in to seven care tips
for leopard geckos.
- They come in such a wide variety of colors right now.
The ones way back when
were always just yellow with black spots.
But now we get a variety of different color patterns,
eye colorations, pupil types,
all different types that I won't bore you with here today.
But this is what I really want to stress with these
is their calm nature.
And this is a great beginner lizard,
because it just stays in a very small enclosure.
- Although that can be true,
you're definitely gonna disappoint
a lot of future leopard gecko owners
by saying that they're gonna have a calm demeanor.
because people are gonna realize,
after buying their leopard gecko,
it turns out animals have different personalities.
And I would say that overall,
they can be a pretty calm species.
If I had to guess, I would say 70% of leopard geckos
in the captor bred world are actually pretty chill.
But then there's that little portion of 30%
where they are actually insane.
They start screaming the moment you look at them,
as if you're stabbing them over and over,
but you literally didn't even touch them.
And they start just sprinting like their life depends on it,
when all you did was try to feed them a cricket.
Now that is a bit extreme,
but there are many leopard geckos I'd say
that are not comfortable with handling.
And people get really spooked.
And don't worry.
I would know this, because when I do hop into
my Instagram DMs and see what people are asking about,
there's always five people that are like,
my leopard gecko is insane.
I can't even touch it.
What do I do?
And ultimately, you kind of just have to keep touching it.
(chuckling)
I mean, it's literally just exposure therapy
for a leopard gecko.
It's not very fun.
It can involve some blood,
and there's a chance that they could drop their tail.
So just know, yeah, most leopard geckos are chill,
but it's nice if you can either get information
from the seller or see it in person
to see if it's actually calm or not.
Unless you want a crazy boy
that you're gonna maybe draw some blood with.
But who knows?
- [Jungle Bob] A 10 Gallon tank is more than sufficient
for its whole life.
- Come on, 10?
Just bump it up to 20.
Just literally 10 gallons.
That's this much space.
It's really not that hard.
A leopard gecko can get this big.
A 10 gallon is this big.
Why would you?
That is me living in half the size of this office,
which I know is not a perfect comparison.
Shut up, I don't care.
But you get the idea.
And I believe 20 is a good base.
A lot of people are like, wow, that's so abusive.
How dare you?
They need at least 40.
I've had some people say they need at least
50 to 60 gallons, or if you don't use gallons,
I would say that about two and a half feet
to three feet wide by one by one foot or so, one and a half.
I don't, I forgot the dimensions.
Just Google it.
You get the idea.
Other people say that they need three by two feet
for a single leopard gecko.
Which, if it's set up correctly, I think that's great.
I don't think it's necessary, but 10 gallons.
So many people say this.
So many of you are gonna,
you already typed it in the comments.
You already sent the comment.
I see you saying that 10 gallons is fine.
Why?
I don't really get it.
You know what?
(sighing)
We're only 30 seconds into this video.
Let's just continue.
Shall we?
- And it's a mealworm and cricket eater.
Doesn't like greens.
Doesn't like meat.
It just wants to eat its insects.
- This is true.
Just make sure that it's live, healthy,
captive bred insects.
Don't be catching bugs in your backyard.
Don't get those stupid little freeze dried ones
that are in the Petco section.
I don't know.
I don't go to Petco.
(chuckling)
Just, yeah, I dunno.
I feel like way too many people try to give them,
oh, what was that thing?
We did a video.
I think it was the Reddit leopard geckos
and people were feeding canned insects.
Just get some healthy live insects.
It's not that hard.
I wouldn't recommend crickets,
because they're so stupid and annoying.
I hate crickets.
You've got plenty of other options.
Dubia roaches, unless you're in Canada.
Guess you just got to suck it.
(chuckling)
Mealworms, super worms.
There's opinions on literally every insect.
And I don't want to talk about every insect in this video.
Some people say yes, super worms are fine.
No, super worms are bad.
Mealworms are great.
Mealworms are bad.
You got a lot of options.
So just explore them and consider giving variety too.
- It's a hygienic little animal in captivity,
in that when it defecates, it tends to do it in one corner.
It almost makes a toilet area.
So that pleases a lot of the owners,
in terms of cleaning up after it.
It's very simple.
- This is true.
Most, I would say 95% of leopard geckos
actually do create a little poop corner,
as people call them,
where they always go back to the same corner.
Unlike other filthy little cretins
that just do it everywhere all the time.
Leopard geckos actually care.
I don't know why actually it's just leopard geckos.
I mean, and African fat-tailed geckos too, I guess.
Those are the only two that I know of though.
But some people take this to mean that, oh,
I don't got to clean up.
It does it itself.
No, it's not an actual toilet.
They're not flushing it.
I have no idea where people get this idea,
but I know this because I would do Craigslist pickups
and people are like, oh yeah, it's a pretty clean enclosure.
He was always good about it.
And then I put the enclosure in my car and I'm like,
why does it smell like death in here?
