Hi all,
First post, first gecko, and first year of having her!
I have a big female leo named Sophie that I got late last summer. I believe she is around two or three years old. Throughout the late summer, fall, and early winter, she ate like a pig. Later in the winter, her eating slowed, until in mid February she went off food completely. Since then, she's eaten maybe seven mealworms total.
Her behavior is normal - if anything she's more active than usual. She's out and about in the mornings and evenings, and sleeps during the day and night.
Her poop looks normal, except for one soft/liquidy one a few weeks ago. Besides that, her poops are less frequent but are the normal texture/shape/color (although the urate is pretty small).
She's in a tall 40 gallon (it's what I had), with repticarpet. She has a cool hide, and a warm and dry wet hide. Her air temps are usually between 70-80, and her ground temps are on a gradient from around 73-75 on the cool side to around 90-93 on the warm side.
Normally, I dust her food with calcium with D3 and multivitamins once a week, but since she's not been eating obviously what she's getting is different from that. I keep the mealworms in oatmeal and give them carrots and whatever other veggies I have periodically (usually greens).
Since mid February, she has gone from 105 grams to 95 grams (like I said, she's a big girl).
My question is, should I be worried about her weight loss/going off food? From what I've read, it's not abnormal for females to lose their appetites in the early spring. It doesn't look to me like she's ovulating, but I'm not at all experienced with identifying that. It just seems like the vein on her belly is more greenish colored, and she has two big white blobs on either side of it near her tail - but those have always been there.
I'm just not sure what constitutes "rapid" weight loss, and at what point I should worry that she's losing too much. I don't think she was overweight to start with, and she doesn't seem to be underweight now. Her tail is thinner, but still has a decent thickness to it.
Pardon how long this is, I just wanted to give as much detail as possible in case there's something I'm obviously doing wrong! It seems to me that she's ok, but I wanted to get some other opinions in case I should be worried.
First post, first gecko, and first year of having her!
I have a big female leo named Sophie that I got late last summer. I believe she is around two or three years old. Throughout the late summer, fall, and early winter, she ate like a pig. Later in the winter, her eating slowed, until in mid February she went off food completely. Since then, she's eaten maybe seven mealworms total.
Her behavior is normal - if anything she's more active than usual. She's out and about in the mornings and evenings, and sleeps during the day and night.
Her poop looks normal, except for one soft/liquidy one a few weeks ago. Besides that, her poops are less frequent but are the normal texture/shape/color (although the urate is pretty small).
She's in a tall 40 gallon (it's what I had), with repticarpet. She has a cool hide, and a warm and dry wet hide. Her air temps are usually between 70-80, and her ground temps are on a gradient from around 73-75 on the cool side to around 90-93 on the warm side.
Normally, I dust her food with calcium with D3 and multivitamins once a week, but since she's not been eating obviously what she's getting is different from that. I keep the mealworms in oatmeal and give them carrots and whatever other veggies I have periodically (usually greens).
Since mid February, she has gone from 105 grams to 95 grams (like I said, she's a big girl).
My question is, should I be worried about her weight loss/going off food? From what I've read, it's not abnormal for females to lose their appetites in the early spring. It doesn't look to me like she's ovulating, but I'm not at all experienced with identifying that. It just seems like the vein on her belly is more greenish colored, and she has two big white blobs on either side of it near her tail - but those have always been there.
I'm just not sure what constitutes "rapid" weight loss, and at what point I should worry that she's losing too much. I don't think she was overweight to start with, and she doesn't seem to be underweight now. Her tail is thinner, but still has a decent thickness to it.
Pardon how long this is, I just wanted to give as much detail as possible in case there's something I'm obviously doing wrong! It seems to me that she's ok, but I wanted to get some other opinions in case I should be worried.
I'm hoping this is just her cycle, it's just my first time with her so I want to know what kinds of things would be sign that I should be concerned.