Howdy all,



It's been a while since I've cared for a baby leo (3 or 4 years) but I decided it was time to add to the family so I picked up a very young (my most accurate estimate is around a month, since the people I bought it from couldn't really give me a satisfactory answer) gecko from my local pet store. I bought the little guy about a week and a half ago and he or she is still too young to accurately sex, so for the sake of simplicity I'm just going to call him a boy for now.



My setup is pretty standard, 20 long tank with a cold hide (half log), moist hide (plastic cave with moist sphagnum moss wrapped in paper towel, on the warmish side), and warm hide (small plastic cave). He also has a water dish, a small dish with calcium, one fake plant/leafy vine type thing over the half log (cold hide) and a couple rocks - one for basking that has a small fake cactus on it and one for climbing propped up securely against the moist hide. There is still plenty of open space in the middle of the terrarium for strolling if he feels like it. I have both a red heat lamp and a UTH but I've been using the heat lamp exclusively since he doesn't seem to mind it and it makes viewing much easier for me. Digestion hasn't been a problem.



The first 3 or 4 days went off without a hitch, he at plenty of dusted crickets, I fed him mealworms by hand and he enjoyed them, and he was and still is pooping normal feces on a regular basis (once to twice a day). The problem I have now is that he seems to have a slight shake when he moves slowly. It seems to disappear when he's hunting/moving quickly or when I pull him out of the cage and let him run around my room a bit or crawl up my hand/arm, but it is definitely noticeable when he slowly crawls out of one of his hides or is making those slow, deliberate movements that leo's are known for. I have researched shaking in leo's as much as I can and I've only really seen two causes - calcium deprivation or possible D3 overdose. Now both of these causes puzzle me because I've dusted all his food up to this point - plain calcium dust 5 times per week, calcium with D3 once a week, and reptivite multivitamin once a week. He also has the plain calcium in a small dish in his terrarium, so I really don't see how he could be suffering from a lack of calcium. As for D3 overdose, from what I can tell the symptoms are much more severe, more like convulsing that a small shake, and since I've only given him calcium with D3 twice since I've had him, I don't really see how overdose can be an issue. I also thought dehydration may be a problem since I never once saw him over at his water dish, and rarely in his moist hide, but from what I've read many leo's get much of their water intake from the prey that they eat, so I don't think that's it either.



I'm really confused, and I don't even know if I should really be worried because from what I can tell his symptoms seem to be relatively tame and I really do believe I've been caring for him properly. However, it is heartbreaking when he does shake even a little bit (he's so cute...) and I don't see how it can be normal.



I have decided to stop dusting crickets for the time being, as I am still wary of the overdose theory and if he has the calcium dish in his terrarium he should be able to regulate his calcium intake as he pleases. However this has also posed another problem - the crickets seem to be a heck of a lot faster without the dust on em! If my gecko misses on the first lunge the little tiny crickets usually go buzzing around at about a hundred miles per hour and it seems like my gecko has a much harder time catching them now then he did when I dusted them... I should also mention that I never noticed the shaking until after I first dusted crickets with the reptivite, so I have stopped with the multivitamins completely (only dusted with them once) since I am unsure if the vitamins could be a contributing factor.



Any help or suggestions would be appreciated since I am pretty much stumped. That being said, I've only noticed the shaking over the past two days and I just stopped dusting his food yesterday night, so maybe it'll just fix itself (hopefully).



On a lighter note I was also wondering how fast I can expect the little guy to grow and when I can expect him to lose his striped pattern for a spotted one (he's normal phase). I think he shed last night for the first time since I bought him, but I can't be 100% sure because he looked a little dull, then I went out for a couple hours and when I came back his skin looked sharp again, but I never saw any real evidence of the shedding process.



Anyways, sorry for the long message, I just wanted to make sure I got all the information out there at once.



Thanks in advance!



- Robes

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