Leopard geckos are the one reptile that genuinely earns its beginner reputation — but the two things people get wrong are both structural, and both kill slowly. They need belly heat rather than air heat, and they need a humid hide. Get those right and the rest of the animal is close to forgiving.
Quick answer
- Size: 7–10 inches. Lifespan: commonly 15–20 years, sometimes longer.
- Heat: a warm surface around 90–92°F at one end, cool end low 70s. They absorb heat through the belly.
- Humid hide: not optional. Most shedding problems trace straight back to its absence.
- Diet: live insects only — no fruit, no prepared powder.
- Housing: one per enclosure. Never two males.
- They are terrestrial and they blink — unusual among geckos, and it changes the setup entirely.
The eyelids are the clue to everything else
Most geckos have a fixed transparent scale over the eye and lick it clean. Leopard geckos are Eublepharidae — the eyelid geckos — and they have true movable lids. They blink.
That single difference tells you what kind of animal this is. Eyelid geckos also lack the adhesive toe pads their arboreal cousins use, so a leopard gecko cannot climb glass and has no interest in trying. It is a ground animal from arid and rocky habitat across Afghanistan, Pakistan and north-west India.
So the enclosure is the opposite of a crested gecko’s. Floor space beats height, a lid is about escape rather than falling, and every furnishing should be low and stable. A tall planted vivarium is wasted on them.
Heat from below, not above
| Element | What works |
|---|---|
| Warm surface | 90–92°F, measured on the floor with a probe or infrared gun — not a stick-on dial |
| Cool end | Low-to-mid 70s°F, giving a real gradient across the floor |
| Heat source | Under-tank heat mat or a radiant panel, always on a thermostat |
| Enclosure | 36×18 inches of floor for an adult; height barely matters |
| Substrate | Paper towel for juveniles; tile, or a firm soil-sand mix for adults |
| Hides | Three: warm, cool, and one humid hide in the middle |
Leopard geckos digest using heat conducted through the belly, which is why a basking bulb alone tends to disappoint — it warms the air and the animal’s back while the floor stays cool. An unregulated heat mat is the other extreme and causes genuine burns. A thermostat is not an accessory here.
The humid hide
A small closed box with damp sphagnum moss or paper towel, sitting over the warm side. That is the whole thing, and it prevents most of the problems new keepers post about.
Retained shed is the classic failure, and it concentrates on the toes and around the eyes. Rings of unshed skin on a toe tighten as the animal grows and can cost it the toe. It is entirely preventable, and the humid hide is the prevention.
Do not solve this by misting the whole enclosure. An arid animal kept persistently damp gets respiratory infections and scale rot — you want one damp pocket in a dry room, not a wet room.
Feeding
Strictly insectivorous. No fruit, no vegetables, and none of the prepared powdered diets that suit crested and gargoyle geckos. Crickets, dubia roaches and black soldier fly larvae are the sensible staples; mealworms and superworms are fine in rotation; waxworms are a treat because they are very fatty.
Dust with calcium plus vitamin D3 at most feedings, and use a multivitamin roughly weekly. Juveniles eat daily, adults every other day. Gut-load the insects for a day or two first — an insect that has eaten nothing is close to an empty shell nutritionally.
The tail is your gauge. A healthy leopard gecko carries a tail roughly as thick as its neck, because that is where it stores fat. A thin, ridged tail means the animal is running on reserves.
One per enclosure
Two males will fight, sometimes fatally. Females are sometimes kept in groups, but even then a size mismatch produces a bullied animal that quietly stops eating — and because they hide by nature, that goes unnoticed longer than it would with a diurnal species.
Weigh them weekly. A gram scale and a note on your phone catch problems weeks before anything is visible, and that habit matters more with a secretive animal than with a showy one.
Buying one
Leopard geckos are among the most thoroughly captive-bred reptiles in the trade, which means there is no reason to accept an animal with no history. Ask what it has been eating, when it last shed, and whether it has ever dropped its tail — a regrown tail is cosmetic, not a defect, but it should be disclosed.
Morph names are breeding lines, not species. The care is identical across every one of them, and a line name only matters if you plan to breed. Our current animals are under leopard geckos for sale, price ranges across the group are in how much do geckos cost, and everything ships under our live arrival guarantee.
If you were also weighing an arboreal species, the contrast is instructive: crested geckos want height, humidity and room temperature, and gargoyle geckos want the same plus real insect protein. Leopard geckos want floor, belly heat and dry air. Same family, opposite rooms. Where they live in the wild is covered in where does the leopard gecko live.
Common questions
Do leopard geckos need a heat lamp?
They need belly heat more than air heat. A thermostat-controlled under-tank mat or radiant panel giving a floor surface of about 90–92°F at one end works better than an overhead bulb alone, because they digest using heat conducted through the abdomen.
Do leopard geckos need UVB?
They can be kept successfully without it if calcium with D3 is supplemented properly, but low-level UVB is increasingly recommended and does no harm alongside a good gradient and plenty of shade.
What do leopard geckos eat?
Live insects only — crickets, dubia roaches and black soldier fly larvae as staples, mealworms and superworms in rotation, waxworms as an occasional treat. They eat no fruit and no prepared powdered diet.
Why does my leopard gecko have stuck shed on its toes?
Almost always a missing or dried-out humid hide. Retained shed rings tighten around toes as the animal grows and can cost it the toe, so provide a damp hide over the warm side rather than misting the whole enclosure.
Can two leopard geckos live together?
Best kept one per enclosure. Two males will fight, and even similarly sized females can produce a bullied animal that stops eating unnoticed. Weigh them weekly if you do house them together.