Spotted Leopard Gecko

Question
QUESTION: My husband brought home a little spotted leopard gecko the other day. I believe it is a baby because it is only about three inches long. The  terrarium we put him in is 5 gallons. He also got a black light that has UV in it and we have kept in on 24 hours a day. I'm not sure we should do that. He put a blue sand in the bottom of the tank, it's suppose to have calcium in it. My husband also bought a container of gecko food. We have 2 dishes one is for water one for food. I know to change the water every day. Should we use cold, warm or bottled water? We also have a hollow rock like thing that has holes in it for him to hide. Does he need sticks to climb on? I was not with my husband when he bought this little guy so I'm not sure how to take care of it. It is certainly cute and I don't want him to die. So basically I guess my questions are how to take care of it? What exactly do I need and are we doing anything right? I also need to know about this wet spot they need. HELP!

ANSWER: Hello Kathy,

No, he should not have a UVB light on for 24 hours.  Is it a flourescent tube or a compact or coil light?  
The light should be on for only 10-12 hours, & only a low output UVB, & you can use a low light for nighttime, but leave the undertank heater on 24/7.    
Do you use an undertank heater?  They need belly heat, so I recommend getting an undertank heater & use that on one end along with a basking light to create a hot spot of or around 88-90.  
Also, unfortunately, the blue calcisand is not digestible & will cause impaction if ingested.  It clumps like cement & wont be able to be passed, especially for a gecko of that small size.  
The best substrate you can use for him is paper towels,non adhesive shelf liner, or felt.  
The best way to measure the temps are with a temp gun or a digital probe.  The stick on thermometers are not good for measuring basking temps.
You will also need to maintain a humid hide/cave all of the time, to help aid with shedding.  You can easily maintain a humid hide if you put the hide/cave on top of the undertank heater to help with humidity.  Just get some spaghnum moss to put into the hide/cave & moisten it daily.
They like to climb some, so, having a few little branches or limbs or a couple of large rocks would be nice for him.  The hollow rock that you have is fine, so you shouldn't need much more than that.  
A tiny dish of calcium is always a good thing to have in there too so if he needs calcium he can lick that.
Just use room temperature water that is fine.  
What do you plan on feeding him, mealworms & small crickets, or phoenix worms are all appropriate for him.

Tracie

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Tracie, thank you for the fast reply. After checking around on line yesterday and gathering information, We all went out and changed a few things for our Speckles. We bought a 10 gallon tank, got rid of the sand and replaced it with an artificial grass like carpet. We bought some calcium powder to shake over the crickets in the bag before giving them to Speckles. The light bulb we are using is a Night Glo moonlight which is 50W and it is a spot light. We keep it on 24/7, but have been told by one pet shop owner that we can turn it off at night. We do not have a undertank heater. The food we are giving him is a special food made for leopard Gecko's. It comes in a container like fish food does. It has vitamins added in and is made with flies of some kind. We also give speckles crickets. He ate 8 of them in about 10 minutes yesterday. We coated the crickets with calcium powder before giving them to speckles. We also plan on getting a few tree branches and adding them to the tank so he can have something to clime on.
So I have a few questions,
How many Crickets should we give Speckles and how often?
Is The moonlight ok? and should we leave it on 24/7?
Do we need a undertank heater? None of the stores we went to used them, they used the moonlight spot light that we have.
How important is it to have a wet spot? The one man says he does not do that and he has his own gecko's at home.
I just want to make sure everything we are doing for our Speckles is correct. We are all falling in love with the little guy and he is already part of the family.
Thanks again, Kathy Young

Answer
Hello Kathy,
Oh, that is great, the carpet is perfectly fine no problem.
You will need to get an undertank heater.  They need belly heat to digest their food better since they are not high heat seeking creatures.  
The night glo moonlight lamp is fine, & yes you can turn the light off during the night so that is another reason why it is important to have the undertank heater so he will have warmth at night.
The humid hide is very important for shedding & membrane moisture.  They have a tendency to have shedding isses with too low of humidity.  It really does help alot.  
Good, the calcium coating the crickets, is the easiest way to get the calcium into him.  You can feed the crickets to him daily.  The number is hard to determine, but, let him eat as many as he wants, but for his size, I would think at least 8-10 small ones  
Don't worry, alot of pet stores do not do alot of things for reptiles correctly.  That is why so many new owners seem to have so many problems when they are first getting started with their new reptiles....bad advice.  
I am happy o hear you have a 10 gallon, that will give him more room.  The leopard gecko food he should like also.  You can leave some of that in there with him to see if he likes it.  Remember not to leave any crickets at all in with him in the tank overnight.  They can bite him.

I am glad to hear you are enjoying him, they are very sweet.

Tracie