The Great Leopard Gecko Escape: A Sneaky Hide-and-Seek Story

She escaped without me seeing where she went!!

I have two leopard geckos. They are my oldest reptiles besides my tortoise, and they are almost 8 years old each, one male and one female. I keep them in separate enclosures, 40-gallon breeder tanks.

INFO: Leopard geckos are terrestrial, meaning you usually find them on ground level. However, they do love to climb, so just make sure their setup is not built too high because they can get hurt if they fall. They are super sweet and rarely aggressive. They are nocturnal, but they may come out during the day if they are interested in something or notice you moving around and want to see what you are doing.

Most leopard geckos can live 10–15+ years, and some may live even longer with proper care. They rarely drop their tails, but if they do, the tail will grow back and may be smoother or have a different pattern than the rest of the body. They eat insects, but mine love crickets best, and my male will eat Dubia roaches here and there. Mine also love to go months without eating sometimes. They store fat in their tails, and as long as they are not losing weight, they are usually fine. Sometimes it still scares me when they do not eat, haha, but it is normal for them to go through periods like this.

STORY TIME: Today I was doing my rounds. I was holding my gargoyle gecko first and then, after a bit, moved on to my hognose snake. Once I had held him for a while, my female leopard gecko wanted out, so I got her out too. She will climb around my lap while I sit on the floor and explore around me.

She climbed down my leg, and I ignored it for maybe 30 seconds. Then I looked up and did not see her anywhere. I started looking behind the enclosures and crawling around my reptile room. I was starting to panic, thinking she was going to get behind one of them and get electrocuted or something. I AM THE WHAT-IF QUEEN.

I started thinking she had gotten out of the room. They are quick, but nope, I still did not see her. So I crawled around the other side of the room. I have a big table in the center, and as I was about to yell for my hubby to come help me, she popped out from under one of the really big enclosures that houses my black-headed monitor.

She was walking out, saw me, stopped, and stared me down with huge eyes. I waited, hoping she would come to me, but nope. She turned to run, so I had to reach in quickly and grab her, haha. This little sneak was about to run from me!

Moral of the story: never take your eyes off your leopard gecko. They are sneaky and will absolutely win at hide-and-seek, lmfao.