Can geckos swim?

[RepGurl]

Floating the swimming are not really the same thing. I think it is so funny though that I saw this post today because I had the strangest dream about being in some strange pet store that kept all its leos in tanks that were full of water and they were all swimming around and resting on the bottom like those african clawed frogs. Sorry that was completely off topic, but i laughed when i saw this post and just had to share.

 

[Untide]

After reading ALOT, I have confirmed that leopard geckos CAN swim. I am not saying I am going to go drop my gecko in a tub because it will more then likely drown...but if they have to they can swim, just not well.

 

[nats]

Well very true but...deserts have flash floods once in awhile.

Yep, and animals drown.

 

[leonut]

Yep, and animals drown.

lol, good point.

 

[nats]

think of it like this:
if you dropped a gecko off a cliff, would it suddenly learn to fly?

Gee, that's a tough one.... yes? :main_laugh:

 

[THE WHISPERER]

I know that Aligator lizzards have short legs and they swim extremely well, and I have to second the comment about snakes swimming with no legs. And I'm not trying to pick a fight nor offend anyone but I do have to say that throwing something off a cliff and it learning to fly is completely different than throwing something in water and it learning how to swim. I have seen videos of people throwing one year old babys in water and they start swimming instantly, I'm sure I don't need to mention the cliff part of were I'm going with this . I say lets keep our minds open to the option that it could be possable.

 

[Baoh]

Just tested it on my adult male Wild Type. He can swim for short distances, but not well. He keeps his face above water and undulates his body from side to side with a larger degree of tail work. The legs get spread for stability.

Not what I'd call "reliable" swimming. Were there any current, he'd have no chance at all.

 

[Untide]

lol wow..wasn't expecting someone to actually test this..

 

[Geck-O]

I'm very sure that leo's can swim. My friend brought over his leo to my house. This was before i got mine. I asked him too if gecko's could swim. He said yes. Well, I was curious on how they could do that so he showed me.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Personally, I do not understand WHY anyone would want to test this theory in the first place. It would not take much for a gecko to aspirate some of the water and die. Case in point, several years ago Ihad a male Super Snow drown in less than an inch of water, and I accidently KILLED one of my geckos administering liquid calcium that was inhaled into the geckko's glottis, and she died. I will never get over this.

Why on earth would you want to risk the life of one of your geckos to prove if they can swim or not? If they aren't going to be housed by any large containers of water, who cares whether they can swim or not? Testing this theory is irresponsible, and dangerous. Shame on you.

 

[Baoh]

Personally, I do not understand WHY anyone would want to test this theory in the first place. It would not take much for a gecko to aspirate some of the water and die. Case in point, several years ago Ihad a male Super Snow drown in less than an inch of water, and I accidently KILLED one of my geckos administering liquid calcium that was inhaled into the geckko's glottis, and she died. I will never get over this.

Why on earth would you want to risk the life of one of your geckos to prove if they can swim or not? If they aren't going to be housed by any large containers of water, who cares whether they can swim or not? Testing this theory is irresponsible, and dangerous. Shame on you.

Marcia, I disagree with you, but I respect your opinion. Many animals undergo swimming tests (mice, for one example, and I do some work with lab animals), but that's another matter entirely. That is a part of learning, and it can be performed responsibly. In this case, I was there to guide and protect him the entire time. Liquid calcium would be much, much worse to aspirate than water for at least two reasons, too. The situations are not equal. I have had water turtles drown, too. Sad things like that happen, however, it was not going to happen on my watch today. I didn't toss my little friend in a pool and leave him to the Fates.

As an aside, someone above mentioned a box turtle swimming, which I have witnessed many a time. However, there was one individual Eastern boxie I once encountered that sunk like a rock every time she'd crawl into my neighbor's artificial pond, so we had to build her a separate pen. There are always exceptions and bad things happen to good reptiles now and again. Heck, most tortoises just sink, too, but every so often, one floats to a new coastline by freak accident, whether via a vegetation mat or on its on. If I bothered to repeat the test with more of my geckos, I am sure that the overall style would remain similar, but the inherent individual aptitude would vary.

