Reptile & Amphibian Forums

a gecko was left behind with my parents when i moved. he is eating 3-4 crickets every two or three days even though he is offered every day. twice in fact, morning and night. the crickets are covered in the vitamin powder and he has a fresh boal of water every morning, along with fresh apples every day. he also has a seperate tray for his calcium. since i left he has gotten dangerously skinny and it is making me scared he will die. since i am in san francisco and my parents are in chicago, i cannot bring him over until jan. i hope he can make it and get plumper and back to his usual size. here are a couple of pictures that shows this anorexia patient. quite sad looking.

please give me any suggestions on how to assist my parents with this unfortunate endevour.

thank you so much.
-philippe

pic2

pic3

The same thing happened to my brother's gecko. Though it still ate, it got gradually skinnier and skinnier. After a short while, he moved on. We think he died of some parasite, but we can't proove it, since we didnt get him into the vet on time. He was getting very lazy, and stopped coming out of his house a few days before he died. I will post a poicture of Zig-Zag the day before he died. If your gecko looks anything like that, or you think he is on his way to looking like that, You need to get him to the vet ASAP. (your pictures wont show for me, ether) I would take him to the vet anyways, even if he dosnt look like this. Bring a fresh fecal sample with you, the vet will probably need it. We just yesterday got another leo. He his a Blizzard, names Ryker, which means 'good hunter' in some other language. (I cant remember what one.) Soon I will post a picture of him.
Good luck with your 'lil guy.
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(Just click link to see the pictures) Here is a picture of his tail. Its way too skinny. These pictures make me so sad, but I hope they help you to save your gecko. Remember- these were taken one day before he died.
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A few things to hopefully help.

1. If you could post about his living conditions, this will be infinately helpfull in getting an accurate response. What size enclosure is he in? How is it heated? what are the temperatures (highs and lows)? How old is he? How long have you had him? How long has he been showing this disinterest in food? Is he still pooping regularly? What substrate is he on? Has anything changed in his environment recently?

Without knowing this information it is difficult to guess what might be wrong, but i will try and give you some pointers and tips to help get him eating. The most important thing to keep in mind is that anorexia in reptiles is never a disease, buit a symptom. It can be a symptom of an illness, a parasite or such, or a reaction to improper environmental factors. I would get your leo, and a fecal sample to a herp vet immediately. it is important to rule out anything internal. If his health checks out ok, then its time to look at the husbandry and see if there are any errors there, thats why all the above information is important.

Of course, its most important we get this little guy eating, so here are some tips for that.

1. Im not sure what the apples were for, but leopard geckos are carnivorous. So they dont need any vegetable matter, or fruit.

2. Try varying the diet, crickets can get real boring after awhile. try some soft worms such as butter, silk, or wax worms. (wax worms are awesome for fattening up lizards)You can also try live pinky mice.

3.If the leo will not eat the worms on his own, try squeezing some of the guts onto him nose and let him lick it off, then maybe he will eat.

4. If he still wont touch these food items, you can try a product by flukers called "Repti-aid" get the one for carnivorous lizards and mix it according to the directions. Dab some on your lizards nose and he should lick it off. If nothing else, this should hold him over until you can get him to the vet.

Also, it would be really helpfull if you could post pics of the little guy, they didn't show up when i read your posts. My computer might be messed up, im not sure. But it helps immensly to see pictures.

Keep posting! I hope everything is ok.
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