Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I have been a long time herper, but am new to day geckos. At the reptile show in Atlanta a few weeks ago I bought a pair of gold dust day geckos.

The guy that I bought them from told me I could easily keep them in an enclosure with the red eye tree frogs that I have, so I came home, put them all together, and by the following morning the female had her tail bitten off. In the following few days she stopped eating and started to get visibly skinnier and it seems like she is continuing to deteriorate.

This weekend I set up a 30gal terrarium and moved them from the tank with the frogs into their own enclosure. So far the female seems to be enjoying the new enclosure as she has been more active and energetic, but I have not seen her eat anything yet.

At first she would snap for a mealworm, but drop it. I have tried small crickets, wax worms, meal worms, and pureed fruit but she does not seem to be fattening up at all. My only hope is that she will continue to adjust to and enjoy this enclosure and her feeding habits will come around. I can see where her tail is starting to come back as well.

My other question is this odd looking lump she has in her throat. She has a round looking "ball" in her throat on one side that has never gone away. I really have no idea what this is, can anyone help?

Any tips or input?

Thanks guys

First question: How sure are you that you have a male/female pair? Male laticuada can be very territorial and aggressive.

My first move would be to isolate the ailing individual. Even in a male/female pair, the male can sometimes be overly aggressive and the submissive female will not have adequate access to basking sites, food, etc. Set her up in her own cage, make sure her temperatures and humidity are adequate and supply a small amount of food daily. Small crickets, fruit based baby food, crested gecko diet, etc.

As for the lump, without a picture it's hard to say. Female day geckos will store large quantities of calcium in their endolymphatic sacs but that would be seen on both sides of the throat rather than just one. Can you post a photo of the lump?

Get her separated, get her comfy and see how that goes.

Good luck!