Species · Reptile

Leopard Gecko

Eublepharis macularius

Ground gecko of rocky Central Asian scrub, blinking where other geckos stare — the world’s most-kept lizard after the beardie.

The leopard gecko is the beginner lizard the world settled on for good reasons: hand-sized, ground-dwelling, docile to the point of placidity, content in modest housing with belly heat, and wearing a permanent small smile. It eats insects, stores its savings in its tail, and goes about its evening business with an unhurried confidence that makes it wonderful first-reptile material — wherever it can legally be kept, which is the question an Australian reader should ask before falling for one.

At a glance

Lifespan: 15–20 years
Adult size: 20–25 cm
Minimum housing: 90 cm floor-first enclosure
Heat & light: Warm floor low 30s °C, gradient to low 20s; low-level UVB increasingly standard
Diet: Live insects, gut-loaded and dusted
Handling: Very good — slow, floor-level, never by the tail
Company: Alone; males fight, pairs breed
With children: Good for calm older children, supervised
Daily attention: 15–30 min — insects, spot cleaning, checks

Morphs · 4 listed

A large morph catalogue on a hardy species. The enigma line carries a known neurological fault — ask the question by name.

Wild type
High yellow
Mack snow
Tangerine

Right for you if

You want the world’s consensus first lizard, sized for a bedroom.
Evening activity matches when the household is home.
Live insects, kept and gut-loaded, are acceptable lodgers.
Two decades of small, exact routine is a commitment you mean.

Wrong for you if

Where you live says no — as it does for this species in Australia’s case; check first, want second.
Insects in the house are a hard veto.
A child expects a daytime pet — the show starts at dusk.
The tail looks like a handle. It is not; it is the pantry, and it detaches.

Welfare and sourcing — read this part

Metabolic bone disease is the most common bone disease of pet reptiles and rapidly growing insect-eating lizards are its main victims — through calcium-to-phosphorus imbalance, missing D3, absent UVB and wrong temperatures.¹ For a leo that means dusted, gut-loaded insects as discipline — and since UVB is how many species make their own D3,² the modern low-level-UVB habit is cheap insurance, not fashion.
Buy captive-bred from a breeder who feeds the animal in front of you, and look at the tail first: plump means savings in the bank, and a pencil tail means the account is empty.
Reptile keeping is licensed and restricted differently from place to place, including state by state within Australia — and for some species here that difference is the whole question. Check what applies where you live before you commit.

Sources

Disorders and Diseases of Reptiles. MSD Veterinary Manual 2026. Accessed 2026-09-05. International MSD Veterinary Manual Secondary nutritional hyperparathyroidism — metabolic bone disease — is the most common bone disease seen in pet reptiles, driven by poor calcium-to-phosphorus ratios, insufficient vitamin D3, lack of UVB light and inadequate temperature, and it predominantly affects rapidly growing plant- and insect-eating lizards, turtles and tortoises. Respiratory infections including pneumonia are common in reptiles and are tied to unfavourable temperatures, poor sanitation and malnutrition. Treatment does not succeed unless nutrition, environment and sanitation are corrected too.
Providing a Home for a Reptile. MSD Veterinary Manual 2026. Accessed 2026-09-05. International MSD Veterinary Manual Reptiles are ectotherms that regulate body temperature by moving around their environment, so an enclosure must offer a range of temperatures within the species’ preferred band — and exceeding the upper limit by only around 5°C can be deadly for some species. UVB light in the 290–320 nm range is essential in many species for making vitamin D3 in the skin, which enables dietary calcium absorption.

Every source here was checked, not recalled. Where this page makes a health statement and no source appears against it, that is not an oversight we have hidden — it means the claim is not yet sourced, and the build reports how many are in that state.

Availability, registration and keeping requirements differ from place to place. Check the rules where you live before you commit to any animal — we describe animals, not law.