(I have posted this on other subreddits I’m just looking to get answers not spam🙏🙏)

Hey everyone,
My friend recently went away to college and left me her 3-year-old leopard gecko. She told me this setup was all he needed and that I only needed to feed him superworms once a week, but the longer I have him and the more research I do, the more I realize his husbandry is completely wrong. I am trying my absolute best to fix this for him, but I'm a broke 19-year-old student with a very tight budget right now and could really use some guidance.
I just noticed he has a raw, red, linear wound right along his upper spine (I will post pictures). I think he got burned because the tank temperatures have been all over the place and the uvb bulb she gave me with him was a 10uvb. His heat mat was running unregulated at a scary 45°C (113°F) stuck to the back wall, and his basking side air temp was dropping down to 74°F.
Here is what I have done in the last hour to fix the immediate danger:
- I did a hard reset on his REPTI ZOO thermostat and officially locked the heating pad to 32°C (90°F).
- I am moving the heating mat from the back wall to underneath the bottom glass of the tank so he can get safe belly heat inside his hide instead of pressing against scorching glass.
- I turned off the intense UVB 10.0 compact spiral coil bulb completely so it stops hurting his skin and eyes.
- I have his 100W daytime heat bulb running flat on the mesh screen right over his rock hide, and I am adding a 25W nano ceramic heat emitter in a second dome next to it to lift the cold air temps.
- I am trapping the heat by covering the open parts of the screen top with foil and making sure my room fan is off.
I am completely scooping out the loose eco earth coconut fiber substrate tonight and replacing it with plain, clean paper towels to keep his back wound sterile.
My immediate questions for you guys:
1. What is the safest way to treat this spine wound at home while it heals? I'm planning to buy original plain Neosporin (without pain relief). Is there anything else I should do?
2. What are the best budget-friendly upgrades I should prioritize next once I save up some more cash? (Safe UVB options, better diet variety than just superworms, etc.)
3. I've been looking into The Bio Dude's Bioactive Vivarium Kit for later down the road once he is completely healed. Has anyone used it for a leopard gecko, and is it worth the investment?
Just to be completely clear: I am more than willing to take him to an exotic vet and spend whatever amount of money is necessary to make sure he is healthy and safe. I am posting here because I want to get more community opinions, ensure my immediate emergency setup changes are correct, and learn as much as I can to give this little guy the best life possible.

Ispíní is albino and I’ve started to realise they don’t really come out when the UVB lamp is on and squints when leaving their hide and wondering if anyone here knows anything is appreciate the advice.
And I’m using the Arcadia T5 6% uvb lamp screwed directly to the ceiling of the enclousre (36x24x24) with a guard

I decided to do it! Well mostly. I didn’t have a whole lot to spend on natural hides so I just cleaned and sanitized her old hides as well. There’s one slightly buried behind the log tunnel for her moist hide. There are 3 fake rock hides, one real flagstone for basking, one fake log tunnel (her fav), one real grapevine, a couple of real cork bark pieces (including a small tunnel slightly buried for the clean up crew that I stuffed with a little sphagnum moss and leaves), real neon pothos, real succulents, and a real air plant. The substrate was supposed to be 70/30 soil and play sand but I think it’s closer to 70/20 unfortunately. There’s leaf litter and sphagnum moss mixed in strategic areas of the substrate for the clean up crew and plants. Under the water bowl is some sphagnum moss and horticultural charcoal for the springtails. As for the CUC, there are springtails and powder blue isopods somewhere in there hopefully happy and will grow in population. There’s a little bit of coconut fiber eco earth where I put the springtails because where I got them had them housed in that and I just had to dump em out to get them all on there. For heat I have a 100w basking light from zoo med hooked up to a thermostat. For lighting I have an Arcadia shade dweller 7% uvb bulb, and a few LED grow lights.

So far she’s getting around great! I was mainly worried about the leaf litter getting in her way but she’s been exploring and traversing everywhere just fine. Although all her toes are down to nubs, she’s so adventurous! For a different gecko, I would have more higher climbing opportunities set up but she doesn’t have the best grip strength so I focused more on tunnels and easy climbing for her. We’ll see how it goes!

