Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We had a girl staying with us back in october. When she moved in, she had a water dragon and a gecko. Within the month, she told us both lizards had died. One of the tanks remained set up (even though she had never found the gecko's body), and we watched all the plants inside it die. She moved out again, but left the tank. Two nights ago, we were all in the basement cleaning (the girl stayed in a bedroom down there, now my fiance and I sleep down there) and my fiance's younger brother looked in the tank and commented on the life like fake lizard. He wondered who had put it in. I got close, and looked under it's chin and saw it was breathing! He is very very skinney, obviously. My fiance and I set up a fresh tank, and have been feeding him and gave him fresh water. Apparently he had been hybernateing since November...Has anyone else had something like this happen?

hello, are you sure its a leopard gecko? well anyways, is it eating? they are nocturnal so you dont really need a heat lamp. you need an undertank heater. without heat the gecko may have been hybernating i guess, or trying to hide because its body couldnt function properly or digest food. the ground temp needs to be at 90 degrees. and if you have plants i am assuming you have some sort of loose substrate wich is not good. you should put it on papertowels. this is all for a leopard gecko if that is what it is. give me some more info on the tank you have set up, what you are feeding, if it is eating, and what the temps are. the loose dirt can impact the animals stomach and it could die.