Leopard geckos splooting on their bellies with their legs splayed out is an adorable sight. If you’ve seen your leo friend doing this, you’ve probably wondered why they engage in this funny behavior. In this comprehensive guide, we will provide detailed explanations into all things related to leopard gecko splooting.
If you don’t have time to read the full article, here’s the short answer: Leopard geckos sploot to regulate their body temperature and feel secure. It is a natural behavior that is nothing to worry about.
What Exactly is Splooting?
Definition and Appearance of Splooting
Splooting is a unique and endearing behavior exhibited by leopard geckos where they lay completely flat on their stomach with their hind legs stretched out behind them. This results in their back end being splayed out while their front legs remain tucked under their body.
When a leopard gecko sploots, it will flatten its entire body against the ground, spreading out its limbs. Typically, its front legs will remain folded near the head or slightly extended forwards. The back legs will be fully extended and pointing backwards.
This gives them a frog-like appearance from above.
A splooting leopard gecko may sometimes also spread out its tail or twist it to one side. The gecko’s belly will be firmly pressed to the ground when splooting. Its eyes may be open and alert or closed lazily. Splooting gives them a starfish-like look as their limbs radiate out from their body.
Reasons for Splooting: Temperature Regulation and Feeling Secure
Experts believe that leopard geckos sploot for multiple reasons depending on the context and environment.
One of the main reasons leopard geckos sploot is temperature regulation. Leopard geckos are cold-blooded reptiles, so they need access to warm surfaces to heat up their bodies and digest food properly.
Splooting maximizes the surface area contact between their belly and a warm surface, allowing efficient conduction of heat into their body. This allows them to absorb heat from warm rocks or heating pads placed under their tank.
For example, a gecko may choose to sploot on a sun-warmed rock during the day to reach its preferred body temperature. At night, a gecko may sploot over a heat mat designed to create a warm spot in the tank.
By flattening themselves out, leopard geckos can soak up more warmth as it transfers from the surface to their exposed underside.
Another reason leopard geckos sploot is to feel more secure in their environment. In the wild, leopard geckos live in rocky crevices and underground burrows. By splooting in their tank habitat, they can feel more grounded and anchored in an open space.
A splooted gecko also has its limbs spread out to feel any vibrations in their surroundings.
When geckos are comfortable in an environment, they will exhibit behaviors like splooting to show their contentment. A gecko that frequently sploots in your tank is indicating that it feels safe and relaxed in its habitat.
Temperature Regulation
Leopard geckos are ectothermic animals, meaning they rely on external heat sources to regulate their body temperature. Since they cannot generate enough metabolic heat on their own, these reptiles require access to proper ambient temperatures in order to thrive.
Leopard Geckos are Ectothermic
As ectotherms, leopard geckos depend on behavioral mechanisms like splooting and habitat selection to maintain optimal body temps of 88-92° F during the day and 82-88° F at night.
Without adequate heating and cooling opportunities, leopard geckos would quickly develop illness. Proper temps allow geckos to digest food and carry out other physiological processes fundamental to health.
Splooting Helps Absorb Heat Efficiently
Leopard geckos primarily absorb heat through their undersides. By splaying out their limbs perpendicular to their bodies, leopard geckos can press their bellies flat against a warm surface to soak up heat efficiently.
This splooting posture maximizes contact between a gecko’s skin and the ground beneath it. Splooting may also enable leopard geckos to shed excess body heat when needed.
Best Temperatures for Leopard Geckos
The optimum ambient air temperature for a leopard gecko habitat ranges from 82-88° F during the night to 88-92° F during the day. The hot end where a gecko’s warm dry hide shelter is located should be 88-92° F. Meanwhile, the cool end with a gecko’s moist hide box should measure 70-75° F.
Use under tank heating pads or overhead ceramic heat emitters to create effective heat gradients. Strategically place thermometers and hygrometers to monitor temps and humidity.
Security and Comfort
Exposure of Belly Indicates Feeling Safe
Leopard geckos often sploot by lying flat on their stomachs with their legs spread out when they feel safe and secure in their environment. This exposes their belly and underside, which is a vulnerable position for them.
By splooting in this way, leopard geckos are essentially saying “I feel safe enough here to completely relax and not worry about protecting my underside.” It’s a sign that they are comfortable in their surroundings and with any humans or other geckos they may be interacting with.
Some key points about leopard geckos splooting for security:
- Shows they feel safe and unthreatened in current environment
- Vulnerable belly and underside exposed, which normally they’d keep protected
- Indicates complete relaxation and sense of security
- Often done when handled by trusted owner or around familiar geckos
- May take time for new geckos to feel safe enough to sploot
Splooting Stretches Out Muscles
In addition to communicating security, splooting can also give leopard geckos a good muscular stretch. By splaying their legs out to the sides and lying flat, they are extending their limb, back, and core muscles. Some key benefits of splooting as a stretch include:
- Extends hip flexors and hamstrings by spreading back legs
- Stretches abdominals by flattening out on stomach
- Provides extension for spinal muscles
- Can prevent cramps and muscle tightness
- Feels good, like a nice stretch for humans after waking up!
