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Welcome! I assume you're here because you
are thinking about maybe getting a
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leopard gecko and I think that's a great
choice. Could be that you've been
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thinking about them ever since you
watched this video. If not, you might want
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to check it out. It's right right there.
This is a leopard gecko, and for a
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lot of you this might be the best pet
reptile you could possibly get.
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Especially for a beginner.
We give leopard geckos an overall score
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of four point four out of five. That is
one of the highest scores we've ever
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given. It's one of the highest scores
we're ever gonna give, because this is an
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incredible pet lizard. And the way that
we come to that score is going to come
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down to our five categories: handleability, care, hardiness, availability, and
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upfront costs. For handleability we give
these a four out of five. They are really
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wonderful to handle. They're calm for the
most part. Now I'm not gonna tell you
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they're all calm. I've seen a lot of them,
especially babies, that get very
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defensive. And geckos are cool because
geckos vocalize. A baby leopard gecko will go
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"ah ah" if it's getting startled. Geckos are
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the only lizards that have vocal cords.
In fact geckos are called geckos
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because there's a species of gecko that
says "Geck-o." They're like Pokemon . There's
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a type of gecko called the tokay gecko.
Guess what it says. It says "To-kay." They can
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vocalize. They'll open their mouth, and
some of them can bite,
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mostly when they're babies, but I have
seen adults. They can be a little bit
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grumpy. So when you're picking one out,
get one that is nice and mellow. Unless
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you don't mind that it might take a shot
at you every now and then. They've got
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little nails but they're unlikely to
scratch you, these, I mean they're tiny.
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You can feel them poke you a little bit
as they walk over your skin. Not a big
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deal. Unlike a lot of other geckos these
geckos don't have any toe pads. The toe
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pads are those crazy pads that they,
a lot of geckos, can use to climb up
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walls and across the ceiling and who
knows where. They're mostly for hanging
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on to leaves. Well these geckos are from
the desert and so they don't have those
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toe pads. They've just got the claws to
hang onto stuff and so they'd probably
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be slipping and sliding and fall
if they didn't have them and so they're
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not really clinging to you. They're sort
of walking on you but it's sort of your
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job when handling a leopard gecko to
stay underneath it.
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Compared to other geckos and a lot of
other lizards leopard geckos are
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unlikely to drop their tails. They can do
it. They've got the power to just, off
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goes the tail, and there you have it.
They'll regrow it, but it won't be quite
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the same as it was, so I try to avoid
that. I worry about it but I don't worry
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about it too much with leopard geckos
because you can see they've got fat
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tails. In the desert sometimes you need
to store fat for a long time. Just like a
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camel. A lot of people don't know that
about camels. They think that's water in
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there but it's actually fat, and these
guys store fat in there big pudgy tails.
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As they store their energy source in
that tail they don't want to drop it. Of
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course if you pinch it or crush it or
something like that,
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off it'll go. Sometimes cage mates, other
leopard geckos if your housing them
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together (which I don't necessarily
recommend), you know they will bully each
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other sometimes, and off come tails. You
have to be a little bit careful about
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that but not as careful as say with a
crested gecko. Additionally they're kind
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of small. Compared to a lot of the other
animals that we've recommended, these are
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a pretty small lizard and they could be
injured very badly by say a child or
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anyone who squeezes them, crushes them, if
they take a nasty fall. They're just,
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they're little. They're little guys, and
you gotta treat them with care and
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respect and if you do, they're actually a
wonderful gecko to interact with,
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wonderful to handle and I love them. Our next
category is care, and for care we give
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these geckos a four out of five. The
biggest downside to keeping them is just
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that you're going to need a regular
supply of insect feeders and diverse
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insect feeders (so things like dubia
roaches, crickets, super worms). Down below
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we've got links to these things so go
check them out. And unlike a bearded
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dragon, these guys aren't gonna eat
and tons and tons of insect eaters but
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you do need them constantly on hand to
have some insect feeders for them every
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few days every week. You can't skip
out on that. These geckos do need daily
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misting. Not like a crested gecko. You
don't need it wet in there. These guys
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are from the desert but they do need an
opportunity to lap some little water
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droplets off the side every day and so
that's something, some daily care that
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they do require. Humidity is also
important for them when it comes to
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things like shedding their skin. So if
you notice that they're getting kind of
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cloudy looking, you're definitely gonna need to
make sure you keep it a little more
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humid than normal. And the biggest thing
that you're gonna want to watch out for
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is the fact that if they don't shed very
well, sometimes they can get skin that
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sticks on their toes and that can
actually cause a lot of leopard geckos
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to lose their toes. We'll talk more
about that later.
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They've got very reasonable temperature
requirements. They need a temperature
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somewhere in the mid 70s with highs in
the 80s. That's easy to maintain with, say,
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an under tank heater or a red UVA bulb.
You're gonna want to make sure that
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you've got good thermometers. I would
recommend using a heat gun, which takes
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surface temperatures to make sure that
you've got those temperatures just right.
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Thermostat is a very good idea.
Definitely good thermometers but a
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temperature in the 80s and 70s and the
cool areas. That's easy to do even in
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smaller enclosures, so temperature, very
easy to maintain with leopard geckos.
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They are gonna need calcium supplements.
Not in the quantities that you would
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need for, say, a bearded dragon, but they
are gonna need calcium and vitamin
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supplements. Overall though, this is about
the easiest lizard you could possibly
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keep. When it comes to hardiness we give
these geckos a four out of five. One of
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the biggest things you're gonna want to
watch out for is the type of substrate
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that you use (that's the ground covering).
A very popular thing for people to use
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is sand. Don't do this. Loose substrates,
like sand, have a couple of major down
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sides that you're gonna want to avoid.
That's gonna cause them to not shed on
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their toes very well, which can cause their
toes to become constricted by the skin,
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lose blood flow, and then fall off. You
don't want this. The other thing is if
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they happen to ingest sand, that could
get caught in their digestive system and
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actually cause your gecko to die. So I
would not recommend using any sort of a
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loose substrate like sand. Even things
like paper towels are a better
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substrate than sand. Lack of calcium can
also be a problem. That's not gonna
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kill them quickly but they could end
up with metabolic bone disease so you'll
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want to make sure that they get calcium
and vitamin supplements. Probably the
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biggest risk for these guys is getting
squished. You've got to be careful with
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them because they are little. We've
recommended a lot of other animals that
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are considerably larger than this that
would be considerably harder to smash on
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accident, but these could easily get
smashed. So you've got to be careful with
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them because that would be devastating.
Same thing about falling. They're more
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prone to falling then almost anything
else we have recommended. These guys live
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on the ground in the desert. Falling is
not normally a problem and so they're
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not used to having to maintain their
balance and they will just slip and fall
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off of you if you're not careful. And, of
course, they can drop their tail - we've
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already talked about this. They can do it,
they're not particularly prone to doing
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it, but it could happen. When it comes to
availability we give these guys a 5 out
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of 5. This has been one of the most
common reptiles in the reptile hobby for
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a long long time. As always, I would
recommend. first and foremost, trying to
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find a good breeder in your area. That
way you can go, you can see all of their
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geckos, you can see the way that they
were housed, the way that they were
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raised, maybe even their parents, and you
can check out their behavior. If you
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can't do this, online there are lots of
breeders that you're gonna be able to
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find. And they, again, are all over the
place. And they can ship a gecko right to
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your door. And, if all else fails, they are
at every pet shop that sells reptiles -
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like in the whole world. As you can see,
we've got quite a few colors here. I've
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actually got another. This is called a
white and yellow. This one here is a snow.
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And we've got... this one's an albino and
a snow. This one's a Radar, which stands
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for red eyes and a whole bunch of other
stuff I don't know. They have got like a
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million different color varieties. The
really cool thing is: people have been
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breeding leopard geckos for long enough
now that basically any of these colors
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are available at a very reasonable price
and everywhere. You don't have to go
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crazy to find somebody who's got
whatever color and pattern it is that
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you love. In the wild these things are
yellow and almost black because they
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have so many spots. Last is the upfront
cost and we give them a 5 out of 5 for
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upfront cost as well. This is as good as
it's gonna get with a lizard. They are
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inexpensive to buy. And, on top of that,
their enclosure is relatively
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inexpensive to provide as well because
the tank doesn't need to be huge because
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they're not huge.
Don't go super small, you don't want them
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to be confined. Honestly the bigger the
enclosure is the more fun they will be
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to watch. The heat source that you're
gonna need is relatively
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inexpensive. The substrate, the water bowl,
all of these things - they're fairly cheap. So
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upfront you're not gonna be shelling out
a whole lot of money for a leopard gecko
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and a proper set up. They are just
wonderful. You are gonna love having a
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leopard gecko. I love them. I've been
interacting with them a lot today -
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more than I normally do and I've been
thinking "gosh I got to spend more time
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with my leopard geckos" cuz they're just
great. Overall, once again, we give them a
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4.4 out of 5. One of the
highest scores were ever gonna give any
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animal because this is definitely one of
the best pet reptiles you could possibly
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have. As always: like and subscribe. We're
excited to hear what you thought and we
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hope to see you real soon.
What a crazy creature. You can see
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right through their head. How could you not...
how could you not love that! When you
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look through their ear you can see their
eardrum but you can see like right
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through their noggin! Oh! And they blink.
Check this out, they blink. Geckos don't
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blink, geckos like their eyeball. These
are an eyelid gecko. Doesn't seem like a
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superpower but for a gecko that's a
superpower.
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AH! AH! [Gecko!] Tokay!
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