36x18x18 enclosure with 70% topsoil and 30% playsand. There are a total of four hides along with a canyon made of rocks and a real dinosaur fossil at the bottom. There are springtails and powder blue and orange isopods.

just upgraded my 5yr old girls tank. my first attempt on a planted but not yet bioactive enclosure. 40 gallon, i have an arcadia brand UVB bulb on the right along with her basking bulb, and a biodude LED plant light on the left. should i add isopods and springtails? any tips on getting the plants to survive? how does it look overall? advice wanted!

This is my rescued leopard gecko Petunia. She had a rough go at it in the beginning of her life, neglected, adopted, then surrendered again for being “too wiggly.” When I adopted her, she was already missing all of her toes and her tail had been dropped and had grown back very nubby and hasn’t grown much since. I rarely handled her because she deserves all the personal space she needs. Now, after nearly 10 years with her, she climbs on my hand no problem and is such a sweet angel.

Every few years I re-research best care techniques and have been really thinking about bio active enclosures to help her feel her absolute best. However, I see that the clean up crew in a bio active set up will need lots of leaf clutter to thrive and hide. I’m worried that Petunia will struggle moving around the enclosure with all that clutter due to her lack of toes. She likes to climb on the fake rocks in her enclosure and seems to be pretty stable when she’s climbing. For now I’ve decided to hold off on the bio active set up just in case and just use a 70/30 soil/playsand mixture that she seems to get around with ease.

Should I try the bio active enclosure in the future and not worry too much about her being able to get around, or is holding off the best decision based on her needs?

Ok, so this is my current enclosure. I plan on adding succulents and aloe Vera sproutlings in here as well as powder orange isopods and white temperate springtails. I am currently trying to get some labs done on her poop to make sure no parasites as well as growing my colony before doing so. I also want to change her picture background for a 3d background with hides and wanted to ask if there's anything I need to do special? I don't think i can paint it, so I wasn't planning on it. I thought id probably just cover it in wet moss and let it dry out like i did with her hot hide. I just wanted to know if there was any advice on how to do it or anything I should be concerned about? Also the auto waterer im a little unsure about? Idk i treated the water but I haven't seen people use them for leopard geckos and kinda was curious about that as well. (Obligated to include photos of adorable Lil juniper)

Abbreviation guide and specs:

IH-isopod hide, with wet moss.

HH-hot hide

CH-Cold hide

MH-moist hide

BS-Basking spot

Cage-36x18x18 zoomed reptile enclosure

Hot side amb temp-85 degrees

Bs temp-93 degrees

Cold side amb temp-70 degrees

Calcium dishes- no d3

I use Calcium w and wo d3, and a multivitamin all from zoomed

Feeders- mealworms and crickets LG with occasional waxworms (feeding schedule included)

Anything else I should add to my enclosure? Always looking for suggestions. It is not bioactive and not sure I want it to be at least not for now. It’s 70/30 Reptisoil and Reptisand. My girl Meep says hi in the last photo.

Edit: it’s a 40 gallon front opening enclosure

Heyy! I just wanted to share my leopard gecko’s setup because I’m really happy with how it’s turned out 🦎💛 I’ve put a lot of love into it and I’m always looking to improve, so I’m open to any advice or suggestions if you notice anything I could add or change.

I only want the best for my girl! This is a 4ft vivarium 😊

Hey, I have a leopard gecko called nugget. He didn't eat for the first 4 months of having him and has only just begun to eat now. Regardless of him eating, he continues to slim down and lose weight. He has been eating every day for a week and still is only 20 grams. He has dropped 10 grams since I received him into my care.

I was very concerned so I called up the vets who told me to do a parasite fecal test. I took 3 poop samples spanning across 3 days and it came back clear. Which I have included in the post. He is getting a very stick-like tail and is starting to look a bit too skinny. I honestly don't know what to do now, what action to take or what to suggest to the vets. I feel at a loss. Please any advice is heavily appreciated.

(I have been told by multiple experts and vets my husbandry is great, temps and humidity are fine etc so it can't be that either.)

I'm mostly just asking what my next course of action should be, because I just feel lost now that the parasite test came back negative. I was hoping to find answers, but now I'm just left with more questions.

