General questions

[bowsertime]

Hey all. Meet Binti, my 2-month-old leopard gecko.

She is a voracious eater housed in a 20 gallon tank with two hideouts on her warm side, which ranges from 88-95F, one in the middle, and one on the cool side. She enjoys 20 minutes or so of lapping up water every other night and takes great pleasure in tracking Reptivite powder all over her carpet when she walks in her vitamin dish. She also finds amusement in hiding her poops in the moist moss, even if I move it around so as to try to convince her not to hide her poo in the most difficult place to spot clean.

She has become very accustomed to hand-feeding and only lightly hesitates to actually climb right into my open palm if I happen to have a mealworm waiting for her within it.

My interest in hand-taming her has seemingly diminished her interest in finding her own food. She will come out at the first hint of lights-out-time and sit in the middle of the tank, waiting patiently. At the sight of my hand, she's in hunting mode, little head darting to and fro, powerful jaws nearly snapping my fingers off with each bite. She knows there are nice, juicy mealworms awaiting her in the dish. She knows she can climb in there and take as many as she pleases. But she will not, unless I painstakingly lead her to it. And when she has eaten her fill from me, she often goes back to the warm side of her enclosure, in a dry hide spot, and sits there for hours as if she's gone to sleep. At night! Crazy lizard.

If you've made it this far through my story... thanks. Here are my questions: should I be hand-feeding her, or should I be letting her find her own food? How can I make her less skittish when touched? She doesn't mind eating from my hand, but if I ever physically touch her, she's a bolt of lightning straight back to the hide. Is it okay for her not to be out for hours at night after eating her fill? What is a 2 mo.-old gecko's fill? How many mealworms should I let her have at night?

Thanks in advance!

 

[acpart]

She has you well trained! Whether or not you hand feed her is up to you. If you enjoy it, then go ahead. If you have to be away, leave her some food and either she'll get hungry and eat or wait for you but she won't waste away (I'm out of town for 3 days with no plans to have my geckos fed, just watered, and they'll be fine).
It's not unusual for baby geckos to spend a lot of time hiding since in the wild they're more vulnerable than adults. She'll likely come out more as she gets older, but there's no guarantee. Some people wouldn't do this, but I have no problem scooping up my geckos, even moving the hide and picking them up. They are often most comfortable if I make a "cave" out of my hand and let them sit in there.
As far as how many mealworms --as many as the gecko will eat at that young age. Occasionally a young gecko eats too many and throws up some, but they soon learn not to do that.

Aliza

 

[ajveachster]

Some people wouldn't do this, but I have no problem scooping up my geckos, even moving the hide and picking them up.

I'm with you on this. If I waited on all the little ones to come out and climb on my hand to pick them up I would never get papers changed.

 

[bowsertime]

Thanks for the replies.

I've had to fight the urge to scoop her up, just because I've got such a phobia of accidentally touching or bumping her tail if she scatters when I do, causing her to drop it. Her carpet could really use a light cleaning, but... yeah. I like her chubby little tail the way it is.

She has taken, in recent days, to coming out in broad daylight when the sun is shining into her enclosure and sitting in the middle of the tank to sleep. Weird? Something I should worry about? She's my first gecko, so I don't really know the warning signs for illness beyond things like any other animal - lethargy, loss of appetite, weight loss, etc.

As for her portions, great. I was always worried about over-feeding her. I think we went through close to 15 or so worms one night. I certainly don't mind hand-feeding her, but I just didn't want her to lose any instinct to find her own food. Thanks!

 

[IslaReina]

It's fine if she sleeps out in the open, my baby barely goes in her regular hides (she's either out in the open on the hot side or in her moist hide)

It probably just means she's getting more used to you

 

[bowsertime]

Or maybe she's just trying to hint at wanting more worms... hmm.

Well, it's a relief that it's nothing to worry about. Thanks all.

 

[acpart]

The tails are more like Corelle than China. They won't break off if they just get touched.

Aliza

 

[bowsertime]

Really? Okay, good. I'm not planning to pick her up by her tail or tug on it or anything, I just really don't want to scare her too much since she's so skittish to being touched at the moment. I'll see if I can get a hold of her tonight.

She's turning quite pale and whitish lately. Hope her shedding experience works out well when it happens. I've been keeping her moss nice and moist and misting her enclosure every other day lately in preparation for it. Go Binti go!

 

[bowsertime]

How long does it take for a leo to get their skin off? Bints started shedding this morning (around 3 hours ago now) and seemed to just... get lazy halfway through and stop. I guided her to her moist hideout, and she decided just to sit in it and do nothing again for 20 minutes. I've since put her in a covered plastic container lined with warm, damp paper towels for moisture. Am I just overreacting? Maybe I should have just waited for her to get stuff off by herself?