And I lift up a hide or something or move a leaf,
and there's this mountain that the gecko could climb
of just its own poop
that's been clearly building there for six months.
You still gotta clean up after it.
A lot of people use reptile carpet, which I used to.
I don't use it anymore.
And they'll just scrape it up.
There's still, it's gross.
There's still this remnants.
I don't even feel like talking about it.
You gotta, just know, you still gotta clean the enclosure.
I'm sure most of you know that,
but I'm mentioning it anyway.
- Simple sand on the bottom,
a pretty strong heat lamp on the top.
- Simple sand on the bottom,
a pretty strong heat lamp on top.
(stuttering)
You know what?
I'm not even talking about it.
I'm not even talking about sand.
I'm so tired of talking about the S word.
I feel like I should just never even say that word
ever again.
In regards to heat lamps, I don't talk about as often.
There's a lot of debate over, well,
everything in the world isn't there,
but when it comes to leopard gecko heating,
this is quite the heated debate, might I say.
(audience booing)
I was telling myself in my head,
do not laugh at this stupid joke.
And then that made me laugh at it.
It's a heated debate.
There's heat lamps.
There's radiating heat panels.
There's ceramic heat emitters.
There's under tank heaters.
There's under tank heaters that people stick
on the side of the enclosure.
There's, I don't know.
Some people probably create a bonfire next to the enclosure.
They've got so many options.
And you know what?
I don't feel like talking about it either.
You can just research them.
Personally, I was under tank heaters,
which according to a lot of people, is animal abuse.
I don't think it's animal abuse to use an under tank heater
on a leopard gecko, as long as it's on a thermostat.
But you know what?
(sighing)
Let's keep watching.
(chuckling)
- They are more of a nocturnal creature.
So they'll stay inside of a hide spot.
- Actually they're crepuscular.
I get told that a lot.
I do accidentally say that they're nocturnal.
Technically, I guess they are crepuscular,
meaning that they're active at dawn and dusk,
which is basically just the posh way of being nocturnal.
They're a bit too fancy to be nocturnal.
They prefer to be crepuscular, which is kind of,
I mean, it's kind of the same.
Let's be honest.
- If there's one make with these all the time
is keeping them too hot.
They are an animal that comes from a hot area of the planet,
no doubt about it.
But they do not lay in a lounge chair
and try to bask in the sun.
They get out of that sun as fast as they can.
And they do that by going underground.
- I can agree with this.
I don't think it's necessarily
with leopard geckos in particular.
I think it's just from people that buy 100 watt,
150 watt heat bulb.
I don't know why I did a twisting motion
like I was twisting a heat bulb.
Or a heat mat, but with no form of regulation.
With heat mats, it's pretty simple.
You throw on a thermostat.
They can get a little pricey.
You can find them on Amazon for 20 to 30 bucks.
Or you can get a fancy one from PetSmart for 70 bucks,
which is actually the same one on Amazon for 20.
It just buy it online.
And a lot of people do not regulate it.
And a leopard gecko will have trouble not burning itself
and not freezing to death, because they're pretty sensitive.
I mean, they are hardy animals,
but they can also be sensitive.
They have literally just very soft and thin skin,
to where they can very easily get burned
on an unregulated heat mat.
I don't think this is 'cause people think
that they really like hot stuff.
I think it's just 'cause they're too lazy
to buy a thermostat,
or just don't know about it 'cause, okay.
I feel like everyone would know by now,
but worth mentioning of course.
- So to keep them happy and healthy,
you have to give them not only a hide spot,
but you have to humidify it.
What we use usually is clumped up moss.
We run it under the faucet, make it very wet,
stuff the moss inside of a hide spot.
And that's where the burrow where the animal will stay
most of the time.
- Yeah, I actually agree with this.
The whole idea of giving a leopard gecko
multiple hiding spots.
It doesn't have to necessarily be an actual hide,
although that would be the easiest,
but just spots that they can stay comfortable, stay hidden,
but having multiple options.
So one where it's warmer, one where it's cooler
in the enclosure, and somewhere around there,
something that's more humid.
Some leopard geckos, I've noticed,
kind of always stay in the humid hide,
but others will only go there.
They kind of seem to actually know pretty well
if they are in the middle of shedding their skin off,
so they can rip it off of themselves,
which terrifies a lot of first-time owners,
which is always kind of funny to laugh at.
No offense.
And the humidity helps from it being all crumbly
and crinkly.
So I agree with Jungle Bob.
- [Jungle Bob] At night is when it comes out and forages.
So we put usually a red light over his tank.
- I disagree with Jungle Bob.
Okay, I'll just let him finish what he's saying though.
- So if you own him, you could watch him eat at night.
The red light not bothering a reptile.
Hopefully it doesn't bother you,
but he can't see the red light.
He can see the prey.
He can sense where it is and he eats,
and you can enjoy the leopard gecko at night.
