Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My aunt is dating a guy who has recently gone through a bad divorce. His seven year old daughter lives with her mother and as a birthday gift about a year ago he bought her a leopard gecko. Because he and his wife were separated, his daughter and ex-wife were left to care for the little guy. Out of spite his ex-wife starved the leopard gecko. His daughter, who is clueless about this, thought her gecko was sick. Since I own a bearded dragon, he thought I could save the gecko. We have no idea what happened to him. All we know is that his left eye is swollen shut. He licks it constantly. I am assuming he got sand or dust in it. He won't eat or drink. Yesterday, I cleaned out the tank and put reptibark in as a substrate instead of sand, which I heard is the worst for leopard geckos. I tried to feed him mealworms, but he wouldn't eat. I got him to drink water though. I tried soaking him in a warm bath in case he had sand impacted. I know that if a bearded dragon has eye irritation, you can put drops of artificial tears in its eyes and it will clear up. Also, if a dragon won't eat, you can feed it chicken baby food. Can I do the same for the leopard gecko? It is a male and is between eight and nine months old. I've been told that he is much thinner than he was a month ago. We don't know how long this went on, but we are trying desperately to save him. He is in good hands now and all of his needs are being met. I just need help with getting him to eat and clearing up his eye irritation.

1. Take him to the Vet
2. Yes, you can feed him baby food - Chicken.
3. Try Crickets instead of mealworms.

I have a male who refused to eat mealworms, pinkies, waxworms, etc. I was feeding him chicken baby food with one of those medicine syringe (go to the grocery store pharmacy or Eckerds and ask for the syringe to give babies medicine). Braeden, the leo, ate it like there was no tomorrow - he hadn't eaten for a while because, apparently, he didn't like mealworms.

All my leos LOVE mealworms, so this was extremely weird for me. It finally occurred to me (like, hello!) to try crickets. And, boy, I put some in there with him, and he was out in a hurry, chomping them up every which way!
Speaking of which, I have to go back to the pet store & get some more!

As for the not drinking water, I'm pretty he was, so it's a bad sign if your leo isn't drinking water. He can get some hydration from the baby food, but he can go WAY longer without food than he can without water.

Is he pooping or peeing at all?

~~Dusty

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So Many Alleles, So Little Time...!
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~~The Gecko Barn~~

I know that a month and a half ago his daughter brought the leopard gecko over. He and his daughter were getting a kick out of watching him hunt mealworms and crickets. He got the tank on Thursday. While cleaning out the tank, we found that he had gone to the bathroom, but we had no way of knowing when. It could have been sitting there.

Sorry. I made a typo in my letter. I heard that sand is bad for leopard geckos, not reptibark.

If hes really sick try using paper towel or Tile even instead of any sort of lose substrate.

It'll be easier for you to clean and see if there's missing food and/or check his poo.

Just a suggestion

good luck

Repti-bark isn't good...I'm not sure what the specific bark is they use, but some trees contain substances that are HIGHLY toxic to leos. Reptibark is also hard to keep clean and dry, and if the leo is ill with something (and not impacted or something like that), it could harbor whatever it is and even if you got him to get better he might get sick again. I would get rid of the bark and use paper towels or tiles (which I recommend). They're MUCH easier to clean, you can monitor bathroom habits better, and food can't hide in it (well...with tiles anyway...food always gets under paper towels).
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Christina

Leopard Gecko Morph Descriptions

2.3 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)
-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)
-1.0 tremper albino (Spitfire)
-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)

-ignorance is not to be punished when one is trying to gain knowledge...what scares me is the vast number of people who, when given the information to gain knowledge, choose to ignore it.

I agree with paper towels. As for feeding, unfortunately the poor dear is probably calcium deficient too. What i would do is get some fluker's reptaid. This stuff is really awesome. Make sure you get the carnivore formula and follow the directions, but this should get the poor animal on the right track. I would also talk to the father and maybe have him call animal control on the woman. That is ANIMAL CREWLTY and should NOT be in any way acceptable.
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1.0 ball python- Azazel
1.0 columbian boa- Brooklyn
1.0 JCP-Milton
1.0 borneo blood-Hiss
1.0 peach phase thayeri-Sancho
0.1 creamsicle corn- Pandora
1.1 hognose- Pricilla and Odd
0.1 russian tortoise- Manja
0.1 leo- Boji
0.1 beardie- Indie
1.0 BTS- Griffon
0.1 Iggy- Sunny
0.1 pacific parrolet- Mishka
1.1 cats- Cairo and Oberon
2.4 ratties- Willard, Rizzo, Bree, Blitzkreig, Raisin, and the Runt

on his ex-wife for deliberately starving the poor little thing
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Christina

Leopard Gecko Morph Descriptions

2.3 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)
-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)
-1.0 tremper albino (Spitfire)
-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)

-ignorance is not to be punished when one is trying to gain knowledge...what scares me is the vast number of people who, when given the information to gain knowledge, choose to ignore it.

I wish you the best of luck. I got baby blizzard from someone who worked @ my local pet store. He was emaciated and would not eat or drink. After hundreds of dollars and many many trips to the vet and antibiotics, I eventually lost him. He had been starved for several months and his body had sustained significant damage by the time he got to me. I will, however, share some tips:
1) raise the temp of the enclosure a few degrees (80 constant minimum)
2) raise the humidity well above what a normal leo would like. this means misting the paper towel he's on several times a day. Helps a lot!
3) Take him to a VET! Make sure to take a Fresh stool sample, and look for all parasites and coccidia (sp.?)
5) I have not had good success with the Reptiaid. I did try it, and he's losing lots of weight you may need it just to maintain, but...
If you must force feed, don't use any of those supplements from the petstore. You can use some a/d from the vet, or, if you can get him to open his mouth, which he should do when restrained, gently place a waxworm or mealworm head in there and let get a taste.
6) get some water in him. Use a small syrige or an eyedropper, and you put a drop on his nose, he should lick it off and start to take it.
Do keep me updated about progress. The other leo I got from the same guy is doing great! Hope this helps

Ya the hill A/D stuff works great i have used that in the past. My case for the Fluker's stuff is that it is fairly controlled and you wont shock the leo with it at first if the directions are followed. I would do that for at least a few days, and then use the A/d...
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1.0 ball python- Azazel
1.0 columbian boa- Brooklyn
1.0 JCP-Milton
1.0 borneo blood-Hiss
1.0 peach phase thayeri-Sancho
0.1 creamsicle corn- Pandora
1.1 hognose- Pricilla and Odd
0.1 russian tortoise- Manja
0.1.1 leos- Boji and ???
0.1 beardie- Indie
1.0 BTS- Griffon
0.1 Iggy- Sunny
0.1 pacific parrolet- Mishka
1.1 cats- Cairo and Oberon
2.4 ratties- Willard, Rizzo, Bree, Blitzkreig, Raisin, and the Runt