 

[fl_orchidslave]

Leave her alone and let her change clothes

 

[Riven]

Depends on the gecko, I have a few that rush through shedding and, they are done in a couple of hours. Some are lazy and take 12 hours or so. As long as she has a moist hide and stuff to rub against, she should be fine. Over 24 is when I would start soaking.

Scott

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[bowsertime]

That's what I figured after a while. I let her out of the humidity chamber and she ran back into her regular dry, heated hideout, at which point she began to thrash around and rip off her skin. Except now I think she's just gotten tired/bored again because she went to sleep with half of it still on her. Lazy Binti.

 

[bowsertime]

Hey again, all. I know I'm starting to get annoying and a lot of people have been ribbing me, saying I'm like a new parent by worrying over every little thing, but...

Binti's been a little different lately. I took some time a couple nights ago to try to get her more acquainted with my hand, for ease of handling later in her life. I laid my hand on her carpet, wiggled my fingers some, and tried to see if she'd crawl in. No go. So I let her head to bed for the night and get some rest.

The next night, she didn't want to eat from my hand anymore. She'd turn away, but had no problem eating off her carpet.

Now tonight, she doesn't really show interest in eating from my hand or off the carpet. She will look, but will then turn her head away and sometimes close her eyes. She spent more time than she usually does in her moist hide (which is also her pooping spot), then spent some time in what seems to be her favourite spot - by her water dish, on the cool side. I checked in on her an hour or so later to find a rather monstrous poop by the dish, with what looked like a mostly undigested mealworm inside it. It had no distinct odour or whiteness. It was just brown with a bit of mealworm-looking stuff inside.

Should I be worried or doing something?

 

[Dog Shrink]

Are you sure it was a poo and not regurgitated food?

 

[bowsertime]

I'm not sure. She hasn't eaten today yet. The last time she ate was last night, and she left me a healthy-looking poo in her moist hide earlier tonight. Would she regurgitate after that long without a fresh worm eaten?

 

[Dog Shrink]

That would all depend on several different factors. I don't suppose you still have it or could get a picture of it so we could help you know for sure? Usually most poos won't have many distinguishing features of what it was when it went in when it comes out. Usually the ones that you can distinguish what went in usually are regurged food.

 

[bowsertime]

I don't still have it, but after finding this pic, it looked a lot like the one up top:

That's not what my gecko did, it's just a pic I found on Google. So by the looks of it, I guess it was regurgitation.

 

[bowsertime]

I've read that improper heat on the hot side of the tank can cause regurgitation and digestion issues, but I don't think that's the case. My thermometer consistently measures between 88F-96F during the day and evens off around 90F-95F at night. The cool side of Binti's 20gal tank measures in at around 75F-80F, also consistently.

Is it possible that, even though she didn't appear to eat at all that day, she might just have eaten a mealworm that was a little too big the night before? She's still been acting different than usual, venturing over to her cooler side to lay by her water dish and sleep out in the open during the day. Like I said though, she did have a normal-looking poop in her usual spot before this mass of undigested stuff showed up, and the odour was as it's always been; very faint, but there. After exiting the hide where she poops, she spent a little time licking her vent like a dog.

Even while I try to feed her at night, she shows slight interest, then turns her head away and just closes her eyes. She's still very alert if I happen to brush her with my finger, to which she immediately perks up and runs from as she's always done, but other than that, it's a little weird for her.

 

[Dog Shrink]

That upper pic almost looks like regurged shed not food from what I can make out of it. If she ate then regurged her shed it would appear to have food in it as well as they can't selectively decide what they keep in and what they regurge out. It's all or not. Regurging can be rather hard on a leo esp. if they've never done it before. It could take upwards of a week before she decides to eat again. You have quite a variable in the temps on your warm side. If I were you I'd try for a consistant 95 right now that she's not feeling well. When they're under the weqther you want to keep it a little warmer. If she's constantly stayng on her cool side tho your hot side may be warmer than she likes but that is why we provide a temperature gradient so they can decide where they need to be to be most comfortable.

 

[bowsertime]

Okay, I'll put up another tank light I have that I used at first, but found it to make the warm side a bit too hot. I was aiming for a range of 85F-90F, but the tank light kept throwing it over 100F. She's now in a more open room though, so the tank light might keep her around 95F more. I'll have it changed tomorrow morning when her lights go on.

What worried me was her coming out so often, particularly during the day, and just lying by her dish to go to sleep. Her refusal to eat, when normally she'd be thrilled to snap up worms from my fingers, and the way she just turns her head away and closes her eyes kind of worries me too. Is there some reason her eyes keep closing like that? There's no stuck shed or anything in them that I can see, and she's not kept on a substrate that could irritate them. Her eyes are still very dark and very clear, like they were the day I got her.