New rescue: Kwanya, just showing her off

[Saskia]

This is the new unwanted leo that got to my hands, she had some stuck shed in her toes, she is fine now skin-wise, now I am working of putting weight in her, she is not skinny but she is deffinitely not in a totally healthy weight, just a bit underweight, she eats like a champ though, she is an eager eater of every insect that comes her way.

She belonged to someone who started a new job that required a lot of traveling, so, her meals started to be further and furher apart from each other, in the end she was eating every 2 weeks, I knew about this situation and offered to care for her while her owner was away, and she started putting a bit of weight, lately he told me he might sell her because "truly, snakes are my thing, not geckos" ... I didn´t buy her, I told him I´d be happy to keep her and he couldn´t care less, so, my temporary resident is now permanent, she is quite large compared to my other leos and has a funny pattern in her head that looks like a skull, I named her because of that: Kwanya (it means skull in hausa).

Hope you like her, just took a couple pictures:

 

[Cu0ngsayz]

Wow nice skill pattern!! And that ONE dot right in the middle of her body caught my attention too!! Over all very nice for her to be in better hands.

 

[smcnearn]

She really does have a fantastic pattern. Thanks for helping a herp in need! :yahoo:

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Thanks for sharing, Saskia. You really have ONE B-I-G heart :yahoo:!

 

[Saskia]

Thanks for your comments, I really like her a lot already! can´t wait to see her getting a nice fat plumpy tail, the name I just decided last night... since she wasn´t "mine" I hadn´t wanted to give her a name before

 

[XoVictoryXo]

she is Gorgeous! happy she landed in good hands! good luck with her!

 

[cricket4u]

He was feeding her every 2 weeks? Was he providing at least belly heat? I guess you already know to put weight on her slowly.

 

[Saskia]

He was feeding her every 2 weeks? Was he providing at least belly heat? I guess you already know to put weight on her slowly.

Yes, every 2 weeks I have had her for 3 weeks now, offering food every other day, she became officialy mine just a couple of days ago.

I "inherited" her with her entire set up, large glass tank, UTH, dishes and one large exo terra cave, I put the extra 2 caves she needed (she has never had a humid hide until now, that´s why she had so much stuck shed, I am impressed she didn´t loose any toes, probably because she is young), and provided a plain calcium dish, which she also never had before.

She has gained weight mostly around her belly, I am waiting for her mass to start biulding up in her tail as well.

She is eating a lot an pooping fine

 

[cricket4u]

The higher humidity in the country you live in may have saved her toes. I noticed the abdomen and that's why I asked about the heating. As an adult especially the weight should build up evenly. Maybe she is over overindulging herself due to infrequent feedings, poor little one. She's like food, oh my food!!!:drool:

 

[Saskia]

am trying to translate overindulging on google translate because I am not familiar with the word... she was thinner around the belly, I have noticed her belly getting fatter, but not the tail, or maybe not so noticeably just yet...

Interestingly I know where she comes from (small herp community here), she was a hatch from a dear friend of mine from 2.011, she was very very nice fat and healthy until july last year when he sold her to this unexperienced person who eventually gave her to me, I know both her parents, she is het for bell albino (her mom is a bell), and her father is a hypo tangerine, very large one, I "know" her since she hatched, but I missed a few months of her life when she was with this middle owner who told me he spent most of the time in Las vegas now, working, and he didn´t have time to feed her more often, so, hopefully she´ll be just great in a couple of months!!

 

[Saskia]

overindulging ! = Consentirse, extralimitarse, bien! Entendido! jajajaja

Yes, probably she is eating a bit too much, more than a normal leo would, I have seen that happen with starved dogs as well, when starting to receive food usually they eat more than they need because they "don´t know when the next meal will be" Just last night she ate 8 surinamensis roaches! and she seemed to want more but I stoped because I was afraid she could throw up for eating too much

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

overindulging = pigging out :biggrin:

 

[cricket4u]

overindulging ! = Consentirse, extralimitarse, bien! Entendido! jajajaja

Yes, probably she is eating a bit too much, more than a normal leo would, I have seen that happen with starved dogs as well, when starting to receive food usually they eat more than they need because they "don´t know when the next meal will be" Just last night she ate 8 surinamensis roaches! and she seemed to want more but I stoped because I was afraid she could throw up for eating too much

So she was very fat before? Definitely take it easy on the amounts of feeding for now.

Yep, pigging out.:biggrin:

 

[Saskia]

Totally!!! The first owner is a dear friend of mine, he keeps a small group of leos (about 5), and he breeds a TON of insects (mealworms, superworms, acheta crickets, dubia roaches, surinamensis roaches, hissing roaches and grillodes crickets!), , he even sells insect feeders, all in large quantities, she was very well fed before, since she hatched, all his animals are big, healthy, happy and on a very healthy weight, free of parasites or crypto, so, I know she is healthy because she has a very healthy background, and she has never been housed with another gecko, I truly know almost all her story, and the "middle" owner bought everything new for her (he keeps a bunch of snakes but no geckos), so, the tank, dishes and the exo terra hide were all brand new for her.
Right now I am avoiding the fatty feeders and am keeping almost strictly on roaches and crickets, I want her to gain healthy weight, maybe if I was giving her more fat she would have a fatter tail right now, but I think this way it´s better, I feed her every other day and dust with Reptivite once a week, she doesn´t like it very much, I have to switch one insect with dusting, the next without it, because if I give 2 dusted insects in a row she spits them hehehe...

 

[Saskia]

Just wanted to post a recent pic of Kwanya, she has started to plump her tail up now! She is looking better and better!

 

[Saskia]

Another picture, taken yesterday, and a comparison:

 

[XoVictoryXo]

she looks great!