Leopard Gecko General
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Sexing your gecko is fairly easy, as there are two main differences between males and females (see below). To sex your gecko it is usually easiest to place them in a see-through container and then look at their underside. Trying to sex your gecko whilst holding it may prove difficult, as they probably won't want stay there for long.
Male
- 'v' shape preanal pores between the back legs
- Bulbous tail base
Female
- Lacking preanal 'v' shaped pores
- Base of tail less bulbous
Leopard geckos should be fed a variety of livefood, with the main proportion of the diet consisting of crickets. Other foods which can be offered include:
Mealworms- quite fatty, not as easily digestible as crickets, but can be left in the enclosure for the geckos to help themselves.
Waxworms-very fattening, good for livening the appetite of ill geckos HOWEVER highly addictive - should be offered to healthy geckos as a treat only.
Locusts- good as a treat. Very nutritional when gutloaded.
Freeze-dried alternatives are available, however do not always contain as many nutrients as live food. They can however, be offered once in a while to increase diet variety. Geckos hunt for their food, so remember by offering pre-killed alternatives, they may not be stimulated to eat non-moving prey.Adult leopard geckos can be fed every day or every other day, hatchlings and juveniles should be fed every day.As a general rule, food items should be no wider lengthways, than the width of the geckos head (see picture). Healthy adult leopard geckos will eat anywhere between a few to around twenty food items per day, and hatchlings around ten to fifteen items per day.
Extra care should be taken to gutload the food, in order to provide essential nutrients for your growing gecko. Livefood when bought has usually not been fed for a while, or even at all, and therefore does not contain many of the nutrients vital to the diet of your geckos. It is essential to feed livefood for 24 hours before feeding to your geckos (known as gutloading). Livefood can be fed on a variety of dried or fresh foods. Below is only as a guide for basic gutloading of livefood, and the food listed only contains some of the required vitamins. It is important to provide fresh foods as well as dry, particularly for crickets and locusts. Meal worms and wax worms however require less moisture.
Fresh foods:Green leafy vegetables, such as lettuce, carrots, apple
Dried foodsFish food (flakes), Bran (Weetabix etc), Oats, Baby cereal
Food must be dusted with calcium and vitamin supplements. Read the section below to find out more about this.
The process of calcium and vitamin intake in leopard geckos is complicated. In simplified terms, there are three key essential vitamins and minerals - calcium, vitamin D3 and phosphorus. Like in humans, calcium is essential to aid growth and maintain bones, but other vitamins and minerals are needed to aid the process of absorbing calcium.
Vitamin D3 is also essential, among other things it helps absorb calcium and control phosphorous levels. Phosphorous obtains energy and aids in producing protein.
You must be careful with the amounts of calcium and multivitamins used as it possible to give too much to your leopard gecko which can be very harmful. Too much multivitamin can badly affect calcium intake.
How much and how often to use: Use a small pinch of multi-vitamin or calcium powder, a light dusting of supplements will suffice. Use the calcium only powder every feed, but replace with multi-vitamin powder once or twice a week.
How to dust the food: Place the desired amount of livefood in a plastic beaker type container with a lid or a plastic sandwich/freezer bag, drop in a pinch of calcium only/multivitamin powder and shake gently until all of the livefood is lightly dusted.
Leopard geckos are nocturnal meaning that they are active throughout the night, and spend most of the daylight hours retreating to hides within their enclosure. They are cold-blooded animals and obtain their body heat by a process called thermoregulation, moving around to find the optimum temperature within the heat gradient created in the enclosure. They do not need companionship, but can be housed with other geckos, providing that there is adequate living space, hiding places, that they are all approximately the same size, and most importantly that there is only one male in the enclosure, as males will often fight to the death when housed together. Read more information about housing leopard geckos together. Feeding behaviour is hunt-like, normally stalking the livefood for a while before pouncing, often with a quivering motion of the tail. They shed their entire skin on a regular basis, normally consuming it during the process, with skin becoming pale and slightly loose in appearance soon before shedding. Leopard geckos have the ability to 'drop' their tail for the purpose of defence, which is known as autotomy, and therefore should not be picked up or grabbed by the tail. They often appear to be 'smiling,' and 'taste' and explore their surroundings by licking the air. They can produce quite comical expressions at times (see the picture above)!
If you wish to handle your gecko, it is best to let the gecko climb onto you out of choice, rather than grabbing it when it may not wish to be picked up. Some seem to tolerate bit of human contact quite well, while others despise it . Hatchling geckos are very skittish and normally petrified of human contact, but with growth, usually calm down and become a lot more easy to handle. Remember to wash your hands before and after handling, for the benefit of both you and your gecko.
In the correct conditions, leopard geckos can live up to twenty years in captivity, sometimes even longer. The average size of a fully-grown adult is around eight to ten inches. The average weight of an adult leopard gecko varies depending on size, but should be somewhere between fifty to ninety grams, sometimes more in larger examples.
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Please note that all information represents our own views and
experiences, and those of other experienced breeders and hobbyists who we have worked closely alongside. Winston's Web
therefore holds no responsibility. If in doubt, ask a qualified
herpetological veterinary surgeon.
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