A leopard gecko is a nocturnal animal. It is more active during the night and may only sleep all throughout the day. Although a leopard gecko does not require a lot of light in its cage, light still plays an important role on the happiness and health of your pet. However, you need to regulate the amount of light that will only be beneficial to your leopard gecko and does not cause any overheating in any way.
There are a number of factors that your should consider when lighting the cage of your leopard gecko. Since these small insect-eating lizards originated from Pakistan, Northern India and Afghanistan, they require specific amount of heat and temperature in order to survive their new environment during captivity. Below are the 3 main factors that you should think about before applying heat and lighting to your pet.Understand how these three factors affect the health and happiness of your leopard gecko.
- Temperature.
Temperature plays an important role I the lighting of your leopard gecko. Since lighting also provides heat in a way, you should be able to regulate the temperature wherein it will not be detrimental to the health of your leopard gecko. If you are using a mat heater, it may not be necessary to make use of a UV bulb for lighting. Since your pet gecko is already in an environment warm enough to keep him healthy and happy, you do not need to add another heat from another source such as UV lighting. Instead, you can make use of a small bulb that projects blue light in order to minimize the heat while giving your pet leopard gecko enough light to roam around its cage during the night. (Click here for red and blue bulbs)
- Night Time Darkness.
Since a leopard gecko is a nocturnal animal, it rarely basks in the sun in its natural habitat. On the other hand, nighttime darkness is important for your pet to regulate their internal clocks effectively. If you wish to watch the whereabouts of your leopard gecko during the night, do not make use of any white lights. Instead, make use of blue or red lights. Blue and red colors of the lights do not disturb the geckos. In addition, it provides additional heat in places with cold climates. (Click here for red and blue bulbs)
- UV Lighting.
UV lighting is necessary for some types of lizards in order to aid in the absorption of calcium in their body.In these animals, a lack of UV exposure often causes a condition known as metabolic bone disease.On the other hand, the leopard gecko is not prone to this type of condition. This is due to the fact that they do not often bask in the sun are usually awake during the night. Thus, the presence of direct sunlight or UV light will not hurt them. However, pet owners should provide a hideaway in the form of rocks and woods in their gecko enclosures. Also, UV lighting can increase the temperature of the cage, thus, affecting the amount of heat lighting required. (Click here for hideaway choices)
