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The first thing and most important factor you should look at in buying a leopard gecko is health. The age and weight are all very important in choosing a healthy gecko. Also look and see if your gecko is missing any toes due to malnutrition and its mouth for visible signs of mouth rot. If the gecko has a regenerated tail, it should not be a problem as long as the re-grown tail is nice and fat. There are over a dozen morphs to choose from so you can pick to your liking. Keep in mind that you should never put in more then one male in any enclosure so if you don’t have room for another male, don’t think about buying it unless you make more space.

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Housing is very important for a gecko’s health. The first thing you should consider is choosing the right enclosure. The proper ratio for space to number of geckos is 1.5 square ft. of surface area for every adult gecko, so if you have 3 adult geckos, you would need 4.5 square ft. of surface area. Keep in mind that surface area is much more important then height so if you have the option of buying a 20 gallon long vs. a 20 gallon high, always go for whatever has more surface area, height is not that important. In the wild, geckos live in solitude so it is necessary that you give geckos enough of their own personal space. Overcrowding may lead to stress and may affect your gecko’s behavior with symptoms such as refusal to eat, violent behaviors toward other geckos, and darkening in pattern. You must leave only one male in every enclosure because 2 males will kill each other. As long as you provide enough space, you can house as many females as you would like in the same enclosure. Never house a leopard gecko with reptiles of a different species, the only gecko compatible with a leopard gecko is an African fat-tail gecko. Sub adults should be housed individually if you want the most growth out of the gecko. Un-sexable juveniles could be housed together as long as you provide more then enough food for every gecko. The next part is substrate, which is very important since most substrates available on the market may cause impaction.

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Pros
Paper towels: Easy to maintain, safe for leos
Calci Sand: Aesthetically pleasing
Wood Chips: Aesthetically pleasing
Slate: Aesthetically pleasing, will not impact
Soil: Aesthetically pleasing, will not impact

Cons
Paper towels: Not very aesthetically pleasing
Calci Sand: Does not Digest, may cause impaction
Wood Chips: Will cause impaction
Slate: Heavy, may crush leos
Soil: Hard to maintain

All in all, I think paper towels are the best substrate to use. I would not trust sand and certainly not woodchips just because they do not dissolve and must cause some sort of abrasions in the intestines if swallowed. Once you’ve chosen the right substrate the next part is hiding spots and humid huts.
You should always keep around 1 or 2 hiding huts for every gecko in the enclosure; this will eliminate stress which is known in the gecko world as the “silent killer”. Since geckos are nocturnal animals, they like dark spots to hide during the day, just keep in mind, the darker the better. You should have at least 1 humid hut for every enclosure; these provide humidity for when a gecko is shedding and when a gecko is laying eggs. A humid hut can be filled with moist potting soil; peat moss or vermiculite, there should be only one entrance/exit which should be on the top of a container so that none of the soil or vermiculite falls out. You must add water to the humid hut every week since water evaporates. If you are using vermiculite and you see shiny golden logs of poop in your enclosure, replace the vermiculite with soil or peat moss immediately. The humid hut is usually placed in the warmer side of the enclosure which brings us to the next part of housing….. Heating

There are many methods for heating an enclosure. It is important to heat an enclosure because heat aids digestion and provides energy since geckos are cold-blooded. The most common method of heating would be under tank heaters(UTH). If possible you should let your temperatures fluctuate from one end of the enclosure to the other so your gecko can choose whether it wants to be hot or cold. This can be achieved by ceramic heaters or heat bulbs. Other fancy methods of heating are the use of thermostats in which you can manually set the desired temperature for a gecko. A good temperature for a gecko's enclosure would range from low 80’s to high 90’s (Fahrenheit).

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Feeding

Feeding is fundamental in a gecko’s health (duh). You should always provide fresh water for your geckos at all times. Geckos will eat anything smaller then their heads given that it moves. You should never try to feed gecko wild-caught feeders because insects in the wild may have diseases that may harm your leos. Crickets, mealworms, waxworms, and pinkie mice are all types of live food a gecko will eat. Crickets and mealworms are fed on a regular. It is important that you gut load your crickets and mealworms so whatever the crickets/mealworms eats, the gecko eats as well. Choosing a gut load is simple; just find a cereal that is high in vitamins and it would provide a great gut load. When feeding mealworms/crickets, you should always dust them with vitamins and alternate with calcium. Some well known powders on the market are Herptivite and Reptivite. In my experience, mealworms have been the best form of live feeders because it is the easiest way to keep account of what a gecko eats. In order to feed mealworms, get a small glazed dish and put some calcium or vitamin powder in it, then add 1 dozen mealworms for every gecko in the enclosure. When it’s empty, just refill it. It’s the simplest method. Waxworms and pinkies are treats for geckos and should not be fed to geckos more then twice a month.

Breeding

Breeding is the most exciting part of gecko care. Once you have a pair of full grown adults (55 grams and up), geckos are ready to breed. What you will need is an incubator, (either make one manually or buy a hovabator) a humid hut, (sterile vermiculite, peat moss, soil, or perlite), Deli cups, tape, a thermometer/hydrometer and a watchful eye. Geckos only breed when the environment is right, in the wild they breed in the beginning of spring so if you can trick them into thinking that it is spring, geckos will breed. This can be achieved by controlling the temperature and lighting. When the temperature of the gecko’s enclosure reaches around 85 degrees and there is light around 12 hours a day, a gecko will think its spring and will try to mate. Breeding in geckos is not a pleasant thing to watch, especially if you have an aggressive male. The male will start vibrating his tail and bite the female into submission. Eventually, he will bite her on her neck to get a grip of her and put his underside under hers. It’s a pretty quick process, and once their done, the female should lay eggs in around 2-3 weeks. Females retain sperm so there is no need to put the male and female together after mating. A female may lay 2 to 8 clutches in a season; every clutch will consist of 1 or 2 eggs. During pregnancy it is important that you setup your incubator. First you will need to setup your egg containers. Get a deli cup (without holes, if it has holes then tape it up), fill it up with vermiculite and pour water in it till you can’t pour any water anymore. Then drain the vermiculite using your hands by flipping the container upside down and preventing the vermiculite from falling but letting the water pour out. Do this until you can’t really get much more water to fall out. Then cover the egg container with its lid and put the container in the incubator(you must do this at least a week in advance). You can also use perlite as a substrate for incubation. Geckos are temperature sexed so you can choose what sex you want your babies to be. 80-84 generally gets you all females, 85 is a mix of both, and 86-89 will get you males. Set the temperature according to your thermometer when a female is egg bound, you can see an outline of the eggs in her belly. When ready to lay, she will roam around her enclosure looking for a sufficient place for her to lay eggs, if you humid hut is setup right, she will lay her eggs in there. You can tell when a female has laid her eggs; usually you will see all of the humid hide substrate pushed to one end of the hut. The next step is removing the eggs from the humid hut and placing them into your incubator. You should gently sift through the mound of substrate and search for the eggs. Once you spot the eggs get the egg container out of your incubator and gently take out the eggs from the humid hide and place them in the container. It is important that you do not rotate or flip the egg in any direction because the embryo attaches itself to the top of the egg and rotation may drown an embryo. You should bury them halfway. You must open each container once a week to let oxygen in. Now all you have to do is wait, females usually take around 55 to 70 days to hatch, while males take around 40 to 55 days.

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