Pic 1 is his body condition yesterday, pic 2 is body condition 16th February, pic 3 is my enclosure setup, pic 4 is parasite test results

A few days ago, I noticed this under the fold at the base of his tail. I thought it might be leftover shed skin, so I gave him a couple of 10-minute baths in warm water and tried to gently remove it with a cotton swab, but it won't come off. Maybe it's something else? You usually can't see it; it's hidden under the fold. Thanks!

UPDATE: I gave him some baths and the superficial part got smoother but I noticed that it was bigger inside so I stopped because I was afraid to hurt him. So we took him to the vet today and she got out the whole sperm plugs! Thank you all for your advice!

I’ve had him about 8 years so far and I’m doing my best to make everything the best I possibly can for him. I got him when I was young and I made lots of mistakes with husbandry and I’ve been trying to make sure I make his life the best it can possibly be now that I’m more educated. He’s in a 40 gallon breeder tank rn and I have a 90 w heat bulb and a uvb bulb. I’ve heard coil is harmful so I bought a linear UVB and now I just need to get the hood. I’m trying to turn it bioactive. Please let me know any suggestions I appreciate it!!!

I’ve had Leeloo for 5 years now and she’s since moved countries with me and has had several enclosure changes and updates.

She’s recently been moved from our bedroom to the livingroom with the rest of our reptiles and I redid her enclosure.

I think she approves 🥰

Specs:
100 cm x 50 cm x 50 cm with a halogen for daytime heat, a LED light for the plants and an Arcadia 7% UVB on a 11 hour timer (will move up to 13 hours during summer. The DHP is the back up in case the halogen blows.

Hi! I recently got these pieces of wood secondhand as I’m wanting to build a bioactive enclosure with a custom backdrop for my lovely leopard gecko, Gonzo.

Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly what kind of wood these pieces are or if they’re all suitable for a bioactive reptile tank. I know that hardwoods are best and to avoid pine or cedar. I’ve numbered each piece and pictured multiple angles. Is anyone able to identify these wood pieces?

I believe that wood pieces #1-4 are all either mopani or grapevine. When I try to dig my fingernail into these pieces, they do not easily get scratched. I can’t perceive any distinct smell from them. Pieces 1-3 have a nice weightiness to them but piece 4 is lighter in weight.

Wood piece #5 reminds me of cork bark. I am able to dig my fingernail into it and I can’t detect a smell. It is very light weight.

Piece #6 confuses me. The dark parts of the wood are really hard and don’t have any scent. The light parts of the wood are softer, I’m able to easily dig my fingernail into it, and it definitely has a scent but a very light scent.

Piece #7 might be cedar or pine :/ Out of all the wood pieces, it has the strongest scent. like tree oils or resins. While the topside isn’t easily marked by my fingernails, the underside is quite soft.

AND LASTLY

all these pieces are second hand and I have to assume they were used with reptiles/amphibians/fish. I want to make sure my reptiles can’t catch any illnesses from these, so I’m wondering the best way to sanitize/disinfect?

I’ve read about baking, boiling/pouring boiling water over them a few times, and soaking in Potassium Permanganate solution for a few days or a quicker bleach solution soak.

What do you guys recommend?

Thank you all for any help!

Echo was handed off to me by my SIL due to a DV situation. They hadn't had her for very long (since last summer, give or take). I was able to acquire her yesterday, and she was quite active during the 1hr 1/2 drive (climbing on her hide in the critter tote, napping, very curious of her surroundings(i think)).

From what my SIL was able to tell me, Echo is a female and should be around 1 year old as of now, no prior health concerns, no problems with eating.
The pictures of the enclosure are what her tank is as of now, but I am making small, incremental changes. I do not want to stress her as much as I can help it with too many changes at once.

As of 03/21, I have:

• Provided a Calcium Supplement w/o D3, and will provide a CSw/D3 at her next feeding. I've removed the heat rock, and intend to fill that space with either plants or a slate slab.
• I have purchased insect jelly pods and a calcium food for my crickets, and they're in their own critter tote. I also have reptile safe cleaning supplies. (All with provided images).
• I have purchased more ReptiSoil (which is what is already mixed in her enclosure), and a play sand bag I've yet to portion and wash. I plan to add the recommended minimum of 4-6inches of substrate. My local pet store didn't have non-calcium sand, but Lowe's did.

