Gecko fact

A humid hide is essential for clean sheds, particularly around the toes and tail tip

Critical to know

Quick answer: Without extra humidity at shed time, skin can stick and fail to come away, especially on the toes, where retained shed can cut off circulation.

Without extra humidity at shed time, skin can stick and fail to come away, especially on the toes, where retained shed can cut off circulation. A moist hide with damp sphagnum moss or paper towel should be available at all times, not just during a visible shed.

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Most active at dawn and dusk when temperatures in their native Pakistan and Afghanistan are ideal.

The tail stores fat reserves, not water

A widespread misconception is that the tail acts like a camel's hump storing water.

Dropped tails grow back, but never look the same

Autotomy — voluntary tail shedding — is a defence mechanism.

Leopard geckos cannot climb glass — they have claws, not sticky lamellae

Unlike most gecko species which use van der Waals forces to climb smooth surfaces, leopard geckos have conventional claws.

Leopard geckos can blink — most gecko species cannot

The moveable eyelid is unusual among geckos.

You can see through a leopard gecko's head via the ear canals

Hold your gecko up to a light source and look through one ear opening — you can see light through the other side.