Reptile & Amphibian Forums

when i got my geckos, they passed normal stools. i had them for 2 months. recently, one of them started having runny stools with undigested food materials. i use a heat lamp to heat the cage. could the runny stools be caused by protozoans? but i've never expose them to any infected animals. where could the virus have come from? crickets?
thanks

Protozoans are not viruses, they are like amoebas.

Illnesses such as protozoans/coccidia can sometimes not show up for months, so it could very well have been a pre-existing condition from before the geckos came into your care. This is why it is recommended to quarantine any new animals for a minimum of three months.

That being said, it is common for even captive-bred crickets to carry worms, which are the most common-and easily treatable- cause of gecko diahrrea, especially when the animals have not been exposed to potentials sources of illness like a new gecko that could be carrying protozoans.

You can bring a stool sample to a vet, they can easily spot worms with a regular fecal. Other illness caused by bacteria or protozoans can be more difficult to diagnose.

Do your gex have any other symptoms?

thanks for the reply
nope, it doesmn't show any other symptoms.. it's eating well and active.. i find lots of undigested crix eggs in the stool.

Do you mean cricket parts in stool, or eggs? If you are seeing what looks like eggs it is probably not cricket eggs, but some kind of parasite. Get a fecal.

i see both cricket wings and eggs in the faeces. i can confirm that they are cricket eggs because my geckos are feeding on adult gravid crickets. i've seen my gekos ripping crickets apart and the eggs fall out of the crix's abdoments.

from where i come from(thailand), it's night now and all my crickets have passed motion. from what i'm seeing, all the stools look normal. all are solid. could the runny stools be caused by a slightly low temp? there were rainy days a few days back and the temp in the cage could have dropped as a result(by 5 to 6 degrees celcius). i'll still be monitoring the gecko's progress.
thanks again!