Check your setup against this sheet

Setup

The numbers

Thermal gradient

152025303540 °C
22–26°Cool side
30–31°Warm side
19–22°Night

Day: a real gradient, 30–31°C warm against 22–26°C cool, so the animal chooses. Night: 19–22°C.

Why

Same scale on every sheet here, so two species compare by eye.

The sheet stateswarm 30-31 °C / cool 22-26 °C / night 19-22 °C

Humidity

60–80%Target RH

The sheet states60-80%

UVB

T5 6%UVI 2–3

The sheet statesone 22" Zoo Med T5 HO Reptisun 5.0 or Arcadia Forest 6% UVB bulb | UVI of 2.0-3.0 in the basking area at the top of the enclosure | the gecko can't get closer than 9-12" below the lamp

Traceable. The figures above appear in the page we cite, which we opened on 10 Aug 2026. That means you can check them, not that we have confirmed they are right. reptifiles.com

14:00
Day

Drag the sun. The sheet states a night temperature, so the rail follows it.

Enclosure and conditions

Enclosure

30–31 °C60–80 % RHUVB tube120 cm120 cm
warm sideUVB tube
50100150200 cm
120 × 60 × 120 cmWidth × depth × height
72dm² of floor
Substrate: not in our dataWater: not in our dataHides: not in our data

Drawn from the stated numbers. Only what the sheet states is drawn inside.

Why

The rectangle carries the exact width-to-height ratio of the figures above it, and the ruler under it places that width on the 0–250 cm scale every sheet here shares, so two species still compare at a glance. Nothing is added that the sheet does not name: a lamp drawn on a sheet that never mentions one would be invented equipment. What the sheet leaves out is listed rather than left blank, because an empty tank reads as « none needed ».

The sheet statesR. l. leachianus: 48"L x 24"W x 48"H / 120 x 60 x 120 cm | R. l. henkeli: 36"L x 18"W x 36"H / 90 x 45 x 90 cm

What your climate adds

This sheet states a range to hold. Your local climate decides how much work holding it is. Pick the nearest city: nothing is sent anywhere, the choice stays in this browser.

What it needs

Enclosure at least 120 × 60 × 120 cmbecause Enclosure — R. l. leachianus: 48"L x 24"W x 48"H / 120 x 60 x 120 cm | R. l. henkeli: 36"L x 18"W x 36"H / 90 x 45 x 90 cm
A heat sourcebecause Temperature — warm 30-31 °C / cool 22-26 °C / night 19-22 °C
A thermostat to regulate itbecause Temperature — warm 30-31 °C / cool 22-26 °C / night 19-22 °C
A thermometerbecause Temperature — warm 30-31 °C / cool 22-26 °C / night 19-22 °C
A way to check the night figurebecause Temperature — warm 30-31 °C / cool 22-26 °C / night 19-22 °C
A hygrometerbecause Humidity — 60-80%
UVB 6-6% (T5), stated as requiredbecause UVB — one 22" Zoo Med T5 HO Reptisun 5.0 or Arcadia Forest 6% UVB bulb | UVI of 2.0-3.0 in the basking area at the top of the enclosure | the gecko can't get closer than 9-12" below the lamp

Every line above is deduced from a value this sheet states, and names which one. Nothing here is a general recommendation.

Food

Diet

Feeding rhythm

every 1 dAs an adult
28Meals in 28 days

Twenty-eight days, one row. Each band is a meal window. The sheet gives several ages on one line; this is the adult figure.

Why

The windows widen as they go because the interval is a range: four meals after a 10–14 day cycle land anywhere between day 40 and day 56.

The sheet statesJuveniles (0-12 months) — CGD daily, insects every other day | Adults (>12 months) — CGD every other day, insects 1-2x/week | crickets, dubia roaches, discoid roaches, grasshoppers/locusts

The species

Identity

Family / Order
Diplodactylidae / Squamata

Morphs

3 morphs, with how each one is inherited.

No known risk3colour and pattern only
GT (Grande Terre) localityLine-bredLocalitySuper form: —
Nuu Ana / BayonnaiseLine-bredLocalitySuper form: —
Pine Isle localityLine-bredLocalitySuper form: —

National law is not global, and we hold no national wildlife law for any country, Thailand included. Check your own authority before buying or selling.

Questions & sources

Common questions

Does it bite?

Yes, and this is the one gecko where the bite genuinely hurts. Adults are strong and territorial.

Does it make noise?

Yes. It growls and barks at night, quite loudly. Some people love it, some regret the bedroom placement.

How big and how long-lived?

The largest gecko in the world at roughly 30 to 35 centimetres, and it can live 20 years or more.

Can I keep two together?

Risky. Adults can injure each other seriously. Keep singly unless you are breeding with close supervision.

Going deeper

Research dossier: read at the source, not yet cross-checked by our team. Every figure links to the page it was read on.

In the wild

Wild ecology

Distribution
New Caledonia, including Grande Terre and southern islands; arboreal forest-canopy ecology.
Taxonomy context
Molecular revision shows low divergence across range and challenges clean 'henkeli' genetic separation.

mapress.com reptifiles.com

Taxonomy provenance

Finding
2012 molecular revision found low divergence across R. leachianus and found southern insular forms previously assigned to R. l. henkeli were not genetically divergent from southern Grande Terre populations.

Peer reviewed revisionmapress.com

Natural diet

Finding
Omnivorous/frugivorous-insectivorous natural-history profile; specialist captive guidance uses complete gecko diet plus insects, with occasional vertebrate prey only as rare treats.

Specialist husbandryreptifiles.com

Light and food: the evidence

Thermal humidity

Warm c
30-31
Cool c
22-26
Night c
19-22
Humidity percent
60-80

reptifiles.com

Uvb

Target uvi
2-3 at upper basking area
Candidate
22in Zoo Med T5 HO 5.0 or Arcadia Forest 6%
Distance
~9-12in / 23-30cm

reptifiles.com

Diet supplementation

Juvenile
CGD daily; insects every other day
Adult
CGD every other day; insects 1-2x/week
Insects
Dust with calcium; gut-load prey.

reptifiles.com

Housing through life

Enclosure

Taxonomy caveat
These practical husbandry size classes historically use leachianus/henkeli labels; KEEPR keeps the geometry but does not treat the labels as validated molecular subspecies.

Large form cm

L
120
W
60
H
120

Smaller form cm

L
90
W
45
H
90

reptifiles.com

Back to the Atlas My keep

https://keepr.pet/husbandry/en/rhacodactylus-leachianus

Others in this group

What this sheet states

85%
TemperatureHumidityEnclosure sizeActivityOriginDietSourcesUVB

This sheet states 6 of 7 of the fields this product runs on. What is missing turns something off: day/night engine and awake count on the globe. We show the gap rather than fill it with a plausible number.

UVB is measured but does not count: it is absent from 420 of 678 sheets, and on most of them that is not a gap, since a nocturnal snake's sheet has no reason to state a UV index. Counting it would call the library incomplete without cause.