So ever since I brought my bp home, my sister has been getting more and more interested in reptiles to the point where we're always watching past episodes of snakebytes together. For the past several months she's been doing research on Leopard Geckos and my mom and I would like to get her one for her birthday over the summer. So of course when I go out to get my girl's rats, we've been doing some window shopping and have a few questions that we have either heard conflicting information about or are not addressed on the caresheet or FAQ

1. For the tank, we've been look at 5.5 and 10 gallon ones. Since we're going to be getting a juvenile one instead of a baby, we were wondering if a 10 gallon would be alright to start off with if we provide a lot of ground cover and cover two sides.

2. For food, we were wondering about dead vs live. Zoo Med sells canned gut loaded crickets and we were wondering if that would be a healthy alternative to live. My mom isn't crazy on the idea of having to "feed the food", but if it is nessicary I will tell her as such.

3. For the first 8 months, we're planning on using paper towels as substrate. For afterwards however, we were wondering what sand would be the safest or if it would be best to just keep it to paper towels.

Thanks in advance, guys!