I am a first-time owner of a leopard gecko. It is unusually warm in the area, but I have been monitoring the temperature in the enclosure and it doesn't exceed 86 degrees at the "hot" end. I have a dry and humid hide, clean filtered water, calcium powder, and gut-loaded crickets. I am allowing 12 hours of light a day, etc. I think I'm doing everything right as I researched a lot prior to purchasing my new addition.

I picked out my gecko from a pet shop on friday. I believe it is pretty young because of the coloring and the size (about 3-4 inches approximately). It has a skinny tail, which I'm not sure is normal for a very young gecko or not because I haven't found too many pictures of hatchlings that includes the tail. It seemed alert, had all the proper digits, etc. Once placing it in the terrerium at home, I left it alone till the evening when I put in a powdered cricket. The gecko lapped up some water, and hunted the cricket almost immediately. I was very happy that it seemed healthy and "normal." That was the first and last time I have witnessed my baby eat and drink. I am beginning to get very worried as it seems to want to hide all day AND night. It is not consuming crickets (even very small ones) and I haven't observed any water drinking.

The small tail is beginning to worry me as I wanted to get it fattened up as soon as possible. The gecko is so small and fragile-looking to me that I can't tell if it is dehydrated or not. I haven't observed any poo in the cage yet, either. I am really scared. Today I found what appeared to be the cricket I fed to it. I fished it out of the cage and examined it, and didn't observe any fecal matter. It smelled a bit putrid so I am assuming it was regurgitated. It may have been too big (the pet shop picked out the cricket size - perhaps they were wrong). Now that it is gone, the cricket is showing no interest in live food. I am becoming increasingly worried. Is this normal? What should I do???

I have attached a picture of the gecko - you can see the tail in it. It is of it eating the first cricket (I got a bit too much calcium on it I think). Can somebody also let me know if the tail looks "normal" for a gecko this age??

Thank you all so much!

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