Female gecko , has changed her habits on me

[dptydog]

Im not new to keeping reptiles but am new to leopard geckos.

I have my little girl in a 10 gallon enclosure, hot side is 90 kewl side is around 75 day and 73 at night.

she has 3 hides hot, mid and moist.

paper towels, rock

calcium in a dish, water bowl ect. ect. all the basics right off most care sheets.

My concern is this , she shed last week. and appears to be sleeping alot at night, of course during the day. And hasn't eaten or defecated since then. My concern is possible impaction. Or is this just the beging of the summer attitude of them?

 

[cricket4u]

Hi,

I have to wonder what type of thermometer you are using and how you're reading these temps. A 10 gallon is very small and almost impossible to provide a healthy temp gradient. Can you fill out the questionnaire in this link?

http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...68527-helping-your-sick-gecko-read-first.html

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Im not new to keeping reptiles but am new to leopard geckos.

I have my little girl in a 10 gallon enclosure, hot side is 90 kewl side is around 75 day and 73 at night.

she has 3 hides hot, mid and moist.

paper towels, rock

calcium in a dish, water bowl ect. ect. all the basics right off most care sheets.

My concern is this , she shed last week. and appears to be sleeping alot at night, of course during the day. And hasn't eaten or defecated since then. My concern is possible impaction. Or is this just the beging of the summer attitude of them?

What type of calcium have you in the dish? Brand and kind, D3 in it or not?

Please complete the Health Questionnaire which is linked in cricket4u's post /\.

 

[Mardy]

How old is she?

 

[dptydog]

Sorry , im kinda slow at all this so it took me awhile to compile the "questionnaire"
So here we go

Leopard Gecko
Lil
Albino/Jungle ? still trying to work this out
female
i believe around 8mnths
29grams
head to tail 6inches
5 inches when we got her
Previous owner
Don't Know
10 gallon tank
Aquarium style with screen lid
Rock/Tile/Paper towel, sphagnum moss
Humid hide , yes, between hot and cool side

Lighting
she recieves ambient light from the kitchen flourecent light
very little ambient window light but there is one about 5 ft away from her
heating
yes
not sure the brand
Ground temp on substrate , warm dry hide, 93 f
87
81
UTH
no, took it out to maintain better heat, was falling bellow 85
yes
i would say its a toss up between warm dry , and warm humid hides
it goese down to about 80
Humidity is measure its roughly 40% right now, ive never seen it drop below 30

Diet
Staple has been meal worms
im trying to rotate over to crickets
Previous owner did strickly super worms, and im not found of those.
they are always gutloaded, Fluckers high calcium cricket diet, zuccinis, collard greens ect..
health food store calcium its just a generic powder. always just lil bit in a dish
calcium d3 roughly about every 3 days rep cal, and rep cal multivitamin
she hasnt eaten in about a week.
She is sleeping alot more lately
she still stands up tall and proud though no slouching with her,
she is not skinny by no means her tail is still thick , not as plump as my other two.
she has lost 3 grams
no poop in a week, mind you all this after a shed.

other critters in the household are,
Crested Gecko, Jackson chameleon, two other leopards that are much larger hence why she is on her own know, was concerned of possible bulling, Beared Dragon

And as far as the tank size I am aware its not the perfect size, I pulled her out from another tank cause she is not growing as fast as the others and was afraid due to her small size she would be stressed.

So she shed about a week ago, and since has not eaten, or pooped, and is sleeping more then ususal even at night.
i was wanting to know if after a she is this normal. or is this possibly a impacted gecko or something else i should check . Thank you guys for your time 8).

 

[Mardy]

At 8 months, she's prime to start her first ovulation. Check her stomach, see if you can see any pink circles/dots towards the middle of her stomach. It's a sign of ovulation. If you are unsure what you are looking at, put her in a clear container and take a picture of her stomach. We can help you determine if she's ovulating or not.

If she's ovulating, then her behavior is completely normal. Female geckos that are ovulating will stop eating for random duration.

You did a good job separating her from another group of geckos, kudos to you. Many hobbyists don't bother doing that. When a gecko is smaller than their other cagemates, bullying can occur so you did good separating her. 10 gallon is fine for a gecko of that size, so don't worry about the size of your tank for now.

I will say that 29g at 8 months is very skinny, unusual skinny. Have you bred her before? Was she mated with a male either on purpose or accidentally?

Also check her stomach for signs of impaction, you may be able to see some sort of bulge or dark spots towards her abdomen. You use sphagnum moss as moisthide substrate, there have been cases of geckos accidentally ingesting moss. So if you would imagine her rubbing her body all over the moss while shedding, then while ingesting her shed she could've accidentally ingested moss. That could cause impaction problem.

If you want to avoid it, use wet papertowels as moist hide substrate. Or coco fiber (eco earth), it's fine enough that even if they do ingest some of it, they should pass through just fine.

