Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My neighbor's son got a job helping gut a house and found a "gecko in a fish tank" inside of the house. He's been working there for a couple weeks and thought the aquarium was empty until today. I'm known in the neighborhood for being the animal rescuer so my neighbor contacted me and took me to the house to pick it up. It turned out to be a very thin juvenille leopard gecko. It was being kept in a 55 gallon aquarium on calcium sand with a bunch of large rocks and one of those 1/2 coconut hide boxes with an empty peanut butter jar lid(I assumed this functioned as the water bowl although it was bone dry). There was a large pile of poop in the corner, but no sign of food. The electricity in the house had been turned off so I have no clue what the temperature has been in the cage. I have some experience with reptiles (I've bred a pair of bearded dragons, currently own 2 ball pythons, and took in 2 female leos a few years ago who are now living with a friend who wanted an apartment friendly pet). I have it in a 10 gallon aquarium with a hide box, water bowl, and vitamin/worm dish. As it is very thin(you can see its ribs and hip bones protruding through the skin), I'm wondering how much I should be feeding it and how often to supplement with vitamins. It ate 2 waxworms(with multivitamin powder on them) and 7 small crickets(about 1/4 inch size). I'm assuming it should eat more than whats recommended on the websites I've read(they say 4 appropriately sized food items per day) to put some weight on it. I'm not going to offer it anymore food for today since I don't want to shock its system too much since its undoubtably been without food for awhile. I've read that there should be a dish of calcium powder in their cage at all times and their food should be dusted every other feeding with multivitamins. I haven't sexed the little one yet since its so delicate looking right now! We have a few good herp vets in my area from what I've heard, so I may take it to get a check up. Its about 4 inches long and still has its stripes, although there are some spots forming. Thanks for any advice! I'm so worried about him/her and I want to make sure to do the best I can for it since I took on the responsibility of rescuing it!

Wow! What luck that it was found at all! How can anyone do that to an animal?... well I'll leave that discussion for another day. It sounds like you are on the right track with everything so far.
Here are some care sheets you may find useful:
www.repticzone.com/caresheets/Geckos-leopard.html

I hope it pulls thorugh... at least now it has a real chance. Did they check the house for any other abandonded critters? And just out of curiosity, what state are you in?

I'm in central Ohio, so the temperature has probably been somewhere around where the leos temp requirements are, but still Ohio temperature and humidity fluctuates a lot, especially this time of year. I did look around the house when I was there to pick it up, definately weren't any other animals, except probably some wild mice from the house being basically abandoned for quite some time. I'm really amazed that it survived for so long without any care. Thanks for the website link!