In the wild, lizard geckos tend to live under large rocks or inside subterranean caves, emerging at night to hunt insects such as spiders and crickets – and if they’re feeling exceedingly adventuresome, some leopard geckos may even seek out tiny mammals such as baby field mice.

A well-fed gecko can actually live between 19 and 22 years, with the oldest confirmed leopard gecko living all the way to 27 years old! For this reason, they make good pets for children since your child will be able to grow up with the same animal over the course of many years. In the wild, this means that leopard geckos will breed many times during their life, making it an ethical pet choice, as it is not an endangered species.

The natural coloring of these reptiles tends to be a yellowish, creamy color with black stripes, but years of captive breeding have altered the natural coloring of leopard geckos and caused the introduction of new colors to the species, such as: tangerine, lavender, solid white, and even black spots. Though it may seem strange, leopard geckos have adapted remarkably well to captive breeding programs, and are now one of the premier choices for reptilian pets today.

Leopard Geckos at Home

At only 6-8 inches long, both in the wild and in captivity, leopard geckos make a great choice for a small house pet, and they require little care in comparison to many other pet reptiles. They produce very little smell, and if you take care to handle a leopard gecko while it’s still a baby, he’ll be quite tame as an adult and almost enjoy being held!

Choosing what your leopard gecko is going to be running around on for the term of its natural life is never a decision that should be taken lightly, and that goes double for young leos.
If you own an adult leopard gecko, you might decide that having a habitat that’s nice to look at makes it worth taking a small risk that your leopard gecko develops sand impaction. Be that as it may, when it comes to baby and juvenile leopard geckos there’s no question that safety should come first, and that means using the most boring-but-reliable substrate of all time: paper towel. You can move juvenile leos onto a (fine) sand substrate when they are 5-6 inches long, not before.

Adult leopard geckos shed their skin about once per month, but naturally enough the frequency is higher with younger leos. The most important thing they need for an easy shed is access to a humid environment, and so you need to provide this. Note that if you are using a paper towel substrate this is even more important, as paper towel tends to absorb moisture from the air and contribute to a dry atmosphere in the tank.
The simplest way to setup a humid environment in the tank is to introduce a simple hide box that you keep moist inside. For the box itself, a simple small plastic container with an access hole cut in the side or lid is perfect. For the floor of the hide box the best material to use is peat moss, and for the moisture you just need to open the container and mist a little water into it if it looks like it’s drying out (you won’t need to do this often).
Once you understand that the young are to be treated differently to the adults you’ll find that raising leopard geckos is not as difficult as you might think.

Leopard geckos also need to be handled with care, as their tails can actually fall off when they’re frightened or anxious. They can grow new tails, however it will be shorter and slightly less useful, since a tail-shed is actually a defense mechanism used by leopard geckos to distract predators in the wild!

Feeding your leopard gecko is relatively easyh, but like any reptilian pet, you’ll need to keep an eye on making sure your pet has a well-balanced diet. Leopard geckos enjoy eating crickets, mealworms, wax worms, and silk worms, and you can ration these out to make some more common items – like crickets and mealworms – his primary dinner, while offering wax or silk worms as a regular treat! You’ll also need to supplement your leopard gecko’s diet with a calcium powder, which you can coat the meal insects with before feeding times. Also, place a small dish of calcium powder inside the cage.

Geckos need the calcium to keep their bodies healthy and limber, and if you don’t provide this to them, they’ll actually try to eat the sand in their cage to get the calcium they need. If this happens, your gecko will be at risk of death from sand impaction, as it hardens painfully inside their intestinal tract. To prevent this, provide your leopard gecko with a calcium supplement, and if at all possible, choose a rocky terrain instead of using sand inside the cage.Get your FREE mini course on leopard geckos

http://www.leopardgeckosresource.com