Researchers have found that leopard geckos sploot more after being confined or inactive for a while. This suggests that splooting helps them loosen up muscles that have been cramped or static. And given that reptiles are cold-blooded, a good sploot in a sunny warm spot can literally warm up their muscles for optimal function.
So for leopard geckos, splooting is akin to doing yoga – it’s about stretching out the body and feeling energized.
When to Be Concerned About Splooting
Splooting in Abnormal Positions
Leopard geckos are known for their silly splooting behavior, where they lay completely flat on their belly with their legs spread out behind them. It’s an adorable quirk of these gentle reptiles. However, while splooting is normal, excessive or abnormal splooting may be a sign of illness or discomfort in leopard geckos.
Leopard geckos typically sploot in a natural position – with all four legs and their tail spread out behind them as they lay flat. If your leo is splooting with their legs positioned strangely, such as crossed over each other or bunched up unnaturally, it could be a red flag.
Similarly, if they are splooting with their tail curled underneath or to the side of their body rather than straight back, it may indicate a problem.
Geckos that sploot with their bodies contorted or pressed against the side of their enclosure may be trying to find relief from discomfort or pain. Excessive splooting in strange spots around their habitat could mean they are trying to cool down and regulate their body temperature due to illness.
Abnormal splooting may also be a symptom of metabolic bone disease from poor nutrition.
Excessive Splooting May Indicate Illness
While the occasional sploot is perfectly natural for leopard geckos, excessive splooting may be a sign of illness or stress. If your leo is splooting constantly throughout the day without taking breaks, it likely means something is wrong.
Healthy leopard geckos will sploot for short periods before getting up to walk around, climb, hunt feeder insects, or drink water. Splooting too frequently can indicate fatigue, respiratory infection, impaction from substrate ingestion, or other health issues.
It may also signal your gecko is too cold and trying to raise its body temperature.
You should closely monitor any excessive splooting in your leopard gecko. Make sure their tank is between 80-90°F on the warm side with a heat mat and overhead heating lamp. Bring them to an exotic veterinarian for an exam if excessive splooting persists more than a day or two, just to be safe.
Encouraging Natural Splooting
Leopard geckos love to sploot – when they splay out their legs to stretch out and cool off. As responsible leopard gecko owners, we want to set up their enclosures to encourage this cute behavior as part of their natural routine. Proper husbandry is key!
Let’s look at some tips for enclosure set up, heating, hides and decor to promote healthy, happy geckos that sploot to their heart’s content.
Proper Enclosure Set Up
Leopard geckos are terrestrial lizards that come from hot, arid regions. To mimic their native habitat, use a 20-30 gallon tank with a sand or tile substrate to allow them to dig and burrow if desired. Make sure the enclosure is escape-proof with a secure screened lid.
Maintain a temperature gradient from around 75-80°F on the cool end to 88-92°F on the warm end so your gecko can thermoregulate. Site humid and moist hides on the warm end so humidity ranges from 40-60%. Voila – ideal splooting conditions!
Heat Mats and Lamps
Belly heat is essential for leopard geckos to digest their food, so install an under tank heating mat that covers 1⁄3 of the tank floor. Complement this with overhead heating to create ambient temperatures for splooting.
Ceramic heat emitters or dimming incandescent lamps work well to heat the air without disturbing natural day/night cycles. Make adjustments until temperatures allow your gecko to stretch out fully when cooling off after basking. Ah…bliss!
Hides and Decor
Hides are vital for security, so provide a minimum of three – one warm humid, one cool dry and one in the middle. Add fun cork rounds, branches and fake plants for enrichment. Naturalistic vivariums allow leopard geckos to behave as they would in the wild, wandering out to survey their terrain at will.
When they’ve had their fill of adventure, out comes a leg here, a tail there, full sploot mode activated! 😍 Give them varied textures to traverse and multiple basking spots to sprawl upon for spine-tingling bliss.
By tuning your leopard gecko habitat to their specific needs, your little lizard will reward you with delightful behaviors like splooting. Nothing beats the feeling of knowing your special friend is living their best life!
Conclusion
In conclusion, leopard gecko splooting is a natural behavior primarily for regulating body temperature efficiently. It also indicates that your gecko feels safe and secure. Generally, you should not worry about splooting, but excessive splooting or splooting in odd positions may signify illness.
By setting up a proper enclosure, you can allow your leopard gecko to sploot comfortably.
