A screen top for the aquarium is not necessary to prevent your leopard geckos from escaping because they do not have toe pads that would allow them to climb glass, but you may consider purchasing one for other reasons. I strongly recommend you get a screen top if you have cats or small children, as both could be hazardous to the health of your leopard geckos. A fine-mesh screen top may also be important to you to prevent crickets from escaping the aquarium by climbing the strips of silicone in the corners.

Multiple female leopard geckos can be housed together (if approximately the same size), but sexually mature males are territorial and will fight. A male and multiple females can be housed together without problems, but they should not be introduced until they are of a safe breeding size (45 grams for both males and females). If you purchase a young male and female leopard gecko and plan for them to live together in the future, you must raise them to adult size separately. Males grow faster and get larger than females, and a drastic size difference can develop if young males and females are housed together. The larger animal (male) is better able to compete for food, often stealing it away from the smaller animal (female) or terrorizing them away from the food. Additionally, males become sexually mature at a smaller size than females, and will breed with females as soon as they are able to reproduce. I have heard of female leopard geckos as small as 25-30 grams laying eggs, but breeding at this size is often too stressful and can cause health problems, in addition to reducing the female’s lifetime reproductive potential. To put this in human terms, a 13-year-old girl can have kids, but it is just not a good idea!

If you are raising multiple females together in one cage be mindful that sometimes one female grows faster than others, and as discussed above can out compete smaller cage mates for food. If a drastic size difference does develop you should separate the largest animal from the smaller ones.

SHEDDING AND MOIST SHELTER
Leopard geckos shed their skin like all reptiles and amphibians, and leopards shed their entire skin all at once. Frequency of shedding varies, depending on the age and growth rate of the gecko. Babies shed much more often than adults. You will know when your gecko is preparing to shed because its colors will get duller, and then it will turn whitish immediately before the shed. Leopards usually eat their entire skin in the process of shedding. This strategy is important for wild leopard geckos for two reasons. First, they expended the energy to make the skin; they aren’t just going to let it go to waste! Second, bits of lizard skin in an area may tip off predators that they are in a good place to hunt tasty lizards.

Usually the gecko is able to pull the shed off easily, but sometimes they have problems, especially if they do not have the proper humidity during shedding. You should always check your gecko after it has shed to make sure it was able to peel all the skin off. Leopard geckos often have problems with removing skin from their toes. If shed skin is not removed promptly from a toe it will become constricted, and as the lizard grows the toe will become constricted to the point where the shed skin can cut off blood flow to the toe. If this is not caught in time the toe can die and fall off. This is not a big problem, as it usually heals quickly, but I think they are happier with all their toes!

A moist shelter should be provided so your gecko can have access to high humidity when it is shedding. I have found leopards usually prefer the moist hiding place, even when they are not in the process of shedding. The moist shelter can consist of a small plastic container. A plastic cottage cheese container with a hole cut in the side works well, or you could use a Rubbermaid sandwich container with a hole cut in the top. I typically use peat moss as the bedding in the moist shelter, but cypress mulch (Zoo Med Forest Floor Bedding) works equally well. You want to keep the peat moss or cypress mulch moist, but not sopping wet. Below is an example of a 1.8-quart Rubbermaid container that I use for moist shelters and egg-laying boxes for my adult leopard geckos. This is a group of female Rainwater albino hets and a Rainwater albino male. Note: container top was moved for this photo.

If you do find your gecko has some retained skin after shedding, you need to lend a helping hand. Place the gecko in a small plastic container lined with warm, wet paper towels. Put a top on the container and let the gecko sit for 30 minutes. High humidity will develop in the container and this should loosen the skin enough to allow you to remove it easily with a pair of tweezers. If the skin has not loosened enough for it to be removed easily, leave the gecko in the container for another 30 minutes.

CRICKETS vs. MEALWORMS
I have raised many generations of leopard geckos on a primary diet of crickets, but made the switch to mealworms in 2003. I use large regular mealworms (not giant mealworms or superworms), for subadults and adults, and medium size mealworms for babies. I resisted this switch for quite a while, but am now a firm beliver in mealworms. I have been very impressed with the growth and weight gains I have seen since I switched to mealworms.

The ultimate decision for what to feed your geckos is yours. I will discuss the pros and cons of crickets and mealworms below:

CRICKETS

Pros:
1. More active so more stimulating to the geckos.
2. Crickets are nutritionally superior to mealworms, containing more moisture, protein, calcium, and vitamin C than mealworms (information from Grubco).
3. Exoskeleton is thinner, so may be easier to digest.

Cons:
1 . If you buy them in bulk you need to worry about providing food and water for your crickets or they will die.
2 . Uneaten crickets will annoy your gecko, crawling on it or chewing on its toes or tail.
3 . Hungry crickets will often eat gecko feces in the cage, ingesting any parasite eggs or oocysts (stage in the life cycle of coccidia and crytosporidium that is shed in feces; basically an egg). These crickets will now carry these parasite eggs in their stomach, and when the gecko eats these crickets those eggs will hatch inside the gecko, increasing the parasite load in your gecko (see page on lizard health for more about this).
4 . The number of crickets in the cage needs to be limited for the reasons listed above. (#2 and #3), so you need to feed your geckos at least twice a week, if not more often.
5 . They stink!
6 . They get loose.
7. They chirp.

MEALWORMS

Pros:
1. They aren’t very active and can’t climb or jump, so no escapees.
2. If you buy them in bulk you can refrigerate them for weeks until you are ready to use them, so no worries about providing food and water.
3. They are contained in a dish until they are eaten, so they are not annoying the gecko or eating gecko poop and reinfecting the gecko with any parasite eggs.
4. Since they are not annoying your gecko you can leave a constant supply in the cage, which may allow you to only feed once a week if the food dish is large enough.
5. No chirping, yeah!

Cons:
1. You need to provide a feeding dish for the mealworms, so something else to clean and deal with.
2. The exoskeleton may be more difficult to digest.
3. Crickets are nutritionally better.
4. Mealworms will bury into the substrate if they escape from the feeding dish.
5. Mealworms are less active than crickets, so less stimulating as food items.

I use plant saucers for my mealworm dishes, 6 inch size for larger cages, 4 inch size for smaller cages.

It is extremely important to gut load your mealworms before you feed them to the geckos. I allow the mealworms to feed on carrots and/or prickly pear cactus for at least 24 hours before I feed them out. I also put a small amount of Cricket Gut Load ILF (manufactured by T-Rex) in the mealworm dishes. This product is 10% calcium, and it also contains other good stuff like alfalfa meal, bee pollen, spirulina algae, haemotococcus algae, kelp meal, and marigold extract. The mealworms crawl around in the gut load and eat it, and the gecko will consume some in the process of catching the mealworms. A major benefit of providing the gut load in the dish with the mealworms is that they will always be gut loaded, even days after you put them in the dish.

I also recommend providing a small piece of carrot in the mealworm dish, which will provide a moist food for the mealworms. I have found providing the carrot makes the mealworms more active in the dish, crawling around and feeding, which makes them more stimulating to the geckos.

Switching my geckos from crickets to mealworms was not as difficult as I had expected. I found the young leopard geckos adapted to eating mealworms from a dish much faster than adults, but the adults learned eventually when they got really hungry. A piece of carrot in the mealworm dish will help in the process, as it will make the mealworms more active, and thus more interesting to your geckos. It also helps to provide a ramp of some sort up to the edge of the mealworm dish to increase the chance that your geckos will stumble upon the mealworm dish.

Some people say that you should not feed mealworms to your geckos because there is the possibility that the mealworms can eat their way out of the stomach of a gecko. This is absolutely, 100% not true!!! A customer of mine once called me frantically after hearing this old wives tale from an employee at their local pet store. The pet store employee told them they need to pinch off the mealworm’s head before feeding them to their geckos. Not true! This is also a problem because geckos require live prey! I go through 150,000-200,000 mealworms a week, if I had to pinch all those heads it would be a full time job!

