Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Please help. We have a new leopard gecko. We have never owned any type of reptile. We thought we did enough research but our gecko is not doing well. We have a 10 gallon tank for 1 gecko. 2 hides. 1 moist with sphagum moss, 1 dry. shallow food bowls. Calci-sand with scattered bark on top. 1 fake plant for dec/hiding. Heat lamp on one side of tank avg temp. 80-95 during day, much less at night when heat light is off. Under tank heating pad on same side as heat lamp. Fresh water provided daily. Feeding mealworms and crickets. Crickets are being dusted with vitamin/calcium dust. Being handled by 7 year old 10 minutes only each day and not at all some days.
Problem: Had it for almost 4 wks. Not active. Hides all day and night. Not feeding. Never eaten a mealworm. Only had 1 or 2 crickets max. Only had 2 poops in cage. 2 extremely small poops while being held. Never seen it drink. Has not shed since we have had it. Looks thin. Please help. I have read several books, searched numerous websites, called pet store where purchased, consulted 2nd pet store. Getting different advice on types of substrate etc. Want to take good care of Gecko and provided healthy home for him but seem to be failing. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I would firstly put the gecko on some sort of paper towel, slate, or tile. You said the temperature was much less at night..how much less is it? How big/old is your gecko? How are you taking these temperatures (thermometers stuck to the glass are not measuring the heat you want to measure)? How do you know it hasn't shed? Where did you get the gecko in the first place, as there are things to consider from that as well (what they were feeding it, if it may have been bullied, and bugs it may have) Do you leave the heat pad on over night as well?

I'd cut down on handling, as that may be stressing the gecko out too much. I'd also try getting some fluids into the gecko via syringe. If you drop a drop close to one of it's nostrils, it should lick it up and repeat the process.

Thanks so much for the reply. First, I will put down paper towels. Should I get rid of the bark and calci sand all together? I believe the temp. at night to be in the low 70’s. I do not know how old the gecko is. I can post a picture if necessary. I am using the thermometer and humidity gauges that stick to the glass (recommend by the reptile guru at PetCo). What type should I be using and where should I place it. I believe that it has not shed due to the fact that I am constantly watching it and it has not had any shedding on any part of its body, none, not even a trace amount in the cage. It was almost done shedding when we brought it home so I feel like I know what to look for. It had a small amount left on its nose and mouth and toes that just came off in a couple of days. I purchased it from a local pet store called The Aquarium in Fort Worth. There were about 6 geckos in one enclosure but after reading a book and getting advice before the purchase from a local reptile rescue, I felt like I asked the right questions and looked for the major warning signs listed by both resources. I spent much time talking with the “reptile guy”. I am feeding it the same type crickets that the store was feeding it. I am feeding the crickets with oatmeal, carrots and potatoes. As far as bugs go, unless I could visually see them - I wouldn’t have a clue. Yes, I am leaving the under tank heat pad on at night. When we wake up in the morning he is laying on it. What next?

>>Thanks so much for the reply. First, I will put down paper towels. Should I get rid of the bark and calci sand all together? I believe the temp. at night to be in the low 70’s. I do not know how old the gecko is. I can post a picture if necessary. I am using the thermometer and humidity gauges that stick to the glass (recommend by the reptile guru at PetCo). What type should I be using and where should I place it. I believe that it has not shed due to the fact that I am constantly watching it and it has not had any shedding on any part of its body, none, not even a trace amount in the cage. It was almost done shedding when we brought it home so I feel like I know what to look for. It had a small amount left on its nose and mouth and toes that just came off in a couple of days. I purchased it from a local pet store called The Aquarium in Fort Worth. There were about 6 geckos in one enclosure but after reading a book and getting advice before the purchase from a local reptile rescue, I felt like I asked the right questions and looked for the major warning signs listed by both resources. I spent much time talking with the “reptile guy”. I am feeding it the same type crickets that the store was feeding it. I am feeding the crickets with oatmeal, carrots and potatoes. As far as bugs go, unless I could visually see them - I wouldn’t have a clue. Yes, I am leaving the under tank heat pad on at night. When we wake up in the morning he is laying on it. What next?

