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Recently I have been having problems with my four year old female leopard gecko not eating, so I took her to the vet. He said she has a calsium diffeciency, from a lack of UV. She also may be trying to lay eggs, which might be sucking up the calsium. He said to give him a call if she develops 2 bumps. I can't tell, any info or pictures on this would help. Thank you for your time.

Lisa

Lack of UV? I dont think Leos need UV light as they are nocturnal. It's not uncommon for a solo female to produce eggs without being in contact with any male. The eggs will be infertile of course. Are you dusting her food with some type of calcium supplement? It might help to do so if she is developing eggs, since she'll need more calcium. Good luck!
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Sal
Geckos "R" Us

www.geckosrus.com

Thanks for your response. I have been dusting her food all the time. It was a shock to me when the vet said that leopard geckos do need UV. They need UV in order to absorb the calsium. She has seemed fine for the last three years with no UV, but he said it is often a VERY slow process, especially since they don't need allot of sun. He has had me take out all of her hiding spots and put a UV light on her 24/7. As well I have to force liquid calsium in her mouth. He also told me to blend up some crikets in the blender and force feed them to her as well. I'm not to sure how to go about doing this, I can just imagine the mess it is going to make of my blender. This may sound strange, but she has eaten only three mealworms in the last two months.

I really don't know why a vet would tell you to do those things but I'm not a vet so I don't really know what to say. But I really don't think taking her hiding spots out and keeping her in UV light 24/7 is the right thing to do, I think it would stress her more than anything. I also would not recommend force feeding your gecko, as it might break her jaw. Maybe dropping some liquid food on her lips and having her lick it, but not forcing it.. I've really never heard of these methods for a calcium deficient gecko.
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Sal
Geckos "R" Us

www.geckosrus.com

That's what I have been doing, I can't force anything, I feel to terrible doing it. What type of liquid food is there? I was looking for some today but had no luck.

The liquid food you will have to make on your own, I don't know the recipe, but I know its somewhere in this forum. I know Marcia from Golden Gate Geckos can help with that, I've seen her reply to posts about liquid formulas. She's very knowledgable and should also be able to help out with this situation.
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Sal
Geckos "R" Us

www.geckosrus.com

I have given my gecko, who had some symptoms of MBD, babyfood where I mixed calsium and vitamins. It was quite easy (they are hard to forcefeed if they are allright otherwise) so I gently put a little of that mix to her nose and let it lick it. Just make sure the gecko can't rub it off anywhere or that it can't get anything stuck to the babyfood and swallow that also (like sand).
The gecko can't use the calsium as it is given to it, so that is why you should give some vitamin mix or uv-light also.

Hopefully I explained it so it can be understood

Thanks for your input I'm off to buy baby food,

Vit D does yes, comes from light (UVA/UVB i'm not sure which one) and it is required for calcium to be absorbed BUT lighting isn't required if you provide vit D in their diet ie. calcium with vit D or vitamins with it. I use reptical with vit D and have never had a problem.

Could you please clarify what symptoms your vet described resulting in him diagnosing a calcium diffencecy? Does she have bent legs or a larger lower jaw, any physical signs? Simply not eating isn't a reason and most geckos, including mine, have reduced their eating to almost nil due to the colder weather. Although it hasn't happened with my girls yet, leos can develope eggs without mating, and this yes could be sucking the calcium from her. Do you provide her with a dish of calcium in her enclosure all the time?

As was said by others, forcing your gecko could result in more harm than good and i'm rather upset that a vet would suggest such a thing without giving proper instructions on how to go about it!!! I'm also not impressed that he would instruct you to remove her hiding areas and force calcium on her when its a lack of vit D that will cause the calcium not to be absorbed. Simply adding more calcium isn't going to correct the problem if she isn't getting vit D. Not having a place to hide is going to stress her out and make her worse. Did he ask about anything else other than UV light? Is she in a high traffic area where passerbys might be scaring her, hows her temps, was she checked for parasites,what are you using for substrate-is there a chance she's impacted if your using a loose substrate? When she does eat what does her poop look like, normal? All these things could add up to a gecko not eating.

There are many pics of gravid female leos that have been posted. I'm sure you'll come up with tons of them if you do a search. I'm pretty sure theres been a few recently so you could also just scan through the posts for the last month.

Sorry this was so long....I hope your gecko does well
Red

>>Recently I have been having problems with my four year old female leopard gecko not eating, so I took her to the vet. He said she has a calsium diffeciency, from a lack of UV. She also may be trying to lay eggs, which might be sucking up the calsium. He said to give him a call if she develops 2 bumps. I can't tell, any info or pictures on this would help. Thank you for your time.
>>
>>Lisa
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Crested Gecko Zeek:1.0
LEOS: Boo: 1.0 normal , Bronx & Nala: 1.1 blizzard,
Lily: 0.1 patternless, Abby: 0.1 albino, Zoe: 0.1 reduced pattern, Dot: 0.1 hypo
Chip: 1.0 papillion (small dog)

Wow, thanks for your input. There is vitamin D in her calcium powder. The symptoms she has are larthargy (she never comes out of her hide), a bit of a shake in her walk, and he said her fingers bend to much. She also has the runs which are very small. But besides that and not eating for the last 2 months she looks and seems fine. Her tail is still big and plump, her color seems normal, and she sheds on a regular basis.

He did check her stomach for impaction and said she seemed fine, but he didn't check for parasites, I wish he would have. He also gave her 2 ingections one I know had vitamin D and calsium, I'm not sure of the other.

I'll just say everything in her enclosure: calcium in a bowl, 2 hides (one kept moist), a basking light, a UV light, retile carpet (I just switched from sand), a bowl with mealworms, and a couple crickets just in case. The temp is between 87 to 92. She is in a fairly high traffic area, I moved her up a shelf so the mutts can't see her anymore (and vise versa) about a month ago.

I was told to try baby food mixed with calcium so I'm off to get that. I have put her hides back in she did seem pretty stressed and if she is trying to lay eggs she needs somewhere to do it.

So far I haven't had to force her to take the calcium, she's been licking it on her own. Ten minutes or so after I give it to her though (I sorry this is pretty discusting) she sprays it out the other end. Last night I noticed an absolutly horrible smell from it.

Thanks again for your input it is greatly appreciated,

Lisa

I dont think that bending toes are a sign of MBD. Toes on my loes bend easily almost every direction, and I haven't seen a leo that wouldn't have such toes.

Just one thing more about the babyfood. If you give it to her, then mix also that vitamin D (or some vitamin mix) to it because the leos can't use the calcium as it is, so giving only calcium doesn't have any effect.

I was not to sure about the toes either. I hadn't really thought they were getting more bendy than normal. Also do you know what kind of baby food is best, veggie? meat? Thanks so much for your reply

Lisa

I used fruit babyfood because the amounts the geckos get down is really small and I ended up eating the rest of the babyfood

I don't think it really matters what kind of babyfood it is. of course you can also use something that contains meat. It is up to you what you like best (= you can eat the rest of it).

I gave her baby food mixed with her calcium and vitamin powder. Right after she pooped it out it looks terrible... kind of green. Any thoughts? is this normal? or very abnormal? She's been doing the same thing with the stuff the vet gave me. On a plus, she does seem to be loosing the shake in her walk. Thanks again,

Lisa