Fat-related diseases/problems with geckos?

[Jan Grathwohl]

Hi

Does anybody know of problems due to overfeeding/massiv feeding in geckos?

I was discussing this subject with a geckobreeder, and became quite interested in firsthand experience with this.

 

[Nathan Hall]

Fatty liver is extremely common in captives. Geckos will have similar problems as humans with fatty livers: shortened life, possible liver failure over time, etc. In general, I think a lot of people think more food is better. Not true at all. It is also good to only feed fatty foodstuff sparingly. I have an old female O. castelnaui that has a fatty liver. She's been on a diet for a long time

 

[geckodan]

As Nathan said it is quite common. Numerous problems occur as a result of overffeding. An individual with obesity +/- fatty liver degeneration will exhibit - shortened lifespan, reduced immune response, bleeding disorders, poor fertility, higher incidence of dystocia (egg binding), low libido, metabolic disorders such as diabetes, increased risk of death during cooling.

Basically try and maintain your specimens in "wild" lean condition for best survival. I find it quite disturbing when I see the pictures and comments in both of the Henkel and Scmidt book regarding Giant Cave geckoes. They show a picture of a ridiculously obese animal and them claim it as a normal feature of the breed. I don't know how they got it that fat. Giant caves are a lean mean eating machine but I have never seen a fat one in Australia.

 

[Brian]

When I had some obese Fat tails I got too many eggs it seems. They were banging them out too fast. So the first ones were good, the middle set were poor, and then when egg production slowed towards the end they got good again.