Just remember not to EVER keep reptiles on Calci-Sand or any type of commercial sand product it is HORRIBLE for reptiles, if you must have sand just get sifted play sand from your local Home-Depot or Lowe's.NEVER Trust any employees at PetCo they are like Used Car salesmen they love to do anything to get you to spend money, you should buy a digital thermometer,and if possible maybe a thermostat so you can constantly monitor temps accurately. You should try to get a product called Shed-B-Gone or Shed-Ease they are great products to get the shed off of Snakes and lizards.I recommend Sani-Chips from LLLReptile.com or Aspen bedding, but if you have some slate laying around that works great for Leopard geckos too. Paper towels are great but not that attractive assuming you have a son I assume you want the enclosure to look nice.And Leopard geckos eat their sheds after they shed so thats probably why you arent seeing any occasionally you might see a tad bit laying around. I wish you luck with your gecko hopefully we will have another member to add to our wonderful Hobby!

Herphaven has everything down pat, but i'll try to put this into terms without the run-ons. I only make suggestions, this is how I keep my leopard, and he is doing fine. I'm by no means telling you how to keep your animal.

I, personally, would lose the sand and bark altogether. I purchased 3 12x12in pieces of slate at Home Desperate for something like $.78 each, and those have been working well for me. My only issue with the slate is that it's a tad thick, so it doesn't distribute heat like i'd like it to. There are, however, tons of tile that will fit a 10g (that's what you said you had, right?) Just experiment. I like the hard surfaces and not paper towels because they seem to be easier for me to clean, and there is no worry of ingestion.

There is a digital themometer made by Flukers that I have in my Dart Frog's tank which works well, I think it was about 20$. My leopard's enclosure has one with a 6ft. probe that I was going to use for my tortoise's heated house, but I decided against it. They are extremely accurate. The probe is nice because you can move it around wherever you'd like, and it tells the temperature inside the tank and out. I got this at Target for something like 20$.

Post a picture, we want to see it.

The problem with the gauges that stick to the glass is that they are not reading the surface temperature, which is what your gecko needs. Air temperature and ground temperature are extremely different. The air can be cooler or hotter than the actual ground is, so it would be better if you could figure out what the ground temperature is, that way you could fix your lighting set-up and aid your gecko in it's thermoregulation. If you do get a thermometer with a probe, just place it on the ground above where the middle of your heat pad is so you can determine what the temp. is.

My gecko, like I said before, rarely lets me see him shed. You're not finding anything on the ground because they eat it. The reason you probably saw some on it when you were at the store is because that store probably didn't have a humid hide for the geckos, so they were in different stages of bad-sheds.

Your gecko laying on it's heat pad when you wake up leads me to believe it is not hot enough in it's cage. Where are you guys from?

Lastly, like herp said, Petco is full of..well, I won't type the words. They're just regular old retail associates trying to BS customers into buying things. I'm glad you found the forum, now you have the knowledge of fellow Leo Keepers!

Now, for some pictures of Mr. Gecko (my girlfriend and I are very unoriginal) and his set-up. He is currently in a standard 20g aquarium.

That is the day I got him.

That is his baby cage

That is him in December (i'll take more recent pics)

With proper care, your gecko will turn out the same! Good luck!

YES get rid of the calci sand and the bark asap. Calci sand is bad in more ways then one. It can impact your leos, which will end in death. Bark and any other particle substrate such as aspen and sani chips, i personally don't recommend either for leos, and especially not babies due to hunting for food (crix) they can eat mouthsful of the chips and that's just as bad as calci sand except bark,aspen, anmd sani chips can rip the insides apart and they can bleed internally.

I use papertowels for everything. You could also use, tile, newspaper, slate, ceramic tiles, or playsand for adults, but again i don't recommend sand for any use ever.

Temps should be 85-90 hot side and 70-75 cool side. You could use a digital probe thermometer or a temp gun. Both are great and accurate. Stick ons can be up 20 degrees off.

You said you dust the crix, how many times a week? Should be only about 1/2 times. I also want to say you should have a dish of PURE calcuim in their tanks at all times. They will supply themselves with whateer calcuim they need when they need it.

Don't feed oatmeal or veggies or anything of that sort. Only feed crix and mealies. Try pulling the legs off the crix, or using a tweezers to feed.

