Im new to owning A leopard gecko And I need help

deathcomplex03

New Member
Messages
2
So basically this family had their leo for a little over a year but due to personal reasons they had to get rid of it so I took it in. They gave me the full enclosure and everything. Right now its running a basking light, a uvb light, and a red heat light for night time. My problem is To keep my room warm enough for it I had to take out my windows fan and close my windows because it was too cold in here. But It has been getting too hot in my room making sleeping and other activities a bit uncomfortable, and I also have a cricket pen, but I have no where to put it but my room, but because it is too hot the crickets are dying way too fast before feeding time for my leo, even tonight only one cricket was left alive to feed it and 4 giant meal worms. So the heat setup it has has apparently worked for a year, but Im very torn between keeping it and switching too a under tank heat mat and thermostat. I want to switch too a under tank heat mat because A. the basking light makes no sense seeing as my gecko stays in its hide till night time pretty much, and B. so I can keep my room cooler but still have a good source of heat so I know the gecko wont get too cold. also as far as food I dont know if I should switch to meal worms due to the crickets dying too quick. Also right now the gecko is running a a big rock hide in the corner, and a log hide on the other side of the tank but no moist hide and idk if I should switch it up and get a new hide. the substrate is also A fabric substrate and right now some calcium powder spilled and got rubbed into the fabric as well as the leopard gecko has a poop corner in which I have no Idea how to clean so I'm also thing about switching the the substrate. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated because I want to give my leo a good enclosure that also wont conflict with my other outside factors. I attached some files of my current set up.
 

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acpart

Geck-cessories
Staff member
Messages
15,118
Location
Somerville, MA
Congrats on getting the gecko! Here are some basic suggestions:
--I like the idea of switching to an under tank heater. It will be less likely to dry out the air and dehydrate the gecko. When you do get that heater, you can get rid of the UVB and red lights. You don't even really need the regular light as long as there's ambient light in the room so the gecko knows when it's day and when it's night
--A humid hide is nice, but there's also the option of putting a moist paper towel in the enclosure when it looks as if the gecko is getting ready to shed.
--It's unusual for crickets to die because it's too hot. I get 2000 crickets every other week and live in New England without AC. It can get up into the 90's in the living room in the summer and I have no greater die-off with the crickets then than I do in the winter (it's actually worse in the winter; the cold is more of a problem). Ideally you're keeping the crickets in an enclosure with some egg crate so they have some place to stand that's not on top of each other. They need powdered grain to eat (the jell cubes that are called "cricket food" is not food; it's water with dye) and hydration (that's what you use the jell cubes for). Crickets only live 9 weeks, so if you're getting crickets at the end of their lifespan, they will die.
--hopefully you're giving the gecko some calcium and vitamin D3 as supplements
--My favorite substrate is ceramic tile that I get from the home improvement store. Regardless of your substrate, if you buy a 4" bathroom tile from a home improvement store and put it where the gecko poops, it will poop on the tile and then you can clean it off and not have the substrate get dirty.

Aliza
 

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