One of my helmeted gecko babies died last night in my hand… it is so sad… She was only 8 days old and has been acting different from her brother from day one. She looked perfectly fine and healthy when she hatched but was not afraid of me at all – I could pick her up without any problems (not normal…) she drank some water from a syringe (without the needle) in the beginning but didn’t touch her crickets. She just lay under the basking spotlight all day. Not normal either for a helmeted gecko that is nocturnal.
The last two days of her life I was trying to feed her with a syringe to get some fluids into her at least. I mixed some baby-food with water and tried to feed her. Very difficult with a lizard that is barely one inch long. She didn’t drink from the syringe and when I forced a little fluid down her throat she throw up everything at once. I tried to mist her often too since she was dehydrated.
I saw that she was slowly “fading away”. I guess there must have been something wrong with her from the beginning and nature had it’s course – but – I wonder if there was something that I COULD have done to help her? Warmer cage? Cooler cage? More force-feeding? Bathing? Mist more often? Darker? Anything you can think of? Or shall I just accept the sad fact that it was something wrong with her from the beginning?
I know I have to accept that a thing like this happens when you breed animals. The weak hatchlings are “not supposed” to make it… but still – I want to learn from it and find out if there is something I can do if it happens again. I have 8 more eggs in the incubator… I am worried… 
Sorry for the long post... any suggestions/inputs will be helpful!