Ok, thanks to all for the great advice. So far, we have cleaned the cage, removed the calci sand and bark and put down paper towels. As suggested, I tried dangling mealworms in front of him to try and tempt him and he refused time and time again. Also, as suggested, we droped small amounts of water from a syringe onto his nose to see if he would lick the water. He took some. Not much, but some is better than none. When we put him back in the new and improved cage he walked around frantic for a moment and then found the hide and we haven't seen him since. We will work on getting the proper thermometer this weekend. Any and all suggestions are welcome. As new owners we can use all the help we can get and we truly want to have a healthy pet. So keep on sending whatever you feel I may need - no ego here! Also, just to clarify - we were only feeding the crickets with the veggies and oatmeal. The crickets were then put in the cage to try and feed the gecko. In roughly 4 weeks we have only dusted 2 times. Are you saying dusting of the crickets should only be done 1 a week?

Hi. I'm a mom with a leo also! I know it can be stressful to think your kids new pet might not make it! It took our little 'Dot' three weeks to start eating. What did the trick was holding mealworms in some chopsticks in front of her. They wriggle around and she couldn't resist. Since then she has started eating crickets but I often hold them also because she tends to aim short and miss when she lunges for them. our leo also spends all day in her humid hide and though we have seen her 'milky' - ready to shed, we've not seen the actual shed process. From everything I've read here I'd say papertowels - papertowels - papertowels! It makes it very easy for even a 9 year old to clean the tank. We have a 50W red bulb and an UTH pluged into an ESU Reptile thermostat I found at Petsolutions.com. It has a temp sensor you can lay on the floor of the cage and will regulate the temp for you. Hope this helps. I'm sure your leo will be doing fine soon with its concerned owners looking after it!
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Charlee

Hi Charlee, Thanks for the tips. I am encouraging anyone who may have ideas to please keep the comments coming. Yes, you are correct that my son would absolutely be miserable if our new pet died. I made sure he knew a gecko could and would live if cared for properly for many, many years. I would hate to think, if it died, that my son would feel like he did something wrong. So, if all else fails - we will look for a vet. Also, can you or anyone else tell me how much he SHOULD be eating per day/night? At this point all I know is that he is not eating.

I've seen many reply's here that say their geckos eat 10 or more mealworms or crickets. Ours has eaten maybe 4 at any one time and she has a nice plump tail. Now ours is only 7 months old so maybe she'll eat more as she grows. How old is yours?
I wouldn't worry about your gecko hiding. The only way we see ours is when we take the lid off her hide to spray the moss. She'll come out, maybe eat some - maybe not, and then crawl right back in. I know she's eating because the crickets are gone in the morning and she has big poops. Besides going to the vet to check for parasites I would suggest less handeling. My son holds his twice a week for about 5 minutes. And we didn't hold her at all the first 3 weeks. It was hard but worth it. She will now willingly crawl up on his hand. I was very stressed when ours didn't eat at first but many people assured me geckos can go months without eating. That doesn't mean you want them to but at least it means you have time to figure it out.
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Charlee

On a normal they should eat about 5 crix a feeding, sometimes 2 times a day.

Now yuo just got the leo, and have changed the habitat around a few times i am sure. Just let the leo alone for about 1 week. Try offering food, but don't handle and don't move anything in the tank. Let him get used to it. He's most likley just really stressed and that is why no food. The last male i bought took about 2 weeks till he ate anything. Now he's a pig! LOL

What are you using as lighting and heating? UTH? Red or blue bulb? Can you get us picstures of the enclosure and the leo?

Try mashing up crix and mealies and feeding little by little from a syringe if all else fails, and he is not eating a thing yet in about 1 week try this.....just put a dot like the water so he can lick it and then he should keep licking and get that taste for meat!

Something easier to try is some chicken or turkey babyfood, if you're too squeemish to mash up the bugs. My gecko takes about 10 crickets every other night. He was eating every day, but one day decided he didn't want to any more, so we moved to every other day. I'm thinking about moving him back, but we'll see how that turns out. I would like to fatten him up a bit, so he may have food crawling around his cage whether he likes it or not.

As he has aged, i've progressively upped the size of his food. I don't feed him mealies any more, because they're too small in my opinion. My gecko currently gets super worms and large crickets (half the size of his head) and i'm going to be moving to roaches as soon as I can figure out what I want to breed.

Feel free to e-mail me at andrude@gmail.com if you have any specific questions. I check it regularly, so it might be more speedy than the forum.

It should be only 1/3 of his head, or the space between the eyes, so the mealies are probably just fine and sounds like supers are a bit too big yet.

Baby food works, but is usually a life or death as you don't want them hooked on baby food either. Although yes it can be a good remedy for them to get the meat taste again, so dry a slight dab but not much. I also would personally try the mashing up stuff first before the baby food.

