Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi guys,

I've been a leo lover and reptile keeper for many years.

I currently have two female leopard geckos that are from the same clutch, and raised together their whole lives. About 7 years old now. Both are eating well, and they share a 20 gallon tank, with multiple hides, etc.

I don't handle my leos very often, as I feel it stresses them out. But today I noticed that half of Pixie's head appears to be swollen. Her right eyelid bulges more than normal, and her ear hole on that side also appears larger. I don't see any scab or bite marks, or blood or anything.... but that half of her face is swollen.... Her nose also looks a tad pinkish in the light.... but its kind of hard to tell.

The reptile vets arent open til Monday. Has anyone else experienced this, or have any idea what it could be? She just completed a shed and has been spending more time in her wet hide (moistened paper towel inside a margarine container). I've never noticed any fighting, except occasionally when they get really excited at dinnertime (so I feed seperately usually).

I'm going to try to take some pictures and post them soon.

Any advise or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Also, my girls have never laid eggs.... theyve also never been introduced to a male... is this normal? or should they have laid infertile eggs by now?

im sorry to hear about your leopwith the swollen head, i have no idea, all i know is this happened to mine, when it got bitten by a cricket but as you said you ouldnt see any bite marks... hmmmm... hopefully someone else will post soon. Also with the egg laying i dont know if it is or isnt normal, but i have a 7 nearly 8 year old female, she has never seen another gecko, and she has never layed eggs...

Thanks for responding.

Did your leo heal on its own? Any tips on how to help her get better?

I'm going to be seperating them while she is healing, just to be safe.

i dont know what the 'proper' thing to do, but with mine, it was a bite/scratch mark. so i took out all the old crickets so nothign else could happen to it. i just fed her mealworms for a bit. i also found a pipett and squrted, flushed out the 'wound' with luke warm water, took a week or so and its fine now, all healed up and everything

i hope you get a chance to read this! my guesse is that your gecko has shed stuck in her eye! i realy assume this because you said she just got done shedding. this is a serious issue because it most likly wont get better on its own. i would maybe try to flush her eye with some drinking water or something but get her to the vet asap! they can probably give you something. also if it goes untreated it can infect her brain and loose her vision and so on. one of my girls name is pixie too. this might be a crappy pic of her though, i cant remember. also that is okay that shes never laid eggs, dont worry about it.

I was planning on seperating my leos, but was waiting to get a new aquarium for free this week....

On a positive, I noticed Pixie's head swelling was going down when I fed my girls today.

5 mins after the feeding, Pixie's sister went ape[bleep] on her. She started viciously attacking her. I thought she was gonna lose her tail! Pixie just ran away and tried to hide but Lava wouldn't let up. I had to grab her to make it stop.

I took Lava, the aggressive one, out and she's in a mesh reptarium thing for now. Won't have a heatlamp for a couple days, but its about 80 degrees in my apt.

These are sisters who are clutchmates, and about 7 years old now. I have NEVER witnessed anything like this. Why would one suddenly become so aggressive?

I thought maybe they could be males since neither have laid eggs, but I looked at them both very closely today and both look female (ive had males before, plus looked up pics, etc). They were also temp sexed by breeder.

Has anyone experienced this kind of behaivour before? After seven years of them living peacefully together this comes as a huge shock...

No big changes to them lately... except I brought home a juvi female bearded dragon 3 weeks ago (she gets a lot of attention and taken out of her cage a lot where the leos can see her)....

PS- Your Pixie is gorgeous!

sometimes stuff like that just happens. msybe they are just finally sick of each other. you never know it just happens. thanks for the compliments. good luck!