Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was having a really bad day. So I went to my local pet superstore to look at the cute widdle weptiles to cheer me. I saw this tiny gecko looking really skinny with nothing but REALLY BIG mealworms to eat. They had run out of the little crickets. I told them that they should just give it to me so I could nurse it back to health and they agreed. I promised them that I would take it to the vet if it didn't start looking better over the next few days.

So I took it home and made it a nice temperary home in a large size lee's herp haven. It looked so skinny that I didn't want to wait to feed it, so I threw a half dozen tiny crickets in (that I just happen to have laying around) and it ate three IMMEDIATELY! It also perked up some. I think their viv was too hot, I could be wrong, but it didn't seem to have a cool side. It's been hanging out on the cool side of mine.

I'm sorry the picture is so bad (cellphone), but I think you can see how immaciated it is.

Any advice on how to best care for it would be appreciated. I figured it was better with me looking after it, then being left in the petshop with the BIG WORMS!

You are dong perfect. The only thing I can add if you are not already doing it is keep the towels he is on moist. I think that is a paper towel in the picture.

Good luck.

I gave him a humid hide, i.e. moist paper towels in a butter tub, wasted quite a bit of butter to do this. Should I still go ahead and mist the paper towels? He's so perky now, I'm started to get really attached, I hope he makes it. Any idea as to type? Albino for sure.

With all of my babies, I keep the paper towels in the cage and in all the hides moist. Try to make sure that if you do spray his butter hide, that its in a place where the water will get warm.

I can't tell from the picture, but I bet its a Tremper. Tremper albino's are the most popular of the three. Also, I have never seen any other albino's for sale but the Trempers in pet stores. Maby the store will know or have a phone number for you.

Austin
2.3.3

Good luck with your little guy!

It's really hard to tell from the pic, but it looks like a baby patternless to me, rather than albino. From the pic it looks like the pattern is made up of irregular pale splotches rather than bands. If this is indeed the case, it would be a baby patternless.

-Alice

Yes, it is irregular splots, very pale. Probably patternless. But is patternless also albino? There's no black on him, but his eyes are dark. He ate another cricket, I hope he makes it through the night. He's so skinny.

Patternless is completely different from albino, altho some have bred the two together (Patternless Albinos). But yours is a regular patternless.

That sounds great! It also sounds very good that the little gecko is so interested in food. I would suggest seeing if you can take a fecal sample to your vet to get it checked out for worms etc., just in case. (B/c that leo is much to thin to travel.) That way you can insure the little guy was just starved and not also sick.
Also keep a good eye on its water intake, b/c it could be dehydrated.
Ah, and one last thing.. gutload those crickets to the best of your ability, because that is the only way to get in as much nutriets as possible to your little gecko!
I am very glad to hear that you are nursing it back to health, and that you persuaded the pet store people to let you take it home. Good luck, and keep us updated!

I agree, it may be a patternless, the only way to tell is if the have bands like pink and yellow, pink and yellow, its an albino. Patternless babies have dots...like this

http://www.vmsherp.com/images/ForSale/04Leopards/PAT100LVA002F.JPG
and this
http://www.vmsherp.com/images/ForSale/04Leopards/PAT100LVA001F.JPG

If tis like this...
http://www.vmsherp.com/images/ForSale/04Leopards/LVA100PAT004F.JPG
and this
http://www.vmsherp.com/images/ForSale/04Leopards/TRA66BB007M.JPG

it is a Tremper Albino.

Only you will be able to tell, the picture phone is blurd.

Austin
2.3.3

Sorry about that crappy picture I keep putting up, I mix it up with the one i want to put up. This is the one I ment to put up.

Wink

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Be sure and quarantine him from your other leo (and other herps). He could have caught all sorts of things where he came from. And, definitely patternless. good for you for rescuing!

Yea, I think its a Patternless also. One baby Patternless's, you can see much more blue on the top of there eye's. In your picture, I am sure of the blue clue.
Austin
2.3.3

When they get that skinny (that tail hurts me to look at it ) they sometimes overeat and then vomit, which is kinda worse than if they hadn't eaten at all. So dont let him gorge, just keep feeding him smallish amounts, give him time to digest, etc.

He might also be dehydrated so offer water but again dont let him overdo it and vomit.