Other than that I don't see anything that jumps out that says you're doing something wrong. It's hard to tell from the post, but you do have an UTH that covers 1/3 of the tank right? And the hot spot is 90-95F yes? If so your eating is fine.

 

[dptydog]

I will get her out and look at that belly for ovulation. And ill remove the moss and go to towels. I use them already for her umm potty area. She has always been smaller then the other two since we got them. Which for me was unusual since the prior owner said he got them all at the same time, One would assume they would be similar in size. thanks again for the quick post.

Any suggestions just incase she is impacted that i could do to help her threw that even if there isn't definitive signs yet?

 

[dptydog]

Oh and what are the thoughts on crush english walnuts. Ive seen so many diffrent post on substrate that it can be rather confusing what is safe and what really isnt, I have read both yes and no's on that substrate.

 

[Mardy]

Definitely no on crushed walnuts, they have sharp edges even though they look very fine and soft to the touch. The sharp edges will cut the gecko's insides open if ingested.

As for what you could do if the gecko is impacted, warm water soak with a drop of mineral oil is often the home remedy. If that doesn't work, and the gecko continue to lose weight, and dark spots start occurring on her stomach, then she'll need a vet immediately.

 

[dptydog]

i feel bad she was actualy out and about finaly and i snatched her up 8( .

 

[Mardy]

I'm no vet, just putting that out front. But that dark spot near her stomach is not a good sign. It could indicate she has liver issues, or some sort of liver disease. The dark spot also has a red bump next to it, that's also not a good thing because there should be no red bulge at that spot. That's not ovulation, it's some sort of internal organ issues or other problems.

She may need a reptile vet, not just any vet because most dog/cat vets won't know jack about leopard geckos. But if you have a specialized reptile vet near you, it may be time to get her to a vet as soon as possible.

 

[dptydog]

she has been out of the other tank for about 2 weeks, it is possible that the male could have mated early.

 

[dptydog]

We have a reptile vet , do to our collection of baby's here. should i cut out her d3 for awhile then just incase it is liver issues, untill i get that appointment setup. sometimes if its not an emergency it takes a week to get in there or 2.

 

[Mardy]

At her age multivitamin + d3 should be given 2-3x a week, or roughly every other feeding. But if she has some sort of organ issues, it could explain why she's so small at 8 months old.

The middle of their under side should be where the stomach is, and ovulation usually starts right below it near the middle. The dark spot and the red bulge is above the stomach, so it's hard to say what that is.

 

[dptydog]

Ill get an appointment setup, in the mean time I will watch her closely hopefully i am just to paranoid and she will come back around. Ill leave her alone for the next few days to let her chill and then give her the warm batch while we wait to see the dr.

If there are any vets in here I hope one of them drop there 2 cents aswell.
Thanks again bud for all the advice.

 

[cricket4u]

Hi,

Do you mind placing the answers next to the questions? Just change the color to the answers so their easier to read. I think your air temps are a bit high, poor temp gradient is very common in a 10 gallon and can lead to dehydration. You posted several temperatures which I'm confused about. Do take her to a reptile vet as soon as possible. Not even a reptile vet can properly diagnose through a computer and by simply looking at pictures. I just want to make sure that you are providing proper husbandry that could have lead to the problem.

 

[dptydog]

Im sorry , to have bothered you all i am taking her to the vet, but the questionare thing is driving me nuts, I understand needing to know what husbandry she is getting. but having me retype that again is just a waiste of mine and your time.

 

[dptydog]

Q: How should I heat my gecko’s vivarium?
A. It is best to use an Under Terrarium Heater (UTH or Heat mat) and make sure you have it on a thermostat! The heat mat should cover around a 3rd of the floor space of the vivarium, with the temperature set between 86*F and 95*F, with it dropping 10*F or so at the cooler end of the vivarium. A night time temperature drop is tolerated by leopard geckos but is not essential. Light bulbs can also be used for viewing purposes and to simulate day time better, but it is important that it is also on a thermostat to avoid overheating the vivarium. Leopard geckos do NOT require UV lighting!

this is directly from the care sheet from this website.

Temperatures for all leos regardless of size:
88-93 F (31-34 C) ground temp at warm end inside the warm dry hide
no greater than 85 F (29.5 C) air temp - 4 inches above ground on the warm end
no greater than 75 F (24.5 C) air temp - 4 inches above ground on the cool end

Leave the UTH on 24/7. Can turn off overhead heating at night.
this is from this website.

im realy confused what it should be and what it shouldnt be.. could you direct me to some literature please

 

[dptydog]

the earlier temps where from my wrong notes i apologize on another enclosure, i try to keep all my repitles documented in my big yellow book here so i can , monitor any changes .

 

[cricket4u]

Im sorry , to have bothered you all i am taking her to the vet, but the questionare thing is driving me nuts, I understand needing to know what husbandry she is getting. but having me retype that again is just a waiste of mine and your time.

I guess you expected me to memorize the order of questions.:roll: