For a leopard gecko, a good first boarding stay is built around the floor of the enclosure. He warms himself from below, hides through the day, and eats after dusk, so preparation means making sure the boarder reproduces his warm, cool, and humid hides faithfully and understands how much information his thick, fat-storing tail gives about his condition during your absence.
Verify the heat is controlled, not guessed
Ask how the warm end is heated and, crucially, what controls it. A heat source without a thermostat can overheat, so confirm there is a thermostat and a thermometer reading the warm hide area, which should sit around the high 80s to low 90s Fahrenheit, with a cooler end in the mid 70s for choice. Your gecko should have three hides: one over the warmth, one at the cool end, and one humid hide lined with damp material that supports clean shedding. If the boarder suggests a bright basking lamp as the main heat source, question it — leopard geckos are crepuscular ground-dwellers and do best with gentle belly heat and subdued light.
Pack insects he hunts and powders you use
Send his usual live feeders in secure tubs, enough for the stay, with a feeding note covering how many he typically takes, which evenings you feed, and how you dust them with calcium and vitamin powders. Leopard geckos can be surprisingly conservative hunters: a new insect type, a feeder that moves differently, or feeding under bright light at midday can all produce a refusal that looks like illness. Note his preferred method too, whether that is tong-feeding, hunting loose in the enclosure, or eating from a shallow dish, and warn the boarder to remove uneaten live insects rather than leaving them to wander and nibble at a sleeping gecko.
Make shed support part of the brief
If his colour looks pale and dull on drop-off day, flag that a shed is coming. Ask the boarder to keep the humid hide damp throughout, and after a shed to glance at his toes and tail tip, where retained skin can tighten unnoticed. A lukewarm shallow soak is a reasonable first step for a small patch of stuck shed, but the boarder should not pull at it, and persistent retained skin, swollen toes, or a gecko who stops feeding around the shed deserves a call to your reptile vet. Pack a recent note of when he last shed cleanly so the boarder has a comparison rather than a guess.
Travel him dark, flat, and secure
Carry him in a low, ventilated tub he cannot fall within, lined with paper towel for grip, kept level in the car and shaded from sun through the window. Do not transport loose foliage, heavy decor, or a water dish that can slide and soak the tub. At handover, keep it brief and let him walk into the prepared enclosure himself if practical, then leave him alone to explore rather than lifting him out repeatedly for introductions. His first evening meal may be skipped entirely; that alone, in an otherwise alert gecko with a plump tail, is settling behaviour, not a crisis.
Leave condition notes the boarder can check against
Describe his tail at its normal best, his usual evening activity, and how his droppings normally appear, then set the threshold for contact: refusal to eat stretching beyond several days with visible tail thinning, lethargy at his usual active hour, discharge from the eyes, or a dark, shrivelled tail tip. Agree a simple update pattern, perhaps a photo after his first feed. KinsLe's Care Pass puts his hide temperatures, feeding evenings, and shed notes into one clear, temporary handoff for the boarder.