WAXWORMS AND PINKIES
Wax worms are very high in fat, and are useful to help a skinny or sick gecko gain weight. They can also be fed as part of the normal diet, but should only be used as an occasional treat rather than a mainstay of the diet. You should think of wax worms as junk food for geckos, or “gecko crack” as I have heard them referred to by other breeders!

Many adult leopard geckos will also eat live pinkies. I feed pinkies to my breeding females; both during the breeding season and after the season to give them additional calories to regain weight they lost from laying eggs. I have found that some females will refuse pinkies before they begin breeding, but once they start laying eggs they will eat as many as they can fit in their stomach (usually two or three).

OTHER FEEDING CONSIDERATIONS
It is difficult to feed your leopard gecko too much, but it is possible for a gecko to become obese if fed on a high fat diet (too many wax worms or pinkies). A healthy, well-fed leopard gecko will store fat in its tail and they can utilize this fat during the breeding season or during hibernation. Mealworms should be provided in a shallow dish at all times. Crickets can be offered daily if you want to spoil your gecko, but a minimum of twice a week.

If feeding crickets you should only feed as many crickets as your gecko can eat in 10-15 minutes. Pre-feeding time is a good time to spot clean your cage, picking out any feces or dead crickets in the cage so these are not eaten by the crickets.

It is important to select the proper prey size for your gecko. Smaller geckos need to be fed smaller prey items than larger geckos. The general rule of thumb for selecting the proper size of crickerts is the cricket should be no longer than the length of the gecko’s head. For hatchling geckos this usually means 3/8-inch crickets (cricket age 2 weeks, maybe 3 weeks old), for juvenile geckos ½-inch crickets (3 weeks old), and subadult geckos can handle smaller adult crickets (male crickets are generally smaller) by the time they are 6 inches long. Note: cricket size varies by sex, but it can also vary greatly depending on your cricket supplier.

VITAMINS
Gut loading is very important. “Gut loading” is defined as filling the gut of prey items with nutritious foods before they are fed to your geckos. Remember the old saying “You are what you eat”; a more nutritious prey item will make for a healthier gecko.

For gut loading crickets I recommend Flukers High Calcium Cricket Diet or T-Rex Cricket Gut Load ILF, and give them pieces of orange or carrot to eat as well. If you are buying one or many dozen crickets from the pet store, put the crickets in a separate container with the cricket gut load and orange slices for at least several hours before you feed them to your geckos. Feed only as many crickets as your gecko can eat at one time, or the crickets will pass the nutritious food and fill their bellies with gecko feces or dead crickets they find in the gecko cage.

See the section on mealworms above for my recommendations on gut loading mealworms.

Vitamins are also very important for your geckos. I (and many, many other breeders) recommend Miner-All vitamin supplement (made by Sticky-Tongue Farms). Miner-All comes in two types, “I” and “O”. “I” is for indoor animals and contains vitamin D3. “O” is for outdoor animals and does not contain vitamin D3. Since leopard geckos are not basking lizards (such as bearded dragons), it is important to use the “I” to provide them with vitamin D3 in their diet.

The typical method of administering vitamins to your geckos (if feeding crickets) is the “shake and bake” method. Put a small amount of the vitamin supplement in a jar, plastic bag, or other small container, place the crickets in the container, and shake until the crickets are covered with white powder. This should be done immediately before you feed your geckos because the crickets will clean themselves and remove the powder. Juvenile leopard geckos require a lot of calcium and vitamins during the growing process, so food items should be coated with vitamin powder at each feeding. Non-breeding adult geckos do not require as much calcium, so supplementation twice a week is sufficient. Egg-laying females require a lot of calcium; so all prey items should be dusted with vitamin powder.

I also provide a shallow dish (jar lid, Gatorade bottle top, etc.) with a small pile of Miner-All “I” vitamin supplement for my geckos at all times, in addition to gut loading. This is very important. Believe it or not, the geckos will literally lap up the vitamin powder from the dish if they need it. I rarely see my geckos eating the vitamin powder from the dishes, and you may never see your gecko eating it, but they will.