The Leaping Lizards

All about Napoleon

Napoleon is a 4-year-old Leopard Gecko

Napoleon is a brown and yellow leopard gecko. He is approximately 9.5 inches long. Some of his habits are sleeping, hiding, and sometimes climbing. His favorite spots to be are in the two rocks in his cage. Some foods that he eats are crickets, mealworms, and sometimes as a treat, waxworms.

Old vs. New Enclosure

Old enclosure

This is Napoleon’s old enclosure for the past 3-4 years. It was a 20-gallon tank. Everything in that tank was only the minimum, 2 hides, a heat lamp, water, and food.

This enclosure had tiles as floors. The background was bought and didn’t fit the enclosure. It didn’t meet a leopard gecko’s natural habitat. It was very bland and Napoleon did not like it that much. Napoleon couldn’t climb onto anything because of how flat this enclosure was. This hinders Napoleon’s health because Napoleon didn’t do much in that cage.

The New Enclosure

Napoleon’s new enclosure is still a 20-gallon because we remodeled his old tank instead of buying a new one.

The background is made of reused styrofoam as the base. We put installation foam on top of that to make the rock structures. We put grout on the foam to give it a rocky look and feel. We used non-toxic acrylic paint for the foam to make a rocky desert feel. We splashed some sand on the background to better represent leopard geckos’ natural habitat.

Napoleon has two hides, The warm hide will be under the light and more closed off. The colder hide is more open and away from the light. Both rock hides are reused from Napoleon’s old enclosure or leftover rocks from previous projects.

We put a branch into the foam so it could hang. He can climb up there and onto the shelves on the sides of the tank. The big branch is for Napoleon to climb up.

Facts about leopard geckos

Leopard geckos can live up to 20 years!

Leopard gecko’s natural habitat is in the deserts of India, Pakistan, southeast Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq.

They get their name because they have spots like leopards.

Their tail can detach.

They have eyelids, unlike a lot of other geckos.

40-gallon tank

We are getting a 40-gallon tank for Napoleon at a later date. We have another leopard gecko named Dart. Dart is only 1 year old; we will be giving this smaller 20-gallon tank to him after we make the 40-gallon version.

Dart is a hypo leopard gecko because he lacks the infamous dots on his body. This doesn’t harm Dart and is pretty common for leopard geckos.

The new 40-gallon tank will have the same recycled materials and more than this one because of the bigger size of the tank.

Materials used

Tank with Lid (Reused)

Window Screen Mesh (recycled)

great stuff insulation foam spray

grout

styrofoam(reused)

shellac spray

soil and sand mix

rock hides (reused)

hydroballs clay substrate

non-toxic acrylic paint (reused)

Napoleon’s first time in the new tank

Main video

Help

We got help from our teacher Mrs. Febres. She gave us the supplies to make this possible and also gave us some good ideas for the tank. She also let us stay after school and work on it. She even let us take it home over the weekend.

These are some of the YouTube videos we watched to make this, they really helped us get started.

https://youtu.be/lAiemBJAp-A?si=oddPYdsHTwPD-AEx – Bioactive leopard gecko enclosure! DIY grout background

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAPNL5NJeyk – DIY Reptile Background Desert Style

https://youtu.be/1PeCF-TPLdk?si=xRwGQ8hwKhaZwpk1 – New Leopard Gecko Setup // DIY Hide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Si_SnNRlONI – DIY: Nice Custom Leopard Gecko Desert Canyon Theme Setup Tips Lizard Landscapes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdjz61aXWqE – How To Make A Custom Background For Your Reptile Enclosure [For Under $50]

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