I need Leopard Gecko help!!?

Question

I've had my Leopard Gecko for about 6 months now, and I could not be more in love with her! She's a beautiful Bell Albino, and her name is Picasso.

However, I did not know that a sand substrate was bad for her until just recently, and I'm going to change it tomorrow!!

So, my question is:

Will changing her substrate that she has been on for most of her life upset her, or stress her out too much? I want to keep her as healthy as possible, and I feel so bad for not doing my research on her substrate!!

So please help?

Thank you so so SOO much!!

--

Andi

Oh! Heres a picture of my darling gecko =]

http://i36.tinypic.com/2edvc5j.jpg

Isn't she dazzling?

Answer 1

You question is one of the age old debates in the husbandry of reptiles...is sand ok? Everyone has their own ideas and stories. I use play sand in most of my tanks and I have lizards the size of leos and smaller and no one has every had impaction problems. Calci and repti sands are more notorious for it due to the way they clump when wet. Play sand doesn't create the same hard clumps and is usually finer grains. As long as she isn't eating mouth fulls of sand at a time, she should be fine even staying on the sand. My niece Lefty is a leopard gecko and I don't recall her being on anything but sand and she is turning 7 this year and is as healthy as can be. Changing the substrate shouldn't stress her out too much, change the look for the rest of the tank so she can explore more when she goes back in.

Answer 2

Leopard Geckos are tough critters. I have had one for over ten years and he is still going strong. They need very little maintainence, and in fact mine has been on sand for ten years with no problems whatsoever..

Answer 3

Changing the substrate shouldn't upset her.  I adopted a leopard gecko a few months ago and she was being kept on sand, which I immediately changed.  It had no affect on her at all. I have also had to change my other leopard gecko's substrate as well as my beardie (they stopped making what I used).  They really didn't even seem to notice.  Kudos to you for doing the right thing!!

Answer 4

It shoulnt upset her at all.

may i say though there is 1 type of sand which is handy for leopards and that is calcium sand. hes gd cus whe the gecko grabs it good e.g cricket. it catches the sand to. and becasue it is calcium sand it digest. So try that.

I use it

Answer 5

It's best not to use any sand at all, even is it's in a small area. If the gecko suffers with any calcium deficiency it will intentionally eat the sand in an attempt to increase it's calcium in-take. There may also be accidental ingestion if the gecko were to lunge for an insect and get a mouth full of sand. Leo's do not live on sand in the wild, they live on hard baked compacted earth.

Changing the substrate shouldn't be too stressful, as long as you keep the interior design of the enclosure the same.

Make sure to correctly suppliment the gecko's diet with the approriate vitamins and always have pure calcium available with in the enclosure at all times so the gecko may maintain it's calcium levels.

Another thing to remember is gutload your insects appropriately before feeding to your gecko.