- No, don't worry.
It bothers me very much.
My understanding is many reptiles,
including leopard geckos, do not see color
the same way that we do, but they still see light.
They're not blind.
A red light, yeah.
They might not see the redness of the light,
but there's still a light there.
And if you need to test this yourself,
go in a dark room with your leopard gecko, look at its eyes.
They're gonna be dilated.
Turn on a red light.
They're gonna shrink.
They can see the light.
It's pretty simple.
Now yes, a red light is likely darker than a white lamp,
because, well, it's usually painted red, or it's red glass,
so it just lets less light through.
You can also just dim a light.
It's the same thing.
Or even, now I don't use any lights at night
on leopard geckos.
I just rely on other forms of heating.
So that might be an under tank heater
or ceramic heat emitter, whatever, DP projector.
So if you do want to see your leopard gecko at night,
I mean just turn a light on and then turn it back off.
Some people will use the bluish purples,
which I mean, do they see the color?
I don't know.
They can still see the light, but at least it's darker.
At least it's actually a little bit more like moonlight,
'cause I mean, generally, it's not totally pitch black,
and as long as they can get in a place that's pitch black,
like a hide.
The same way someone wants to probably sleep in the dark,
unless you're scared of the dark
and have a SpongeBob amount of nightlights on your wall,
just either have very dim light, or just no light at all.
And just turn a light on if you want to see
your leopard gecko at night.
It's not that hard.
You'll save energy too.
I mean, it's all benefits.
Just stop buying red lights.
That's all I ask of you.
Thank you for listening.
- So this is really a extremely popular animal.
Totally, totally captive bred.
You do not see any imported ones ever,
because their prolific breeders.
That's for sure.
- That's definitely true.
There's a lot of reptiles that can be captive bred,
but aren't necessarily.
Even my blue-tongued skink, Olive, for example,
I just assumed, I think I was 14 when I got her,
or maybe 15, and I just assumed all blue-tongued skinks
were captive bred.
'Cause I saw videos of people captive breeding them.
Well, it turns out certain skinks are still imported,
and I ended up paying for an important skink,
which is not supporting a great trade,
especially when there's no need to anymore.
Because ultimately,
if you want an animal to be captive bred,
you do have to import it,
or captive breed it from a wild one.
But once they're set,
it's kind of annoying that they're still imported.
But leopard geckos,
I don't think I've ever seen a wild caught one.
I could be wrong, but yeah,
you don't have to worry about it.
I agree with Jungle Bob yet again.
Look at this streak.
It's not even a streak, 'cause of the red light thing,
but you get the point.
- The leopard gecko has also got
one of the softest underbellies of anything I've ever felt.
A female gecko, if it was to be a pregnant one,
or a gravid one, as we say in the reptile business,
you would actually see the eggs.
It's almost a transparent stomach.
- There's a few benefits to a transparent tummy,
in a leopard gecko.
One, you can see if your female is gravid, 'cause you can,
it helps if you put up a flashlight.
Don't put your phone light straight on it,
'cause it might burn your leopard gecko,
but putting the light up,
you can see through it pretty well.
You can also see, this is an easy way to diagnose
impaction, pretty much.
So say you get a leopard gecko that's on,
the easiest is if you buy one and it was on black sand.
I'm pretty sure that's the easiest.
And you can literally just look and see
if there's black sand in its gut or not,
without having to cut it open first.
I'd say it's actually pretty nice.
It's a cool feature.
More reptiles should consider installing that feature.
- So very easy animal to keep.
And one I would highly recommend.
The leopard gecko.
- And I agree with Jungle Bob yet again,
because they are a pretty neat reptile,
and I do recommend them.
They're always one that I think is fun.
Easy can be a sketchy, iffy word to use with reptiles,
but easier than others is definitely true.
It's not the easiest out there,
but ultimately, I would say just get the reptile
that you want, as long as you're prepared for it.
Don't feel the need to get an easy one first,
and then go up to an intermediate.
'Cause if you don't want a leopard gecko
and you're just getting one 'cause it's easy,
well, it's not the easiest thing in the world.
And also, you're probably gonna get bored of it
and have to re-home it.
So that's that.
Jungle Bob, pretty good video.
I like it more than the crested gecko one.
That was kind of wacky.
Even though you said some pretty wacky things here,
just take it from me,
who's said nothing regretful in the past eight years,
you can do better.
I believe in you.
Before we go, I wanted to mention Blinkist,
which I started using recently.
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I think it's called "Sapiens".
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But they've got a ton of different books you can check out.
So if you want, you can sign up,
you can do an annual or monthly subscription,
and I get a kickback when you do so.
So they're not a sponsor, but I am an affiliate.
And I appreciate if you use my link.
And that's it.
I don't know if reaction videos
are the right videos for me to make.
So just let me know what you think.
But that'll be it.
I'm Alex and thanks for watching.
(upbeat music)