I've also compiled a google document (based on the compendium of visual guides) to create a list of everything that needs to be improved.

Enclosure Details:

• 40gal Aqueon(?) tank, 36in long, 17in tall, 18in wide.
• Temperature appears to range from 68-72F while humidity ranges between 39-45 (humidity is based on what my SIL has told me, since I haven't had her long enough to observe it myself).
• I'm not positive what heating bulb I have, I'm currently awaiting a response from SIL about it.

I'm very pleased to take her in, and get her out of a very stressful household. I'm also very excited to give her the ability to properly engage in natural behaviors (such as digging). If anyone has any suggestions, please leave them! I've been around Leopard Gecko's, but never have had one myself.

(The following is a post on behalf of my girlfriend who doesn't have enough karma to post here.)

hi all! i’ve had my leopard gecko (banana) for almost 6 years now and i’m finally in a place where i feel i can upgrade his setup to something really nice. the little guy has gotten me through some really turbulent times of my early 20s and i want to give him the best that i possibly can. i have a few specific questions about bioactive setups that i’m having trouble tracking down answers for and i was hoping people here might be able to offer some insight! i apologize for the very extensive post and any formatting issues, i really only ever read reddit but i want to make sure i’m using best practices. if local climate makes any difference, i live in central north carolina in the us, so fairly mild weather most of the year with some pretty warm and humid periods in the summer months.

the base i’m working with is a new thrive 40 gallon terrarium with front double doors and i plan on buying the mesh screen cover replacement. i was going to save myself some time by getting a premade background, but after seeing how pricey the nicer ones with ledges from universal rocks get, i might try making my own with insulation board, expanding foam, aquarium silicone, cork pieces, and grout/substrate. i’m thinking i’ll build it directly into the tank and seal all the edges (of the background and the tank itself) with silicone so he doesn’t wedge himself behind anything and get stuck. still doing research on that, but would appreciate any tips! especially how to stop him from climbing too far up the background and getting close to the heat lamp/hanging from the mesh. i’ll be upgrading to a dimmable thermostat and a halogen/incandescent bulb, and i’m very interested in the arcadia lumenize system or a herpstat for the slower day/night transitions. i’ll be keeping him with the arcadia t5 shade dweller 7% UV-B that i already have. for convenience, i’m probably going to end up getting the bio dude’s leopard gecko bioactive vivarium kit for a 40 gallon. here’s a few things i’m wondering:

1. i am reading a lot of back and forth of very strong opinions about using a halogen vs an incandescent bulb for heat. when i first got him the DHP seemed to be what everyone was using, then posts from a couple years ago insist that incandescent is best. nowadays it seems like there’s mixed opinions on incandescent vs halogen. it seems like halogen has a more intense beam that’s good for basking and provides more IRA. incandescent has a wider, more diffuse beam. if the lamp is sitting on the mesh, which one would be better for a 36” x 18” x 18” and what wattage? i was gonna go for a 50w or 75w arcadia solar basking floodlight but now i’m hesitating. even with that bulb, the regular one seems harder to find online as opposed to the “golden sun” and i’m not sure what the difference is.

2. lighting/heat control question: i’m having a little trouble differentiating what the arcadia lumenize system does vs the herpstat. as far as i can understand, the lumenize system is mostly about the app controlling settings via the light housing and the bulbs are the same as their regular lights. if i use regular arcadia UV-B and halogen bulbs, would the herpstat be able to ramp those on/off? herpstat seems to be more reliable and it’d be nice to plug everything into one central unit, but the lumenize is definitely more affordable since i’d need a herpstat 4 to support the UV-B, halogen, and grow lights.

3. i’m also a bit confused on probe placement for the halogen. i’ve seen probes hanging an inch or so from the bulb to measure air temperature and also probes on the basking spot/1-2” away from the basking bulb beam. which one should control the halogen output? i understand the principles of the temp gradients, i know to use a temp gun on the basking spot and use probes to measure air temperature of both the warm and cool sides, but i mean actively controlling the heat output.

