As far as housing goes for your leopard gecko, when purchasing your leopard gecko's vivarium
you're going to want to get probably a standard ten gallon aquarium. If you're housing just
one leopard gecko. The aquariums work very well for this species of lizard. I've found
it to be much more convenient than any type of wire cage. You'll never find anything wired
that is small enough to house a hatchling. Now a standard ten gallon is the right size
for one leopard gecko but if you plan on getting a pair or even three, you're probably going
to want to go with a twenty long, which is a twenty gallon aquarium, it's just elongated
rather than tall. So this is something that you can find at your local pet store. Also,
these are desert animals, so the substrate you use, you're going to probably want to
use a sand. This is something I really like. It's a calcium substrate. This calcium substrate
is one of my favorite products to use because it is made from a calcium base. It's easily
digestible. Not always in the smaller hatchlings, when you're having a very new born leopard
gecko you may want to try to use newspaper or paper towels, at least till they get a
little bigger. The calcium substrate can sometimes cause impaction from ingesting it, and it
can also build up on the toes too. So that's something you might want to watch for. You
can also use a sand-soil mix. Some people like to mix it together in one. I like to
have it separated a little bit. What I've done here, is I've put the sand over here
on this side so we have the dry desert area over here, and then over here I have the soil-bark
mix, and this holds moisture really well. So I'm able to mist this and give him a little
bit of humidity every now and then. As far as shelters go, you're going to want to provide
him a dry shelter and an area where they can go to get some humidity. Which is this shelter
I have over here. So I've got two different shelters going, and this is something that
she can move in and out of as she feels necessary. A lot of people like to use orchid bark, which
is also something that you can find at your local pet store. Orchid bark is a very fine
soil. This is something that mixes very well with the sand and also holds moisture really
well. So its a good option if you do want to use the soil-sand mixture. Just remember,
if you do use the orchid bark you're going to want to rinse it with some cool water first,
because it is very dusty. This will eliminate the dust. Then you're going to want to spread
it out and let it air dry, and then it will be ready to go into your terrarium. Now I
also have the plants in here and the background. This terrarium I created to create more of
a naturalistic design. A naturalistic design will provide for a lot of different behaviors.
If you have a simple set up in your terrarium, it's going to be more of a simple behavior.
Your leopard gecko is not going to display very many different types of behavior if it
doesn't have many things in its environment to interact with. In here I've created a little
bit of an elevated site, with those flat rocks. Not only does it provide shelter but it also
provides the elevated site there. This stick I have in here is actually not real. It's
made from a rubbery material with a wire inside. I picked that up at my local pet store, and
I like it because you can bend it to shape however you would like. I've put it to where
the leopard gecko is able to climb up on it, and is able to climb up to here if she feels
like doing so. I've also got decorations in here, like the skull. That's more for my appreciation,
I like that way it looks, but it also provides a sort of hiding spot for my gecko. Over here
I keep her water dish, and I also have a thermometer in the back there so I can monitor the temperature
of her cage to make sure that she is able to thermo-regulate. Now you want to make sure
that your terrarium is well ventilated. You don't want excessive moisture, even though
it is suggested that you mist a small area, you're going to want to make sure that you
don't have excessive moisture. Leopard gecko's feces have a lot of uric acid in them, and
when the uric acid mixes with water it forms ammonia, which can cause almost like burns
on their skin. It can irritate their eyes and can cause respiratory infections as well.