I have learned so much reading through this subreddit, and today I finally put everything together for my gecko's new enclosure. It feels good to provide him with such an improvement to his environment.

housing 1x female leopard gecko, nearly 6 months old :)

I'm assuming they died due to the dry conditions of the tank. I was misting 2 humid spots for the isopods weekly, but I'm assuming that probably wasn't enough. My springtails are also probably dead.

How often should I be misting for the clean-up crew? And will misting more often be bad for my gecko?

Hello, we recently got a tank upgrade for our lil dude. Upgrading from 20 gal to 40.

Few questions about the upgrade and what I can put in the tank.

We didn't plan on having a gecko. I found him in a parking lot and didn't really know what to do with him so we just got him a tank and have been doing our best, but I recently learned he needs a different environment. This is not something we have planned for financially, so I would appreciate some tricks for making a happy safe place for the guy that don't add up so fast. 😑

Is moss safe? I saw some at the pet store that looked nice.

I've read about using tile, and I actually have a large piece of granite tile, but am not sure what to do with it. Would it go best In the warm side of the enclosure?

How thick does a background need to be? I read it helps with temp control. Recommended materials?

I have a halogen light but not the linear uvb yet. Is there a cost effective way to get this? Like would one for an aquarium work?

What about reptile ladders? I was thinking of making one from sticks and twine but am concerned about his lil toes getting caught in the twine.

Dude likes to climb around, are there any recommendations for creating safe things to climb on?

Are plastic things like from an aquarium ok? Rock hides and such?

Thanks for any suggestions. I've never had a reptile and never thought I would but I couldn't just leave him in that parking lot so here we are.

My Gecko has an eye ulcer and refuses to open his eye. The vet provided some eye drops for him but I can't administer them due to him keeping his eye shut.

How do I properly and gently pry open his eye to administer the eye drops?

Their skin is a little cloudy cause they're probably going to shed soon but I'm hoping you guys can still give me some input. I know hypo-pigmented geckos are a UVI of 0.5 - 0.7, lower than normal. Neither of them have any color, except the dark spots.

I'm kind of struggling to choose a UVB bulb because my tank lid is only 11.5" from the floor of my tank, and that's without any substrate. I have the Thrive perforated metal lid, so that helps a bit. But judging by the charts, it looks like I should avoid having an elevated basking spot.

Of course, if these guys can tolerate up to up to 1.5 (or even like 1.2) UVI then I might be able to elevate a bit.

pebble - she's got a sandy-grey color with 1 or 2 dark spots

sultan - he's got a sandy grey color with lots of dark spots

Hello! I recently adopted a healthy adult leo. He came to me in a smaller tank, so I am planning to upgrade him to bioactive in his new bigger tank. This is my first time attempting bioactive (or even naturalistic), so I would love any recommendations or feedback on my setup before I move him in. Big concerns are getting the lighting right and providing enough climbing space/depth variation in the substrate since I couldn't make a background with ledges. Full details about the setup are below!

I don’t have temp/humidity stats at the moment because I’m using his new thermometer/hygrometers and thermostat for his current tank, but once I get the CUC in I plan to test the whole setup and make sure all of the temps and humidity levels are appropriate before moving him. 

Thanks in advance if anyone is willing to give me some feedback! Super grateful for all of the info I’ve found on here while getting my little guy set up :) 

Tank: 

• Thrive 36x18x18 front-opening tank
• Cork tiles covering 3 sides (siliconed to tank and sealed along free edges)
• Digital thermometer/hygrometer will be placed on each side, just currently using them in the tank he’s in

Substrate:  

• Reptisoil and Reptisand (~8:2 ratio since the Reptisoil already has some sand) 
• Pieces of leaf litter and sphagnum moss mixed in 
• Lugarti Bio-Soil Booster packet mixed in

Clean-up crew (hasn’t arrived yet):

• Powder blue and powder orange isopods 
• Springtails

Lighting (all sitting on mesh): 

• ExoTerra 60W daytime heat lamp (works for his current tank but will make sure it gets the new tank warm enough & upgrade if needed) + dimming thermostat 
• Arcadia ShadeDweller 7% Pro T5 12” UVB light 
• Bio Dude Solar Grow 24” T5 grow light (hasn’t arrived yet but plan to follow the placement shown in the visual guide)

Hides: 

