These cute little creatures are the darlings of the lizard world, with their smiling faces and big, bright eyes. A leopard gecko is a perfect place to start with reptiles. These little guys are easy to set up, easy to feed, and only require a heat mat for warmth.
With a diet limited to bugs, you only need to keep a container of mealworms and some quality calcium powder in the fridge for them. You can easily keep a leopard gecko in a 20-gallon long tank for the entirety of its life. They will need two hides; one on the cool side of their tank, and one on the warm side. Also include a humid hide in the middle or on the cool side to help them get pesky skin off when they are shedding.
One of the biggest beginner misconceptions about leopard geckos is that they need a heat lamp to thrive. This is absolutely not true, as these are nocturnal geckos and don’t benefit from heat lamps. For this reason, we highly recommend a good quality heat pad to give your gecko “belly heat”, or heat to help them digest their food properly.
One more time for those of you in the back; don’t give your leopard gecko a heat lamp without also having belly heat available. This is a huge mistake I see beginners make, and their reptile’s health likely suffers because of it.