 

[Geck-O]

Personally, I do not understand WHY anyone would want to test this theory in the first place. It would not take much for a gecko to aspirate some of the water and die. Case in point, several years ago Ihad a male Super Snow drown in less than an inch of water, and I accidently KILLED one of my geckos administering liquid calcium that was inhaled into the geckko's glottis, and she died. I will never get over this.

Why on earth would you want to risk the life of one of your geckos to prove if they can swim or not? If they aren't going to be housed by any large containers of water, who cares whether they can swim or not? Testing this theory is irresponsible, and dangerous. Shame on you.

Well, before that, I didn't know anything about gecko's. Didn't know that water was so dangerous towards them. My friend also told me that it wasn't dangerous for a gecko to swim. BTW, it wasn't my gecko that was swimming, i didn't have my gecko before this and I haven't tried to let my gecko swim and i don't intend to.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I'm sorry for being harsh. Having experienced 2 geckos drowning traumatized me beyond words, and is not something I will ever forget. All it would take is just a little water in the glottis, and the gecko could die. I just cannot comprehend subjecting geckos to something so risky...

 

[LeapinLizards]

I have to agree with Marcia on this. I cannot understand putting an animal through that much stress, and risking them ingesting water. It is just not something I can fathom ever putting any of my geckos through, even to answer a question.

 

[Baoh]

Ingesting water isn't a problem. Inhaling it is.

One day, if I have children, I may guide them carefully as I teach them to swim, too. There's a risk of near drowning and secondary drowning with that, too.

 

[syntheticreality]

First, it is a little risky to "test" a geckos swimming abilities. But almost all practical tests have risks and those risks are minimized through proper supervision and good testing techniques. Does that make it a good idea? Maybe not. But perhaps not THAT dangerous.

Second. I had a pet iguana as a child. I kept it in a cage I built on my patio during the spring and summer. Long story short, the neighbors dogs broke in to the back yard and scared her one time. She scratched up her nose on the inside, and when I opened the cage to inspect her, she ran out and dove into the swimming pool. Odd for an iguana I think. She swam through the pool going all the way to the bottom of the deep end and swam straight up to the surface. Anyway, I never expected her to swim, but she did impressively well. Maybe this is just a characteristic of iguanas I am unaware of.

There are oases in the desert that leopard geckos could probably find (correct me if I am entirely wrong about their natural habitats). I am sure in some cases drownings occur and in others they may end up floating, swimming, or wading in shallow water.

As someone already stated, swallowed and inhaled water are two different things.
My question is, could a gecko not sneeze out a small amount of water just as a mammal would?

 

[Baoh]

Green iguanas are good swimmers and will swim in nature (just to add).

Most animals will expel small amounts of inhaled water. The amount can be the problem, depending on the incident. Just too much being just too much, whatever that may be. If a bad event does occur, this usually still doesn't come to the point where a real problem, like what Marcia went through with her leos, occurs. I have rescued a number of drowning tortoises in Greece without any succumbing after a short period of bubble blowing and vomiting. One or two of the several I found developed minor upper respiratory tract infections, but those managed to clear up on their own without medication in under a week post-event.

It's a concern like so many others. I'm more worried than most chelonian owners about my tortoises turning themselves over under their own heat lamps, but I have to go on and let things be after I have taken precautions or I'll drive myself crazy.

 

[ace bomer]

woooww. ur prett irresponsible for actually testing if ur gecko can swim or not:main_thumbsdown:

 

[im faster]

Yes they can swim..

i saw a video of someone feeding a leo to a snapping turtle.. he moved pretty quick..

 

[impruv]

I just decided to search up that video and holy crap, that is messed up. Why would anyone feed their turtle a leo :main_huh::main_angry: