Leopard Geckos!

[LaLaLeyla]

I might possibly get a baby leopard gecko for my birthday in April! I just have a few questions. Whats the best way to go about heating a tank? Last time I had a leopard gecko our power went out and he ended up freezing to death. I was devastated. :(

[finnfinnfriend]

What I do is I have a under tank heater under one side of the tank, hooked up to a thermostat, and since my house is cold, I have night lamp over the tank 24/7 to warm up the air in there. I don't know how your last one froze to death, unless your house was doesn't have heat and it was like, snowing...My power has gone out and my leo was fine

[LaLaLeyla]

It was really cold in our house, like freezing. Im not sure if that's the whole reason he died. That was a few years ago(like 4-5) and he was my first gecko. I'm sure there were some things we didn't do right. :/

[MattsBettas]

I love my Leo! To heat it, I use a heat pad on half the tank. (Make sure half is not heated and half is, so they can adjust their temperature.) I use sand as a substrate (fine grain), as it acts as a heat holder so even if the power goes out the sand is warm. If a long power outage ever happened, I would probably throw a blanket on top of her tank and keep her close to my body.

[LaLaLeyla]

I heard sand is bad for geckos because of impaction?

[finnfinnfriend]

Personally I would use reptile carpet or paper towels. I used to use paper towels but I swithed over to reptile carpet because i felt like I was wasting a lot of paper and I am actually very pleased with it...And so is my gecko lol

[MattsBettas]

It's pretty controversial, but mine has been on sand for twelve years without issue. Use a fine enough grain and they will be fine.

[LaLaLeyla]

Ahh okay! I might lean toward sand or paper towels/nespaper

[finnfinnfriend]

Originally Posted by LaLaLeyla

Ahh okay! I might lean toward sand or paper towels/nespaper

It's really just a matter of preference between those two. My ex has had his leo for over 10 years also and she is on sand...If you are getting a baby though, I would say put it on reptile carpet or paper towels at first, and then switch to sand later if you'd like. Having a feeding dish for meal worms helps to eliminate impaction risk...

[MattsBettas]

Yes... Babies must not be on sand.