How Much Does it Cost to Keep a Leopard Gecko?
- Apr 9
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 12
Keeping a leopard gecko costs around £360 on set up, followed by roughly £23 per month to keep the gecko happy, warm and fed. Here is exactly where that money goes...
A leopard gecko can cost anything from £0 - £2,500, depending on the morph (colour) you want. Most people spend between £20 and £200 in my experience.
For more information on morphs, read: Leopard Gecko Morph Masterlist →
How much does a leopard gecko enclosure cost to set up?
In my years of keeping leopard geckos, the main expenses have been vet costs, and initial enclosure set up. Let's break down that initial setup cost:
Item | Amount Needed | Total Cost |
|---|---|---|
Enclosure (Learn more →) | 1 | £120 |
UVB (Learn more →) | 1 | £45 |
Heat bulb mount | 1 | £15 |
Heat bulb (Learn more →) | 1 | £7 |
Substrate | 1 | £15 |
Misc hides & corkbark | varies | £40 |
Water bowl | 1 | £8 |
Thermometer / hygrometer | 2 | £8 |
Dimming thermostat | 1 | £75 |
Slate | 1 | £10 |
Temperature Gun | 1 | £15 |
This makes the total cost of a leopard geckos enclosure add up to around £360. You will be able to find some of these items cheaper, and sometimes you can find whole or partial setups second-hand on places like Facebook Marketplace too.
How much does it cost to run a leopard gecko's heating and lighting?
Once you have your setup and your gecko, your ongoing costs will be:
Live food & Supplements
Equipment Replacements
Electricity
Vets bills
Live Food & Supplements - £20 per month
Leopard geckos need a varied diet of live insects to thrive. Many keepers choose to maintain their own insect colonies, feeding them vegetable scraps and creating a self-sustaining system. However, for the average keeper with 1 - 3 geckos - and even me, with 14 - this is not generally worth the effort.
Not only does breeding insects like dubia roaches require time and additional effort, but overexposure to insects can actually cause contact allergies. I therefore recommend limiting your contact as much as possible - wash your hands after touching them and wear gloves if possible.
Instead, many people opt for buying insects ad hoc, or subscribing to live food subscription services. I buy ad hoc from suppliers like Dubia Paul or Swell.
One gecko will get through three or four tubs of insects per month at around £4 per tub, so budgeting just under £20 a month is about right.
Supplements last a really long time - especially with only one gecko. They cost around £20 up front, but you are likely to have them go past their sell-by date before using them up.
Equipment Replacements - £55 per year
UVB bulbs only lasts 6 - 12 months, depending on the brand. A replacement bulb for the Arcadia Shadedweller kit costs around £15, and lasts a full 12 months.
Basking bulbs do have a shorter lifespan - I would budget for around three per year per gecko, adding up to £21 per year.
Substrate also need replacing every 6 - 12 months in non-bioactive setups. This adds another £15.
Electricity - £75 per year
This is not the huge cost everybody expects it to be. Let's do the maths...
Arcadia Shadedweller - 8w, 14 hours a day
Basking Bulb - 50w, 16 hours a day
Based on the current Ofgem price cap rate (April--June 2026) - 24.67p/kWh
Arcadia Shadedweller (8W, 14 hrs/day)
Daily energy: 8W × 14h = 112Wh = 0.112 kWh
Daily cost: 0.112 × 24.67p = 2.76p
Monthly cost: × 30.5 = 84p/month
Annual cost: × 365 = £1.01/year
Basking bulb (50W, 16 hrs/day)
Daily energy: 50W × 16h = 800Wh = 0.8 kWh
Daily cost: 0.8 × 24.67p = 19.74p
Monthly cost: × 30.5 = £6.02/month
Annual cost: × 365 = £72.06/year
These calculations also assume you are running a 50w bulb at full power for the full 16 hours per day - however this is unlikely to be the case. Your thermostat will be dimming it, particularly over summer when ambient temperatures rise. The reality is more likely something like £50 per year.
You can reduce this further by experimenting with lower-wattage bulbs - I have a few 25w bulbs in some of my setups and they work well, particularly over summer.
Vet Bills
It's a common misconception that reptiles don't have access to vet care - but this is far from true. There are many wonderful exotic vets out there, but unfortunately they do not come cheap.
The bright side is that, although some people do advocate for this, I personally do not take my reptiles to the vets for check-ups unless something is wrong, so no routine fees.
Search for an exotic vet near you before you need one, not after.
I would recommend having at least a few hundred pounds set aside as a vet fund for your pet.
Insurance is available, but because leopard geckos are very protected in their environments - unlike a dog or cat who is wandering around, eating chicken bones and generally getting into things they shouldn't - illness isn't super common so I don't insure any of mine the way I do my dog and cats.
How much does it cost to keep a leopard gecko?
In order to keep a leopard gecko, happy, healthy, and enriched, you will need:
~£360 to set up it's enclosure
~ £23 per month (£275 a year) to cover equipment failures, food and electricity bills.
It's also recommended that you have a few hundred pounds set aside as a vet fund for if your gecko gets sick.
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