Andrew----As they grow and become adults you are only to be feeding them 1 every other day. Also leaving "live" food in the tank at all times, is not good at all, and you shouldn't just shrug your shoulders and be like whether he likes it or not, then you shouldn't own the leo. The crix can chew off toes, and stress out leos heavily by leaving them in there at all times. Might want to rethink that theory and have a change of attitude!

Dear, I never said I would be LEAVING food inside his cage for extended periods of time, you simply took it as such. I do, however, thank you for your concern and shotgun approach at assessing information.

I'm thinking about moving him back, but we'll see how that turns out. I would like to fatten him up a bit, so he may have food crawling around his cage whether he likes it or not.

Umm DEAR, This is exactally what you said! AND right here you said whether he likes it or not!

Please don't lie, and if you do then don't try and give info then becuase it's all you lying about it all anyways. That is what people will take it as!

You implied I would be leaving the feeders in over night, which I never typed out, but that's okay. Since you are so jumpy, let me reword it to suit your narrow view point on posts.

During my feeding times for Mr. Gecko (10-15 minutes every other night) he often has food crawling around in his cage. What I was referring to in my previous message, was the fact that he would have food crawling around in his cage during these feeding times. Never once did I mention leaving them in there, so your snyde remarks about "changes of attitude" and "ownership of LGs" are unfounded.

I suggest you stop trying to bite people's heads off on the forum. I do remember a past post where you ripped on fellow member "garweft" for information he got from a printed source.

We're all leopard owners here. If you don't like some one's information, kindly disregard it, don't blow it out of the water with an atom bomb. This isn't middle school.

Haha...No because if i would have been right then you would be the dummie leaving crickets in there and letting them chew on the gecko. This happens way to often and i frankly am real sick of it. If you don't like my remarks too bad then don't respond. Haha

I especially will make them to those who i have seen need the help to such as you and i can think of 2 other which i won't mention for there purposes. In your case you have asked ALOT ofnewbie questions and i have refered to your previous posts and you would have needed to know that! So maybe you do need to change your attitude a bit and others may then as well respect your wishes.

I'm amazed you wish to continue this, but since i've nothing better to do between classes, I will.

Considering the last personal posts i've made in the last 2 months have been regarding a leopard gecko with crypto, i'm wondering what you're referring to as 'newbie' questions. Secondly, since i'm not Ron Tremper's wife, and expert, like you obviously are, I don't claim to know everything about leopard geckos, or their husbandry.

I do know, however, that your replies are becomming more and more sophmoric, and am wondering why anyone, including myself, will take your two cents into consideration from here on out.

I've only had my LG since September. Of course i've asked some starter questions. Thing is, this is a forum for the usage of all levels of keepers of reptiles, not just for the elitists, such as yourself. You may want to take that into consideration.

Ok guys here's the scoop. I am a newbie and I need all the help I can get. If my "newbie" questions are too simple for the forum please direct me to a more appropriate site. I just need any and all info to try and help my gecko. Now, with that said, he still is not doing better. No poop, no wet paper towel spots, no food eaten. Stoped handling. What next? After the last several posts I am wondering if I should be leaving crickets in there all the time. I put 4 in at a time and do not remove them until they die. I even tried putting the mealworms on the cage floor outside of the dish. No luck. Still haven't seen him move into the moist hide. Only crickets appear to be living in there. He never leaves the dry hide and last two mornings in a row he has not been out on the heating pad even though the cage temp (overnight without the light) was 70 degrees. I have been getting up several times during the night at different times and he is not outside of the hide - EVER. I honestly feel sorry for my gecko. I don't know how to help him. Thanks.

It's best not to leave crickets in the cage, because as people have mentioned, they will take a little nibble out of things that show no interest in eating them. Did you ever get regular day time temperatures? Is the side with the hide he's constantly in on the cold, or hot side of your cage?

Is there any possible way you can get us a picture of the cage and the gecko?

Here are several pictures of Gecky and his enclosure. There are two more pictures on the next post as well. Any thoughts?

