Please Help

[Iris123]

I have been a lousy owner. My life has gotten in the way of properly caring for my gecko (I know this is not an excuse). I believe she is 6 years old. I got her when I was pretty young, at about 10 or 11. For the first years i had her she was taken care of, my mom and I took good care of her. I am now 16 and I have been doing a very poor job, now i am realizing this and want to change. Im not sure how she is, she is quite skinny and is slow moving. It has been awhile since she was fed last, but i just went out and bought some crickets and fed her but she has not even tried to eat any of them. I really want to change and start taking better care of her but i have no idea where to even start. Please help

She is a Leopard gecko (female)

 

[ballpythoncrazy]

She actually doesn't look terrible, so don't be too hard on yourself. Her tail is a decent size, which means she's healthy, although it could be fatter. She also looks a bit small, like she's still a baby. She's how old? Around 4-5 years old? If you have a scale that can weigh things in grams you can weigh her and keep track of her growth. My female Leo is a year old and she's around 70 grams.

So first things first GET RID OF THE SAND. Sand is very dangerous! Leopard geckos explore their surroundings by licking things, so your gecko is constantly eating all that sand. She also eats it when she grabs a cricket, and just by laying on the sand it can force it's way up her vent (where she poops/pees from). The bad thing about sand is its nearly impossible to digest, so it gets stuck in their stomachs and can cause impaction and kill them. The sand can also get into their eyes and cause an infection and blindness (that's what happened to my first leopard gecko). Sand also harbors bacteria like no other. Imagine if you had to live in a giant litter box.
Paper towels, news paper, tile and reptile carpet are all much better choices and are much easier to clean and cheaper.

Based on how small she looks I would say she should be eating every day. Crickets, meal worms, and super worms are good, dubia roaches are much better though. Roaches and worms can be left in a small food dish for your gecko to eat whenever she feels hungry.

She should have a heat pad under neath her tank that is regulated by a thermostat. If you plug a heat pad directly into the wall it can get hot enough to burn or kill a gecko, so the heat pad should be plugged in to a thermostat that keeps it at about 93 degrees. A heat pad is more important that a heat lamp because leopard geckos needs belly heat to digest their food.

That's about the basics that I can think of off the top of my head. If you have any additional questions don't be afraid to ask!


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[acpart]

In addition to the good advice above, read some care sheets (google "leopard gecko care") and see if there's anything else you're missing. The most important things at the moment are proper heat (low 90's on the floor of the cage on the hot side, not in the air), proper supplements --calcium and vitamin D3 (if you can get Repashy Calcium Plus it's all in one and you won't have to mess with a bunch of different things), and, as mentioned above, no sand (some geckos do well on sand but since yours hasn't been cared for as you say, and may be in less than the best health, sand isn't recommended at this time. Ceramic tile, paper towel or repti carpet is the way to go right now).

Aliza