Ok hey everybidy, I'm new here, as new as I am to the hobby of keeping reptiles.
I am now slave to a 4.25 inches leopard gecko. It's a big responsiblity and it's dozens of years to go through so I hope I get a good start. Through reserach on the Internet, I got the very basic hunbandary requirements for my pets listed below. However, you can give me a hand and check if I am doing all right. Thanks in advance.

House: 10 gal tank with hood. Carpeting: newspaper and normal paper on top.

Heating: HEating pad, one side only. (Plan: Add some light bulbs since the temperature for the hot spot is quite slow: ~70 F and I also want to observe it at night >Please suggest about lighting<)

Hiding places: 2

Water provision: One shallow disk
Humidification: No

Diet: Mostly medium-sized live cricket (3/day). Calcium and Supplementary Vitamines are coated around the feeder crickets two times a week. Gut load: Yes: Cricket food, apple slice an hour before feeding time. Should I provide some other sources of live food?

Nature Zone Gecko Bite is offered. It doesn't seem to care, though.

Calcium powder is placed in a shallow bowl, also.
Handling: ~5 mins/day

Ok that's all the information for now. Thanks for your time and help!
Max

You should make sure you have a moist hide one on warm end and one on cool end. You can feed mealies as another live food. The temps range should be 85-95 degrees in the "basking spot", where you have the heat pad. The cooler end of the enclosure should not fall below 70 degrees but not above 77 degrees. Here is a link to one of our caresheets for Leopard Geckos and I am sure more will be along with some advice.

http://www.herpcenter.com/showthread.php?t=2731

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

If you want to view your gecko at night try using a red light because it wont bother them or one of those moonlight bulbs but am not really sure about them.

Totally agreed with Venus and Leoman. The warm side of your tank definitely needs to come up a few degrees -- a small clip lamp should do the trick, and it sounds like you've got that planned for already. Mealworms have made an awesome difference for some of our Leopard Geckos -- we started keeping dishes of them in their enclosures and they fattened up beautifully. We also keep a red light on some of our leo enclosures at night.
As for the vitamin supplements, you should be careful with any supplement containing D3 as it can cause some problems if they have too much in their system. Pure calcium is best for the calcium dish. Coating your crickets with the pure calcium mixed with a general multivitamin powder (Herptivite) can be done a couple of times a week, (exactly as you've been doing!) but a calcium powder with D3 should only be used about once a month. You can give your gecko pretty much as many crickets as he'll eat in one feeding, and offer them every night or every second night, depending on his behaviour, which you'll get used to as you go along.
Aside from that, congratulations on your new pet! We've only been in the hobby for a year, and just look at my signature. I love the fact that you used the expression "slave to a... gecko" because believe me, they're absolutely addictive. Keep handling him on a regular basis and you might be lucky enough to have a gecko who likes to hang out on your shoulder for hours at a time!

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I give up! I've officially lost count of the critters...

Thing about humidity.....spray during shedding

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~Jason Richardson

But don't spray directly on the gecko! They FREAK, and might drop their tail!

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I give up! I've officially lost count of the critters...

I am finding my AFT likes warm wet hide and a hide under her basking light. I have a heating pad under the side that I have a hide with moss in it and I keep that wet, on the other side I have a hide under her basking light. The side with the basking light it gets around 82 to 86 degrees floor temp, and around 75 to 78 with the side with the heating pad and I can adjust the heat on that Hi, med or low or warm or off. and I spray her vegitation twice a day. I also keep two little home made bowls with calcium and vitamin supplement (Herptivite) so she can lap up some when she needs it and when I put crix in it, the crix run through it and helps her out. :>)
Aft's are so similar in care that I read alot of stuff on leopard geckos, there are more articles wrote on leo's that AFT's!

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When in doubt, Pinky out!
croc-o-dile6