Hi

[Ossoceo]

Hey, basically I've recently got my first gecko, as of just shy of a month ago! I've wanted one for about 10 years but it's taken this long to finally get her.

She's a Leopard, of yellow colouration, central stripe, with light yellow splodges on her head and the brightest blood red eyes I've ever seen (I'll hopefully get some pics up soon XD). I'm posting her cos I'm new, but I do have some questions so I'll add them to this rather than having two new threads and overcomplicating things!

I happened across this site when googling 'Blind leopard gecko' as, tbh, I don't think she can see well, if at all. But hey ho, I'll be paying particular attention to her food to see if she's hunting okay, food seems to be disappearing and she poos regularly. (Her poo has weird white solid stuff on, if anyone could tell me what that is and what it means that would be amazing!) She's shed once in that time pretty well, only a few toes did I have to get the excess skin off.

But yeah, otherwise she seems happy enough, loves to be handled and climb my sofa, and hopefully I'll get in on a few cool chats as I'm quite the biology student and love reptiles on the whole!

Thanks in advance
C

 

[acpart]

Welcome to the forums and congratulation on your first gecko. The white stuff in her poo is the "urates" or pee. It's the same with bird poop.

Aliza

 

[Ossoceo]

Thanks Aliza, that's one less thing to worry about! Hoping to change the substrate today to get away from sand and the risk of impaction, and just looking for my cable to get some pics up =)

 

[Hannibal]

Welcome to GU! What makes you think she might be blind? Are her eyes cloudy, sunken in or does she just not hunt well while your watching? I have a gecko that likes to eat in private when nobody is watching...if he sees you watching he'll immediately stop what he was doing.

 

[Ossoceo]

Hey Hannibal! I just think her sight is really quite poor. She walks into everything, always using touch and sound to navigate her way around. Her eyes are blood red, but there's no form of pupil/slit in her eye whatsoever. However her eyes seem perfectly fine otherwise, they're not sunken, her eyelids open and close quite abit depending on sleeping etc. She does sometimes close her eye facing the light and keep the other one open etc. I watched her the other day(night) with a low level of light from another room coming under the door, and she went to eat this cricket, but missed seven times before it ran off. Now, the thing is, the cricket was so close to her nose it was near touching, but she didn't seem able to see it. She can notice changes from light to dark pretty well, but when it's a slow transition she doesn't really seem to notice.

Her eating isn't exactly massive and I'm wondering if that's due to poor sight, she eats no more than a couple of crickets a week, but her tail is only ever so slightly thinner than it was when we got her, over a month ago, and she doesnt appear to be losing any weight at all. But she is REALLY good at following noise, I mean, I walk in in complete darkness turn on a low light and she's looking right at me. But if I slowly sneak to the side, she'll still be looking at where I was. Make another noise and bang her heads looking straight at me. Oh, and she's quite happy with me being around, often exploring whilst I'm in the room etc. Any ideas?

Thanks
C

 

[Hannibal]

The only thing I can think of outside of a possible injury or something neurological, is a vitamin A deficiency. Hard to tell in these guys; I would recommend a vet visit if it gets worse or she starts dropping weight.

 

[acpart]

With those ruby red eyes she is an albino and probably quite sensitive to light. Does she hunt any better in the "dark"?

Aliza

 

[Ossoceo]

She doesn't seem to be losing weight though. I got her some hoppers yesterday because I heard they might be slightly more noisy for her to find, so fingers crossed that'll help. Obviously I haven't seen her hunt in the full dark (can't quite afford those NVGs XD) so I can't honestly answer that one. I'll keep watching her and especially what food is in there. I haven;t seen either of the two crickets that were in there last night yet, so fingers crossed!

C