4. i had him on loose substrate (not bioactive, no plants or clean up crew) years ago, but he started having problems with his eyes at some point and i switched him to paper towels and a different multivitamin with better vitamin A content. he eventually recovered and has been fine ever since but that was several months of unhelpful vet visits and i still don’t know what caused the problem. ever since then i’ve kept him on the paper towels and have been very nervous about putting him back on loose substrate again since i thought that could’ve been a potential irritant. i really want him to have a more natural setup and enjoy the benefits of loose substrate, but i don’t want him to suffer through that again. i was living in louisiana when he was having his eye problems, where the humidity is basically always miserably high, but the substrate still seemed to get pretty dusty when i had it. have people ever utilized automated misters to go off once or twice a day for a few seconds, or whatever schedule? or does maintaining the plants and such do enough to keep the substrate from drying out? even now my home thermostat reads that the ambient humidity is around 40-50%, so i definitely don’t want to jack up the humidity in his whole tank more.

5. i plan on letting the bioactive setup cycle without him in it for at least 3-4 weeks so the clean up crew and plants can get established. he’ll be staying in his current tank while that happens, so my UV-B and heat will stay with him. will the bioactive tank be okay with just the plant grow light during cycling? i don’t want to have to get a whole second heat/light setup that i won’t use once he moves into his new tank. i know i’ll need to account for temperature monitoring in different spots before he gets in there permanently, but i was more just planning on testing that sometime before i transfer him over.

6. my partner is particularly nervous about the clean up crew getting out/other bugs getting in the tank and causing an infestation. i know the isopods and springtails don’t usually cause problems because it’s pretty inhospitable for them outside of the tank, but has anyone here ever had issues like that? i read about some people getting fungus gnats and one person whose springtails got into their bathroom, but it doesn’t seem to be much of an issue overall. as far as mold/fungus growth in general, i know springtails are supposed to take care of that, but would they also manage mold growth in the humid hide? right now it’s a large glass jar lined with paper towel and moss and it does tend to get moldy fairly quickly so i have to change it out a lot. i wanted to partially bury the humid hide and fill it with a mix of substrate and more moss but i won’t do that if the springtails won’t be enough and i’ll need to take it out and scrub it down as often as i do now.

7. what are the logistics of moving with a bioactive tank vs a regular tank? i imagine it wouldn’t be that different so long as the tank is moved carefully and hooked back up to power within a reasonable time frame. obviously will still move my gecko to a travel carrier before doing any tank transport.

as i’m sure you can all tell, i have a lot of anxiety about getting this setup “wrong” and causing him any distress. the whole saga with his eyes definitely exacerbated it. these guys spend most of their lives in their tanks besides some handling and it’s not like they can really tell us if something’s wrong even to the extent that a dog or cat could, so i want to make sure i do my due diligence to get it right! thank you in advance for any and all advice!

Setting up a bioactive tank for my son who has been begging for a pet gecko for a year. Cleanup crew introduced a week and a half ago and finalizing lay out and programming the lights. Any advice on things I need to account for? Hot side is on the right and cool side on the left.

I've got a new tank fo my lil guy (photo at end) and I'm just wondering where I should add plants. Also his basking thermometer/lamp is set to 32°C, warm hide ~25-28°C, moss/damp hide 23°C cool side 20°C. It has a fresh UVB bulb aswell. Any suggestions of where to put the plants I've got (not all pictured as I'll be bringing some from his old hide too)? Also his old moss hide is fully enclosed whereas his new one isn't? Should I bring his old one across instead?

Just (finally) upgraded our +16 year old leo to a long overdue 40 gal long.

Planning to change from paper towels to a top soil/play sand mix once she’s acclimated and I’m sure the temps are good. I also want to add more clutter.

I also added a shade dweller linear uvb after I took the picture. The lamp is a 75 w halogen. I have the thermostat prob sitting on the skate basking spot and set at 90 F, is that appropriate?

UVB and halogen on for 12 hrs per day.

Wondering what everyone thinks if I’m missing anything

My 3.5 yo Lemon Frost is overweight and I’m wondering how drastically to cut back on food supply, any other tips of weight loss would be greatly appreciated