Hello!

I tried to send you this in PM but it was too long, so I'll post it here. I do own leopard geckos - 6 of them.

WolfChan is dead on about them, they're fairly inexpensive, one of the easiest reptiles to keep in captivity, and they're extremely friendly. They love being handled, but they are quite delicate and will drop their tails if you handle them too roughly. Their tails are where they store excess food as fat, since they are indigenous to the deserts of Pakistan, where food is scarce. In the wild, dropping a tail can be disasterous, but in captivity, since food shouldn't be much of an issue, it's just cosmetic. However, if a leopard gecko drops its tail it's usually a sign of improper treatment/handling of the animal.

Young Leopard Geckos are somewhat skittish, and will bolt when you try to handle them, but when they grow up they LOVE being handled, and will quietly sit on your shoulder. They're quite friendly and don't usually bite unless they are very aggravated by something.

They will eat crickets and mealworms, but mealworms are dangerous. Unless you crush their heads before they are fed to the gecko, they have been known to chew their way out of the gecko's stomach. The adult geckos can even be fed pinky mice as a calcium boost, but crickets dusted with calcium powder and vitamin powder will suffice. I feed mine canned crickets, which I purchase from www.bigappleherp.com

I usually feed my geckos every other day, sometimes every third day. You can opt for live crickets, but they're messy, they make a lot of noise, and they smell bad. Canned crickets are much easier, and I've even managed to get a few of my geckos to take them right from my hand.

All in all they're a perfect pet for beginners... and they do live for quite a while. I'd stay away from the "special" phase geckos and just get a normal - the phases tend to be more delicate - because they are inbred to get the patterns and colorings... Normal phase seems to be much more robust, and is just as cute.

Also - the blizzard phase is a bit nippy, and they don't have as even a temperament as the normals.

A 10 gallon tank will suffice for 1 leopard gecko - I have vision cages, but they're a bit on the pricey side. You can get a 10 gallon tank at any pet shop for around 15.00.

Be careful also of substrate... you should avoid anything that has large granules, I use really fine desert sand, but even that has been known to cause impactions - though I've never had any issues with it. I would suggest for younger geckos using paper towel or astro-turf cut to fit the bottom of the cage.. Either that or newspaper. When the gecko gets bigger/older, you can move to a really fine sand.

I have a few links for care/feeding of Leopard Geckos available on my reptile and amphibian information base... at www.caicos.org

If there's anything else I can help you with, please let me know.