Fat tailed females may be kept in groups or solo. Males may not be housed together. We suggest housing males separately from females to avoid excessive breeding and stress. Glass enclosures work best for viewing, although many breeders house these geckos in Rubbermaid tubs or large sweater boxes. A 10-gallon enclosure is the minimum size for an adult.

Rocks, fake plants, and logs for basking and hiding are preferred enclosure furniture. Make sure ample cave space is available, both on the warm side and cool side of the enclosure. Substrate choices can include playsand, newspaper, bed-a-beast (coconut fiber), and peat moss. Fat-tails like to burrow in slightly moist substrate to rehydrate, so we use combination of coconut fiber, peat moss and cypress mulch.

Heating/Lighting

A range in temperature is much appreciated by geckos so they may thermoregulate. Temperatures may range from 90 degrees F down to 75 at nighttime. We suggest overhead bulbs for heating, unless you are housing in Rubbermaid and need to use undertank heaters. Place the heat source on one side of the tank only. Red bulbs are nice for viewing nocturnal geckos. Don't use heat rocks.

Water:

Make sure a shallow water dish is available inside the cage at all times. We also suggest lightly misting the enclosure daily. Make sure the substrate is never wet for long. When a fat tailed gecko is preparing to shed, they appreciate moister caves. We suggest using moss that can be misted daily inside one of the caves.
X-tra tip: One method we suggest for keeping fat-tails hydrated is to use about 4-inches of substrate where the lower inch of substrate always stays damp. This way the fat-tails can retreat from the heat to thermoregulate and to rehydrate as well. Providing a hide that consistently stays cool and damp allows for higher basking zone temps and thus increases the metabolism of the fat-tails.

Food

Crickets and mealworms make up the majority of the Leopard gecko diet. Hatchlings should be fed 2-week-old crickets. Adults can handle adult crickets. Mealworms may also be offered. Be sure you acquire your crickets from a clean source and feed them fresh food (you may use "gutload" if you like) and water. Don't offer moldy food to your crickets (this can cause serious disease). Small pinky mice may also be offered to adults occasionally. Gravid females especially relish these.

Be sure to supplement the diet with calcium and D3 and vitamins. We suggest a 1.3 ratio of herptivite to repcal calcium with D3. Place crickets in a tall cup, add the supplements and shake to coat crickets. Do this every other day for young geckos and then taper off to once or twice a week for adults (especially reduce the vitamin supplements). Make sure to offer more calcium to gravid females.

Fat tailed geckos require a period of hibernation or brumation. Only breed your geckos after temperatures are back to normal, and your gecko is healthy, eating well, and has a substantial fat deposit (a nice fat tail). Your females should be at least one year old. Introduce a female into the male’s tank (or even vice versa) and copulation may take place. You may opt to leave the male and female together overnight or for a few days. It is thought that they prefer to breed in the early evening hours, but we have witnessed copulation at just about any time. It's normally best to remove the male from the female's enclosure after copulation to avoid stress. A female will retain sperm and can produce multiple clutches from just one breeding. Eggs are usually laid in twos. Make sure the female has a lay area (cave) with moist substrate to dig into to deposit her eggs. Gently place eggs in a dish of moist vermiculite and incubate at around 85 degrees F. The eggs will hatch in 45-90 days. Make sure the vermiculite stays moist but not wet.

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