Behavior

Basking

Basking is a great way for leopard geckos to absorb warmth and nutrients. They just lay down under the light and soak it all up.

Biting

There are a few types of biting you may encounter.

Defensive Biting: this is the strongest bite. As the name suggests, they feel threatened and are biting in self defense. You may end up bleeding.

Food Biting: lots of leos don't have the best eye sight and may mistake your moving finger as food. This bite is less forceful and likely won't even cause bleeding.

Mating Bite: when mating, male geckos will gently bite up and down the female's body then he bites her neck while he enters her.

Body Stiffening

This is a defensive tactic used to make themselves look bigger. They stand up taller, put their tail up, and stick their head out. If your leo is doing this, it's likely stressed and feels threatened.

Climbing

Climbing is a natural behavior that provides enrichment. It can be good to give your leo a climbing wall and/or lots of climbing opportunities within their enclosure.

Digging

Digging is a natural behavior for leos which is why loose substrate can be so important for them. It provides them enrichment and many like to burrow to hide.

Fighting

As leopard geckos don't do well together in captivity, they tend to fight upon encountering each other. If not separated, they will continue fighting to the death in most cases.

Glass Surfing

Glass surfing is often a sign of stress and boredom. However, some leos are just weird and will randomly do it for no reason. If you notice your leo glass surfing, just make sure their tank has plenty of enrichment and is at least the minimum size for their age.

Mating

If a male and female gecko are put together while the female is ovulating, they will mate. It can take under a minute for the entire process to take place, so it is important to not let a male and female interact if you don't want 16+ little hatchlings in the coming months.

Resource Guarding

When one or more leopard geckos are kept together, many resource guarding behaviors will appear. The most common is "cuddling" where one gecko lays on top of or blocking the other. This is a way to steal that gecko's warmth, light, and prevent it from acessing other resources.

Screeching

Screeching is another defensive mechanism that is typically seen in hatchlings. It is a high pitched scream used to scare off predators. Screeching geckos feel stressed or threatened.

Shedding

All leopard geckos shed their skin every 1-8 weeks depending on their age. Young geckos tend to shed every 1-2 weeks while older geckos shed about once a month or sometimes even once every 2 months.

Splooting

Splooting is just something leopard geckos are known to do. There's not really a reason behind it, but many like to just lay out flat like a pancake.

Tail Dropping

Tail dropping is a sign that your leo feels stressed or threatened. In the wild, they drop their tail to distract predators. In captivity though, they typically do it for less dramatic reasons.

Tail Wagging

There are different tail wags that can mean different things.

Slow wag: this is typically a hunting behavior. They tend to wag their tail very slowly before lunging to grab their food.

Rattle wag: males will rattle the tip of their tail when they are ready to mate. It shows the female that they are interested. Leos may also do this when excited.

Full tail wag: as shown in this picture, the whole tail wags slowly and high in the air. This is typically done to distract a predator right before they drop the tail and run.