How long does a gecko live

Watch our video on how to care for your leopard gecko below, and download our leopard gecko care sheet for even more tips. A leopard gecko can grow to around 15 to 25 centimetres and live for 10 to 20 years in captivity, so owning one is a big commitment. They prefer to live alone but can become used to being handled if done so carefully.

A healthy gecko has clear, bright eyes and a thick tail. Its belly should only touch the floor when resting. Read more about handling geckos and monitoring their health in our leopard gecko care sheet.

Your leopard gecko will quickly outgrow a reptile starter kit, so when you're buying new equipment it's better to get a large enclosure from the start. There are a few essential things your leopard gecko vivarium will need:. Leopard geckos use their environment to regulate their body temperature.

That's why it's important to provide a 'thermogradient', with a heat lamp at one end and a cooler area at the other. Use thermostats to regulate the temperatures. You'll also need to remember:. To mimic your leopard gecko's natural environment, you'll need to provide hiding places and low, sturdy branches or rocks for climbing.

However, with a watchful eye and steady needs provided, your pet could live up to this year mark. Speaking of humidity, check out our tips for lowering humidity in a leopard geck tank. Feed leopard gecko two insects the size of the distance between their eyes for every inch they are long every other day.

They hide quickly, stress out easily, and even drop their tails off if they feel genuinely threatened. Learn more about how leopard geckos regrow tails. Get your pet used to you and be handled by taming your leopard gecko ; click the link for our guide. While it is very common for a female leopard gecko to lay eggs without mating, it is possible to increase her lifespan by not breeding her. When the female leo is gravid, you will need to provide her with additional calcium supplements and food to ensure she stays healthy.

By not breeding your female leopard gecko, you lower her risk of dystocia along with several other health issues. Unfortunately, euthanasia is often suggested for advanced cases. Geckos with severe shedding problems, especially on the skin around their eyes, can develop infections that progress to more severe health issues such as secondary infections. Most of the health issues that affect captive reptiles stem from poor husbandry.

Parasitic, fungal, and bacterial infections stem from dirty enclosures. These infections give rise to a lot of health issues such as respiratory, intestinal, and reproductive system infections. The best prevention is daily spot cleaning which is quite easy for Leopard geckos since they tend to use just one area of the tank for defecating. A bi-weekly or monthly deep cleaning should also be done to ensure cleanliness.

This way you can thoroughly clean everything. For example, having an extra reptile carpet will make cleaning day faster since you can quickly replace it in the enclosure while the other one is cleaned and dried.

A minimum of 20 gallons is required for Leopard geckos, furnished with multiple hides. An aquarium is a good enclosure but screened cages work best to ensure good ventilation. A moist hide will also help ensure the correct humidity and aid in shedding.

Make sure you have an accurate hygrometer to monitor the humidity. Leopard geckos do not bask like other reptiles but instead, get heat ventrally by laying on top of rocks heated up by the sun.

But providing UVB lighting helps ward off metabolic bone disease. The health benefits of UVB lighting for Leopard geckos were confirmed in a recent study on vitamin D3 synthesis in Leopard geckos. Multiple hides in their enclosure will help mimic their natural conditions and provide shaded areas for hiding and cooling down.

They get most of their hydration from their food. However, providing fresh water in a shallow water dish daily can also help hydrate them. Calcium, vitamin D3, and multivitamins should be given to juveniles daily and every other day for adults. Sometimes Leopard geckos are observed to eat calcium carbonate powder from a dish left in their enclosures.

Leopard geckos can suffer from shedding issues when skin dries around the limbs or toes, shrinks, and constricts blood flow leading to necrosis. This happens when the skin is too dehydrated during shedding and is similar to tail rot in beardies. A warm soak during shedding season can help ease out the skin fragments.

These are naturally solitary animals so they are usually best left alone. Handling them incorrectly, especially on their tails, can lead to stress and tail autotomy. Leopard geckos can drop their tails when threatened which uses up a lot of their energy. Recovery from dropped tails is also quite long.