Talk to me about Leopard Gecko's please!

[MinisterforCheekyFuckery]

My 6 year old is desperate for a pet. We need something fairly low maintenance as DH and I are both busy with work and I've heard that Leopard Gecko's are pretty easy to care for. DD saw one recently at someone else's house and was smitten with it.

If anyone has one please can you advise

How much does it cost (roughly) for the gecko itself and all of the equipment you need to keep them?

How often does their tank (if that's even what you call it??) need cleaning out? How often do you have to feed them?

Do they mind being handled? DD is a very sensible 6 year old and I'm confident she would be very gentle with it but she would definitely want to hold it.

How do you go about finding a reputable place to buy a gecko. I know they have them at Pets At Home and the like but is it better to get them from a specialist place?

Any other pros and cons you can think of that I might not have considered.

Thank you

We have a created Gecko, I didn’t like the leopard ones tails and cresties are just a lot more cute in my opinion. Care is very similar though
The tank and set up was about £300 and he cost £160, we couid have but one without a tail cheaper ( cresties can’t grow them back).
He is DD’s (13) and she handles him most days, he doesn’t do much and is largely nocturnal so doesn’t perk up much until after 9, which may not be ideal for a 6 year old.
He is fed 4 times a week on reconstituted powder food, we rejected lots of things as I don’t want live food or frozen mice in the fridge
Dd cleans him out completely about once a month and wipes his plants etc every week. His temperature and humidity needs to be regularly checked so although he can be left without food for a few days he must get cold or dry out (we have a lovely neighbour who checks and feeds him whooping the cats al when we go away)
We went to a couple of reptile fairs and spoke to loads of people before choosing what to get but didn’t buy him from one, there were too many breeders trying to unload excess stock. I joined a couple of local forums on FB and people on there were very helpful. He is an ex breeding Gecko that his previous owner wanted to get rid of to introduce new blood but he was very concerned with finding a good home and insisted on coming over (2.5 hour round trip) to see our set up and see that we knew what we were doing. He kept in touch as well and answered any questions we had afterwards. Leopards are more common and cheaper I think
Oh, and he’s now 3 and can live for another 13 years !!!
Happy to answer any more questions

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Oh he's lovely! That's all very helpful, thank you. I hadn't really thought about a crested gecko (have only seen the Leopard ones) but that may well be another option. Good to know there's an alternative to live food! Some of the site's I've been on insist that geckos MUST have live insects but yours is clearly doing just fine without. The initial setup does sound expensive...but I suppose you have to balance this with the fact that they can potentially live such a long time and they're relatively low cost/low maintenance compared to other pets once you've got all the kit.

Also look at blue tongued skinks, they are apparently one of the easiest reptiles to look after. We were going to get one but dd met a Crestie and decided she would like one of those instead.
Cresties are climbers so need a tall habitat but Skinks need a longer Sandy one. Think DS is getting one of these when he’s older

I have one, he's so nosy, lives in my kitchen and loves to watch what's going on they're not keen on being handled too much though, so other types might be better for a younger owner. Mine is also flipping fussy, and won't eat anything that doesn't wriggle or hop, so I've had to deal with the horrors of creepy crawlies DS(3) does love him though, even though he can't hug him! They are incredibly easy to look after, I adopted mine, but hopping gave good advice there, a reptile fair or a good independent pet shop will be good for advice.

And also you will need a specialist vet as a lot of vets don’t do reptiles
We changed vets with all our animals when we got the crestie so I could take them to the same place. Boy ones are better because they don’t lay eggs ( which can cause problems)
They also need UV light
Luckily for us velociraptor his breeder rarely live fed so he’s not bothered but obviously if he needed it I would make myself do it. I’m not scared of insects but me and DD don’t like to see things die. I think we would end up with thousands of “rescue” crickets!!

@Hoppinggreen that's good, I wish I could convince mine to do that, I keep trying but he's so fussy!

Hey op,

I've had a gecko, she didn't mind being handled but she was never as cuddly as my guinea pigs- have you considered them? They're very easy to care for, but need cleaning out every 5 days which is the only downfall

We have a leopard gecko that we adopted about 6 months ago, they are really easy to look after, she was fed on crickets when we first got her but never seemed too bothered, we switched to meal worm which she loves, she will sit next to her bowl and pounce on them until she has eaten them all. The tank I got from my auntie who no longer used it, she has a heat mat which was about £15 on amazon and a thermostat to keep it the correct temo which I think we paid £20 for. They need a hide on the heat mat, one in a cooler spot away from the heat and are also meant to have a moist hide. We handle her a couple of times a week, she is very tame and not fazed by my kids handling her at all. Happy to answer any questions.

Our 12yr old DD has a leopard geko , we got him couple of months ago so he is still a baby but he is brilliant, very inquisitive. Bit nervous when we first had him but happy to be handled. The set up all together was about £400 , that is vivarium, heat mat ,light and stuff to go inside viv like two hides and shrubs (artificial) and logs .He has crickets and locusts and mealworms .My other DD has a bearded dragon so we buy off Swell exotic online as it is next day delivery and you can buy in bulk as we do get through a lot 😁.We poop pick daily ,fresh water daily and we use a special reptile sand that is non toxic and won't harm if swallowed as you have be careful as some bedding if they do swallow it can cause blockages which can be really serious. It doesn't need to be changed for two months but we do it monthly just because we prefer this .I just love reptiles full stop we also have a ball python .They make fab pets , you just need to maintain temp that is a must but we love ours .