Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My boyfriend has a little leopard gecko that he got about 2 or 3 weeks ago. She is really skinny and is much much more skittish than the other gecko he got with her. Yesterday and today we gave her some wax worms to try and fatten her up a little and now she is breathing really heavily and is always opening and closing her mouth. She has never done this before. She would breathe faster when we handle her, but never when she's on her own. She has been ignoring food somewhat and does not catch crickets well on her own so we have been feeding some to her. Her behavior has changed rapidly over the past few days. She just sits with her eyes closed and breathes heavily. Any advice or comments on what might be going on would help. O ya and she was vocal yesterday when she was half asleep.

She eats about 3 crickets a day, when we help her. The temps are about 88 in the day and down to about 82 at night. Her and the other gecko are of the same length, its just a major width difference. There is no fighting or stessful situations between them(they were together at the pet store and at his house). She hasn't been handled (except to be put into a transport box while the cage is cleaned) for about 3 days. Also she is going to the bathroom regularily. Any help would be appreciated.

Never dealt with it, but I'll give the general info that people usually give in this situation... it's ALWAYS the same.

-SEPERATE the Leos RIGHT AWAY!!!!
-How long have they been housed together, what substrate do you have them on, how old is she, any dark marks on her belly?
-Take some poop to the vet, from both animals, and get a fecal done.
-bring your leo to the vet
-give it a lot of darkness.
-get it out of high traffic areas in the house
-try to reduce it's stress level
-and most importantly, start gutloading the crickets with asprin to help the little guy's pain*

Good luck, and hope more people can give you better responses.
Kev

*(that one was a joke, for those of you who don't recognize it right away)
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Kev
1.1.0 Tang Leopard Geckos: Marley, Mary
1.0.0 Normal Leopard Gecko: Toad
0.1.0 Colombian Rainbow Boa: Rambo
1 Beta: Malificent
0.1.0 Tri Australian Shepard: Nelly

She is about 3.5 months, they have been together for over 2 months, their substrate is astro turf, and there are no dark marks on her belly.
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1 ball python (vakker)
0.1 dogs
2.1 cockatiels
1.1 chinchillas

Just from what you have written the first thing that pops into my head is a lung infection of some sort. Not sure how to prove it or not though. I would refer you to a site that has some great diagnostic information but this site will not allow me to do that. You will need to contact me privately to get that information. I think that is cruddy.

Temps seem fine, but what about humidity. Do you live in a place where the humidity is way up there?
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Steven
Royal Gold Reptiles
Specializing in LV Patternless Albinos for '03 and '04.
Working towards Bell Patternless Albinos for '05.