Two additional photos

Hi i'm sorry to hear your having so much trouble with Gecky.. I'm still a newbie too, but have been reading all the posts and can offer a little bit. But i'm still learning too, so keep that in mind. But just thought i'd make a few comments since I know every little bit helps. From what I have learned on here, sand isnt good at all. If your still using it, they will tell you to change to paper towels or newspaper. I was using bark when they all suggested I change and to tell you the truth, paper towels are SOOO much easier to clean. Also, you might want to consider getting better heat guages. You need to get the temp on the cage bottom i think. I don't think the ones you have are going to give you the readings you need. I have seen people sit those guages on the cage bottom, but don't know if it works that good. Also, have you considered a lower food dish? If looks as if that one is too high for him to see inside. I beleive you said you put some on the outside of his cage.. try using just a jar lid.. maybe peanut butter jar lid or something that is just high enough that the worms cant crawl out, then you can put more in and the movement might stimulate it to eat. Also have you tried the baby food trick? Alot of people mention that. Ground turkey i think they said (organic if you can get it) use a dropper and place a drop on it's nose and see if it will lick it off.. I hear thats a good way to get some stubborn eaters on the right track. I hope this helps some and maybe some of the "experts" will chime in and agree or correct me. Best of luck.. Gecky is really cute!!!

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This is courage.. to bear unflinching what heaven sends. -unknown

THis is from personal experience.. I was very worried that my gecko always stayed in her humid hide. For almost a week she never left it, Now i have not seen her in it at all. so maybe gecky was going through a shed and doesnt need it anymore. You probably wont know if he sheds unless you see it, so that could be the case. just offering a possibility.. good luck.
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This is courage.. to bear unflinching what heaven sends. -unknown

Hmm, okay. Here's a checklist for you, try and get back to us on what you've got.

Heatpad
Light
Calcium dish
Water
Food
Humid Hide
Normal Hide
Paper towels
Probe thermometer

Now, I know some of those things we can see, but just think of that as an external list. That gecko looks older than I had though. What I would do is take out both hides, and give him something more spartan, like blacked-out tupperware containers, or some other type of thinner container. I'd also move one hide onto the warm side, and the other onto the cold side. I'd then put the food, water, and calcium in the middle, that way, if it needs to go to the cold side to thermoregulate, it will stumble across these three things.

In the picture with the mealworms in the bottom left, they look shiny. Now, I don't mean any disrespect, but you don't have the food IN the water, do you? It may just be flash, but I just wanted to be sure.

I'd try getting some different type of bowl for him, like the previous post said. Maybe a transparent ash tray? That, with a soda bottle cap of calcium sand and a shallow dish of water should be okay.

Has your gecko pooped at all? Any diarrhea? I'd still try and see if the baby food deal works out, that or some vanilla ensure, for the vitamins. Just drop either on his nose, like the others have said.

Also, have you tried any other prey items like superworms, silk worms, or pheonix worms? I tried all three with my gecko who just passed due to crypto. None worked, but you may have better luck.

I'd just try to be as gentle as possible right now. Spartan quarters, regular temperature monitoring, and the forerunner to force feeding.

Good luck, and let us know.

We got poo! Well, runny at best, but at least it wouldn't be in there unless he digested something right? First I wanted to say that while it may look like the mealworms were in water - they were not. It was in fact the flash. Made some changes as suggested. Put soda lid with calcium in it. Removed the previous feeding dish. Repaced water dish and mealworm dish with shallow "reptile" feeding dishes. Now it's so shallow the mealworms actually crawled out. Have one hide on the cool side, one on the warm side. Bought entire new group of mealworms and threw other brand out. Still offering water via syringe - will try same tactic with baby food later today.

Runny like diarrhea? That's how my rescue just was, he didn't eat for about a month in a half, blew his guts out in a soupy liquid, and passed away.

Hopefully it isn't the same for you. It's okay to have to mealies hiding, I just picked them back out every night and threw them in athe dish. I think you're on the right track with the set up now, but i'd try going to the baby food. I'd hate for your gecko to pass away.

Yes, like diarrhea with something that looked like a round, plastic, wrinkled bubble, slightly colored in it. Last night no poo but there was a cricket in the cage that appeared to have been swallowed and then thrown up. He walked around and spilled the calcium all over the place so maybe he actually ingested some of it. Will keep you posted.

Do NOT leave crickets in there at all times. Crickets can and will chew on your leos toes and tail, and will stress them out even more. You are only to leave what they will eat in 15 min.

They should be dusted with calcuim and vitamins, calcuim with D3 that is. Calcuim with NO d3 should be the calcuim you have in a dish at all times in the tank.

What are your temps? Air and ground temps? Try feeding mealies with a tongs instead of trying to having him find them in the dish!