• Warm side (left): 
  • Towards the back corner, under the lights — DIY slate warm hide w/ flat basking area 10.5” beneath lights  (since I have the thick metal Thrive mesh, I saw recommendations for ~8-12” distance from basking spot?) 
  • Towards front — Hollow grapevine partially buried in substrate w/ a tunnel dug out
• Middle: Large Zilla Rock Lair humid hide w/ moist sphagnum moss inside 
• Cool side (right): Large hide w/ just substrate and leaf litter

Other things: 

• Water dish on cool side w/ sphagnum moss underneath for CUC
• Plants: Areca palm, grass, air plants, jade, crassula succulent, corkscrew rush, snake plant, philodendron; fake succulent under heat lamp
• Magnolia leaf litter throughout
• Pieces of mopane wood and grapevine for climbing near hides 
• Large stones for climbing up to humid hide w/ sphagnum moss underneath for CUC 

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Hello! I am a first time leo gecko owner and received my friend yesterday. I need some advice ASAP!!! I got her off of Craigslist for a great deal, including the 40 gal enclosure she’s always lived in, lights, thermostats, and even a Dubia colony. She is about a year old.

So I need some advice about her enclosure, and what to do while I’m renovating her house! I would really like to build a self sustaining bioactive environment, including isopods, live plants, and new substrate mix. I have been researching about the process of building one for a few weeks now and feel confident to start. However, I have no idea if that would be appropriate for a gecko who is just around a year old. I also am unsure if it would be smart to move her to a temporary enclosure during the building, since she JUST moved to my house, and I don’t want her to be extra nervous. I saw that, after finishing the new terrarium, it is also advisable to wait a couple weeks while the new environment temperatures/humidity/isopods settle. Would it be smart to do all of that right after moving her somewhere new???! Or should I wait a few months?

Also I need advice on the dubia colony. Do I just keep them all together in the box and feed them all together? Do I need to have separate boxes for the breeders and the smaller ones? I know the breeders like oranges and the others should be gutloaded with fruits and veggies. But do I just feed them all together? Idk why but I’m so confused regarding that. I also know variety is good regarding feeders, so I’ll get some worms and such too.

I live in Oregon as well. Which is cold and dry as hell usually. Already I am struggling with the humidity levels on the hot side of her enclosure. Is that normal for the hot side to be a bit more on the dry side? It is already at 30% humidity after an hour of having the heat lamps on. I have been spraying the area with water but it is drying up fast. Should I get a humidifier for my living room? Or maybe just a dimmer/timer so the lamp doesn’t get so hot?

OK THOSE ARE ALL MY QUESTIONS FOR NOW!! I would really appreciate aome advice if anyone has any. Thanks so much. Super excited for this adventure with my new leo 🩷

He had mouth rot and had big red circles in the corners and front, now they gone. Yes i know this is a vet question!!! I have 1 more day of giving him medicine, and then im sending the picture to the vet. I just wanted to hear your opinion:)

Also he finally started to be active at night, that already tells me that he is feeling alot better.

She weighs 48 grams right now

Hi all, Nico and I just moved across the country for the first time and he got a major habitat upgrade, but I'm worried I'm missing something or doing something wrong since I've taken a few steps up.

Substrate is 70% topsoil 30% play sand. Humidity is sitting in the low 50s, a bit higher at night, surface temperature on the left (DHP) is about 90° and air is low 80s. Similar humidity but a good temp gradient to the right. UVB light on the left side.

He seems to spend most of his time since we moved in his humid hide, but comes out in the evenings. He's eating better after losing a little bit of weight after the move, but still not back to "normal".

Anything I should be changing or I might be forgetting? I appreciate any feedback, just trying to make the happiest home :)

I rescued a very skinny leopard gecko that had a large wound near the groin area, the previous owner mentioned it had this wound for the last 2 weeks or so, but it could have been longer. The leopard gecko on my first day of having them went to my emergency vet clinic to see what they could do to help with the scab (not sure what the lizard’s gender was since the large wound scab covered their groin area to the point of not being able to defecate or urinate). They were doing somewhat fine that day of my vet visit, no appetite as the previous owner said the leo has not had a good appetite for the last 2 months.

The next day the leo started acting super lethargic, going to corners of the tank over the water bowl with eyes completely closed while walking in a way their back legs looked like they locked the joints into place, and shoving their head into the space between the bowl and the glass. This worried me after watching this behavior for 5 minutes, and was worried they were in pain as the vet the day before let me know there was going to be discomfort in the groin area due to them removing a large layer of the scab enough for the leopard gecko to use the bathroom the previous day, and to keep an eye on it for any changes. I was going to do their first dose of metacam and doxycycline the vet prescribed with me and as soon as I picked them up and went to check the groin area, (without me touching the tail at all and not even getting the chance to attempt meds), they dropped their tail. I didn’t want to stress them out more with doing their meds at that moment so I placed them back into the tank. They stayed very still breathing at a very slow pace, and started to do yawning motions as if their jaw was uncomfortable. Then seizures started with their mouth open and their head shaking. They would try to walk forward after the seizures but would stumble in a way someone dizzy would. I rushed them to the emergency vet, and in the span of 20 minutes they had around 6 seizures one of which they flipped themselves on their back. We flipped them back over to their belly immediately and they were breathing slowly for around 5 minutes laying in the same position i put them in and when I got to the vet, the leo had one final seizure and stopped breathing as soon as i pulled up to the clinic (at this point i didnt know it was the final seizure thinking he was still just breathing slowly and took him in). The emergency staff checked for a heartbeat not even 30 seconds later of me walking into the clinic and confirmed to me that the leo was gone.

I am wanting to get a necropsy done just to see what caused them to pass, if they had a blood infection (they had the same behavior as another leo we had previously gotten that had a blood infection) or if their body just happened to be at such a weak point and could no longer hold on, or any other possibility. I can see if there is any preventative measure I can take with future rescues in case any leos i take in start showing the same behaviors, as this is the very first leo out of many others that I wasn’t able to bring back to normal health and live a long happy life with me and it is devastating since they were only with me for 2 days.

Long story, sorry, but thought it would be necessary to add in to the background to this X-Ray. This is the xray I had done for the lizard the very first day I got them. I tried comparing it to healthy leo xrays online and my untrained eyes are no match for spotting anything that may look suspicious in the xray. The reason im asking is because the emergency vet I took them to just as a precaution only had a general vet that wasn’t as experienced in reptiles that day, and she asked me to show the xray to the upcoming appointment I had with a vet that did specialize in reptiles. Please let me know if you notice anything in the radiograph, or have any notes or suspicions on what may have caused this or anything I should point out or ask about when I bring them in for the necropsy. Thanks.

She is around 2 years old and eats once a week. She eats crickets as the majority of her diet as dubia roaches were just so expensive and I thought it would be good for her to hunt. You can’t really tell in the picture but she has an absolutely massive tail, bigger than it should be I assume. How could I get her to lose weight?

Hi folks,

My little guy turned 10 this summer. So in order to keep him around for hopefully at least another 10 I decided to up the game with some new supplements. I’m following this guide which is recommended with the EarthPro stuff and we’ve reached the 4th feed and he doesn’t seem keen at all eating with the Calcium Mg so in the end today I fed him with no dusting on his bug just so I knew he’d eat. I’ll keep trying on Calcium Mg on his next feed and see if he’ll accept it this time. Not really sure what to do. I thought this would have been ‘the good stuff’. I’m soon to redo his whole enclosure with excavator clay and a full revamp with a better humid hide (the kind you put water on top of) cos recently he’s had a lot of trouble shedding his legs I’m guessing maybe the humid hide with sphagnum moss will help.

Just built out my first Bioactive Enclosure. Have a mix of succelents, cacti and aloes for plants. Substrate has thin (1/2"+) drainage layer with BioDude Terra Sahara being the main component. Still figuring out lighting heating but have T5 UVB and a LED bar mounted internally currently. I'm going to do either a DHP or Halogen light for the hot/basking spot on the left. Since most of that will likely be done through the top I'm considering minding the two bars also externally to give a bit more usable height inside (and distance from the UVB). Beyond that I'm thinking I'll likely throw in a bit more leaf liter for the springtails and isopods and potentially a taller grass somewhere along the back.

Anyway any suggestions/tips/critiques for me to consider before I actually introduce my gecko to enclosure(after letting it establish for a bit)?

Today I bought a timer to automatically control the day night cycle in my Leo's cage. It connects to an app on my phone so I can control it even when away from home.

A cool feature it has, which I didn't know until playing around with the app is that it had the option to set times based on my local sunrise and sunset times. Here in South Africa the shortest day in Winter is 10h 30 mins. While the longest day in Summer is 13h 47mins.

Is this alright to do? Or should the days be the same length everyday? Currently I do 14 hours from 6am until 8pm all year round.

P.S. the app also has the option to set hours and minutes before or after the local sunset/sunrise times.

Thanks in advance

Edit!!!! I just realised I can set the location to anywhere in the world!!! I'm going to set it around Pakstan where Leo's originate. I'm definitely going to do that now :)