Lizard Housing Requirements

Leopard Gecko:

Enclosure - Optimally you are going to want a 30-40 gallon front opening terrarium. This allows you easy access to the animal without having to touch or move hot light housings. Most reptiles prefer to be approached from in front of rather than above as well.

• Exo-Terra® Natural Terrarium Reptile Habitat Front Opener : We highly recommend this enclosure as it is large enough to proved ample space for your Leopard Gecko but not so tall as to complicate lighting.

Lighting - You are going to want strong UVB lighting but not necessarily strong UVA lighting. What that means is you need a light that can reach UVB all the way to the bottom of the terrarium but not necessarily one that is exceptionally bright. Many bright bulbs also emit UVC which can be harmful to the geckos eyes.

• Exo Terra Repti-Glo 10 Compact Tropical Terrarium Lamp : Best when used at around 18" above the bottom of the tank
  
• Exo Terra Repti-Glo 5.0 Compact Tropical Terrarium Lamp : Best when used under 12" to bottom of tank

Heating - Ceramic Heat Emitters are a great wat to provide day/night heat without the light that a basking bulb generates  

• Flukers Heat Mat 20 w - This heat tape style of heat mat last the longest, has the lowest profile and provides more than enough heat to get you started on a 40 gallon glass enclosure.

Themostat - Do not ever place an heating with your reptile without it being controlled by a thermostat or you risk baking or burning your pet.

• BN-LINK Digital Heat Mat Thermostat Controller - A fantastic but basic on/off thermostats and priced much lower than others you may find in a reptile or pet store.
• Wifi Temperature Controller, Wteske Smart Reptile Thermostat with Heating and Cooling - When you want something a little more modern for just a little more money, this on/off thermostat allows Wifi connection, can connect via your phone, can alert you if temps hit a threshold, has 7 days of logging, compatible with google home and alexa.
• Hagen Exo Terra Electronic Day/Night Dimmable Pulse Thermostat (600 Watt) - More expensive but offers dimmable thermostatic control which is much more accurate at maintaining an exact temperature than the less expensive on/off controllers.
  

Timer - Having a consistent light cycle actually benefits your reptiles health both by ensuring a consistent 12hr UVB period and a consistent 12hr rest period.

• Basic Light Timer - Any basic 120v timer that has a 3 prong switched outlet and provides a 12hr on/off cycle will work

Substrate - Context is everything when it comes to reptiles and this couldn’t be truer than when it comes to substrates. While leopard geckos live in the desert, it’s not the desert you may be thinking of.  Instead of vast expanses of sand dunes and empty land, they are most often found in grassy areas where there may be seasonal water or green brush.  While it is a noble idea to try and replicate a leopard gecko’s natural substrate of rock, grasses, clay, gravel and sand, it comes at the cost of habitat cleanliness especially where fecal matter and urate is concerned as their waste can easily saturate and contaminate these substrates. The context that is missing is habitat size.

In the wild, leopard geckos have a range of many miles so their fecal and urate is spread out over a large distance, they rarely come back into contact with it and so it does not pose a threat to their health. In captivity, a 40-50 gallon enclosure may provide less than 4 square feet of habitat which results in your leopard gecko coming in constant contact with their waste which can be detrimental to their long term health. This would mean replacing all their natural substrate every week which is not cost effective, but rather completely unrealistic.

As responsible keepers we need to compromise their natural substrate with a habitat that we can clean and sanitize regularly.

• The best choice for this, but also the most difficult and costly, is to go bioactive. This semi moist soil/sand substrate provides arthropods and springtails and place to flourish where they will naturally digest and clean up your leopard geckos waste. Bioactive setups still need to be replace but only about once a year. It’s a difficult balancing act though as you need to keep the soil just moist enough to support bug life but not so moist as to present health complications to your leopard gecko as they are a semi-arid reptile. Let it get too dry and you kill the bio active.

• The next best substrate is large ceramic tiles. This provides a natural and eye pleasing rock like surface that is easy to clean regularly and does not absorb waste.  You will need to provide a humid hide with something like sphagnum moss and mist it regularly. You will find you leopard gecko will like to dig in it as well.

• While not as pleasing to the eye, paper lined floors are the third easiest yet least eye pleasing to implement. It absorbs urate and is easy to remove and replace regularly.

Hide- We are flexible when it comes to the hide as long as it is safe for the lizard and large enough for them to hide inside completely. Be careful when using fish decorations as hides as they may have sharp edges or passages the lizard can get up and into where they can get stuck.

• Thrive Wood hide Reptile Decor We prefer the non-wood arched hides like these as they are easier to sanitize. 

Water Bowl- We are flexible when it comes to the water bowl as long as it is safe and large enough for your lizard to soak in but shallow enough they cant drown.

• ZooMed Reptirock Reptile Dish We love corner bowls, the take up less room and come in all kinds of sizes. Its best to see these in person prior to buying to make sure they are the right size.