Could my male be blind??

[Moppel]

I googled this, and read I don't know how many websites, but nothing seemed to apply here.

My male gecko, he's about one year old, has always been a not so great hunter, but he has been able to hunt and eat every night. Recently I have noticed that it's getting harder for him to catch his food (crickets), he just jumps at them and misses, but eventually he catches some.

So, a couple weeks or so ago I found out from the awesome people here that I've been making a lot of mistakes with my leos, one being not feeding a vitamin supplement, just calcium with D3. I have been feeding the crickets those green gel cubes, "bites", I don't know if that helped at all.

Anyway, Friday I started dusting their food with Repashy Leopard Gecko Calcium Plus, and I also switched to giant mealworms (Dubias are on their way, I had to order them). I put the mealworms in a mealworm dish so they wouldn't escape. The male kept staring at the worms from all angles, and pounced twice (that I saw), but missed both times. Yesterday I put them in front of his nose, one at a time, and he ate them, but he did miss a few times. He clearly likes them though.
Last night I put fresh worms in his bowl, and they were all still there this morning. Again, I put one in front of his nose, he got excited, pounced five or six times, missing every time, and then he just gave up. I could not get him to even try any more. Not from the floor, not from my hand. Just wasn't interested anymore.

His eyes look completely normal, I always pay extra attention to him when he's shedding to make sure it all comes off, he was housed on regular carpet, but now I switched to slate, never used anything loose like sand, his eyes are not red, goopy, swollen, or anything like that, and he can open them just fine. They look clear to me.

I saw on one of the websites that Vitamin A deficiency can cause blindness. Does it sound like that's what happened?? He can obviously see the movement of the worms/crickets, but he can not judge the distance, their exact location.

He does not look super skinny, but he only weighs 38g. My female is 52g, and she is quite chunky.
What can I do to help him? Should I call the Vet tomorrow? Does he need to be seen, in your opinion? If I ask the Vet, I know they're going to tell me to bring him in, they always do. And I will if he needs it!

I'm panicking a little here. It never occured to me that he might have vision problems. These two are my first leos/reptiles. I thought he's just a sucky hunter.

 

[acpart]

There is some information about vitamin A but I'm not sure how much is definitive. Bring your gecko from a dim environment to the light and see if the pupils get smaller. If they do, he's at least responding to light. I have found that some geckos are just terrible hunters, but not necessarily blind. Some of them do well with superworms because they're big, move well but aren't too fast.

Aliza

 

[Moppel]

I'll try that, thanks. He definitely sees the movement of the worms. Do you think he needs to see a Vet? If so, I'll call in the morning and make an appt.

 

[acpart]

It never hurts to be safe and try the vet. If the eyes are clear, I don't know what more s/he can do, but it sounds worth it to take him in for a checkup.

Aliza

 

[Olympus]

I would switch your gutloading to something better, those cubes don't contain a whole lot. Vitamin A can be found in vegetables, such as carrots and dark leafy greens, and while it's not understood if reptiles can use this source of vitamin A (beta-carotenoids) it certainly can't help to gutload his food with richer nutrient sources. I'll give you a list of good foods at the end.

However, we do think they process vitamin A from animal sources (preformed vit A) fairly well so with chameleons the trick is to take a fish liver oil capsule, for example, and smear (or inject) a drop into a feeder and feed it to the animal. Typically 3-4 days of this will result in marked improvement if it is a vit A deficiency. But don't keep doing it for prolonged periods because they can overdose on it, so it's not a remedy you can employ daily for weeks.

I know you just changed your supplements too, which could help. Even something like a minor deficiency/overdose of something can cause awkward muscular control, which could be the cause of the missing. So changing around the supplements & gutload may help with that too.

Gutloading fresh ingredients: mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelion leaves, collard greens, escarole lettuce, papaya, watercress, alfalfa, sweet potato, carrots, oranges, mango, butternut squash, kale, apples, beet greens, blackberries, bok choy and green beans.

 

[Moppel]

Wonderful Olympus, thank you! I'm going to discontinue the crickets once this batch is gone. I ordered Dubias, and I just got an email saying that they should be here Thursday (in three days). I also ordered roach food (high quality I hope, it said so and it got a 5 out of 5 star rating). Will the roach food be good for gutloading the Dubias, or should I give them something else too?
I really don't like it when something says "fully complete, perfect for gutloading", and then it turns out it's not. It makes things really difficult for newbies like us. And there is very little information on details like that on the internet or in the book I bought (will buy that next generation one now).

The good news is, I gave the male eight mealworms dusted with the calcium plus in his mealworm bowl last night, together with two crickets. This morning there were only four mealworms left, and I don't see the crickets anywhere, although they might be in the moist hide, I didn't check there. But he definitely ate those four worms!! Makes me feel so much better.

 

[Dinosaur!]

I definitely do not believe you little guy is blind. I have a blind gecko and a blind gecko rarely lifts their heads unless they are in a familiar environment (I say this because his head is lifted in the top pic). id probably have to agree that he is just a really sucky hunter! haha! hell be fine as ling as he keeps eating, and you give him the proper vitamins and gutloaded food. but as acpart says, a visit to the vet could never hurt. well good luck, and keep us posted!:grin2:

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Your guy looks to be a healthy weight. He might just be a smaller leo than your female and/or lazy? I might try not feeding him for a day or two (or even four) and see if the motivation of hunger improves his accuracy. It may not though, I have a couple that just seem to have bad aim; hungry or not.

 

[Moppel]

Thanks guys! Yeah, I don't think he's blind either. I think I just panicked there for a moment, because we have made so many mistakes so far, and I just got really scared that we might have hurt him with one of those mistakes.

He started eating now. He's eating the mealworms out of the dish now. I keep track of how much I feed him, and at what rate it disappears. Last night I gave him 10 mealworms and three crickets, and this morning all the crickets were gone (I know you're not supposed to leave them in the tank overnight), and by now five of the ten worms are gone. I checked the whole tank, which is much easier now with slate, and I didn't find any crickets or escaped worms, so he must have eaten them. I think I'll do another weight check tomorrow.

The female on the other hand won't eat the worms from the dish, only if I put them right in front of her. She does eat the crickets though, as usual.