Diet time!! too many dubia roaches haha

[SFgeckos]

This red stripe female laid 8 clutches this year...regained all her weight back and MORE! For the last 3 weeks, she's been feeding on 2 dubia nymphs 2x per week (4 nymphs total per week), but now I'm going to have to cut back her feeding to ONCE every 7-10 days. Sounds mean, but honestly I would rather her not be obese to ensure a healthier, active and prolonged gecko life!

Jon

 

[Brett B]

WOW. thats a healthy gecko. Maybe a bit too healthy? IMO I would feed other things to her, like mealies. Good luck.

 

[robin]

oh LORDY she is a big girl haha

 

[Tony C]

Wow! What does she weigh?

 

[Enigmatic_Reptiles]

Wow she is huge.

 

[Taquiq]

Ohh wow she is big and very cute.

 

[Kristi23]

She's a pretty chunk!

 

[robin]

kristi she looks like one of your geckos LOL

 

[SFgeckos]

Yea, she's a bit TOO "healthy". I'm going to start exercising her in a larger cage a few times per week, or whenever I'm in town. Trust me, the majority of my geckos are not obese!

She is almost 10.5 inches long and about 80grams. I think after breeding/hormonal changes her metabolism has decreased significantly. She is a possible giant? because many of my eclipses, patternless stripe and redstripes have that long/lanky look. Most my adult males are fed 1x per week just one roach and they are all over 75 grams.

Jon

 

[Kristi23]

kristi she looks like one of your geckos LOL

I know.

 

[SFgeckos]

This could be a topic of discussion in another section, like ethics but...

I feel terrible and responsible as the gecko owner because in some ways obesity is "neglect".

Someone in the veterinary field could probably elaborate more about this, but I remember reading about a study done by Purina Pet food company in the 1990's about life expectancy of body condition scores of "average" dogs vs "obese" dogs. They took an entire litter of labs, half were fed ad lib (free food available whenever they wanted to eat) and the other half were fed a restricted diet. The study lasted for the entire length of their lifespan. In the end, the restricted diet labs who were "average/normal" body condition lived 25% longer and with less health complications than the other half who were mostly overweight or obese. 25% doesn't sound like much, but I believe the numbers were 13.5 years vs 11 years! In dog years and for us dog owners, an extra few years means alot!

We gecko keepers must be responsible! I'll post updates on this female as she loses weight and hopefully gets to a much healthier weight of around 65grams.

Jon

 

[CREATIVE GECKO]

This could be a topic of discussion in another section, like ethics but...

I feel terrible and responsible as the gecko owner because in some ways obesity is "neglect".

Someone in the veterinary field could probably elaborate more about this, but I remember reading about a study done by Purina Pet food company in the 1990's about life expectancy of body condition scores of "average" dogs vs "obese" dogs. They took an entire litter of labs, half were fed ad lib (free food available whenever they wanted to eat) and the other half were fed a restricted diet. The study lasted for the entire length of their lifespan. In the end, the restricted diet labs who were "average/normal" body condition lived 25% longer and with less health complications than the other half who were mostly overweight or obese. 25% doesn't sound like much, but I believe the numbers were 13.5 years vs 11 years! In dog years and for us dog owners, an extra few years means alot!

We gecko keepers must be responsible! I'll post updates on this female as she loses weight and hopefully gets to a much healthier weight of around 65grams.

Jon

+1

 

[spykerherps]

I know what you mean Jon. I think many people are feeding their geckos much too often the last couple of years I have noticed people saying they feed every day or 5 or 6 times a week. We have to remember they are reptile not dogs. My schedule is more like yours. I feed my geckos a diet of well maintained dubia as well and they only get 1 or 2 good sized roaches 1 or 2 times a week and they are all in good body weight now the females that are producing eggs get fed a little more, more often.

I wouldn't be too concerned for your big girl she does not look as bad as some I have seen and with her being poss giant I would say she doesn't have to lose too much more I'd say a good weight for her would be 70 or 75. Good looking girl though. I'll drop you a pm for more dubia soon.

 

[GreenKnight Exotics]

http://geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=53205&highlight=obese&page=2

It really is sad that I made these comments 8 months ago and received only negative responses, at least people are seemingly listening to you Jon.
Jon, I applaud you recognizing that being fat is not a good thing, and is actually a case of neglect on the owners.
Dave

 

[Tony C]

Dave I think the negative responses were provoked by the way you said it, not what you said.There is quite a difference between a person posting their own gecko to make the point and calling someone out in a show thread.

 

[GreenKnight Exotics]

Dave I think the negative responses were provoked by the way you said it, not what you said.There is quite a difference between a person posting their own gecko to make the point and calling someone out in a show thread.

You may be right,...sometimes it's difficult to convey tone and body language through text, if that's the case then I do apologize.

Here's what I wrote:

That is an incredibly obese leopard gecko.
You should really get that gecko on a diet, it's current weight is one that is very unhealthy.
No other species is considered "better" when it is morbidly obese, why should leopard geckos be any different?
I apologize if I come off sounding rude, it's just that over the last few months I have seen many pictures on this site of grotesquely obese leopard geckos that are being proudly displayed as "healthy" leopard geckos, and it bothers me.
Dave

Either way, the health of the animals we keep should always be the most important thing, even if that means that sometimes we need to be corrected if we're making mistakes.
Dave

 

[SFgeckos]

I agree with your statements and also what Tony said about how words can be "misread" through presentation. Often times, people only see the "tone" or way it was presented, rather than the main point or focus of the discussion.

Usually if I post about a certain topic that I think will spark debate, I will make sure I have adequate knowledge or research on that topic, use references or scientific studies to back what I present. I've also done many necropsies on various reptiles and amphibians throughout the years and I can say the majority of them had hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver) from being overweight or obese. Much like obesity in humans, reptile obesity results in various medical conditions (cardiac, hepatic, renal, etc), it also increases the likelihood of gravid females becoming eggbound (decreases fertility rate in males and overall fertile production in females), and also puts excessive stress on bone structure/joints of the animals. This usually results in LESS activity because activity causes possible pain, and the cycle just repeats itself because the animal continues to be fed/eats and moves less- adult bearded dragons in captivity are a great example. How often do they move except to eat? haha

I can safely say, out of hundred+ leopard geckos that I have, she is the ONLY obese gecko in my collection. My hypothesis is that her current condition resulted more relating to her age + metabolism changing + decreased exercise, rather than overfeeding because many of my female geckos only eat 4-5 roach nymphs per week and they have muscular, healthy, body scores of 2.5-3.5 Prior to this breeding season she was never obese and she's been on the same feeding regime for at least 3? years. Either way, it is obvious I am responsible for her overall well being and health so I must make adjustments.

Jon

 

[Autra]

Jon,

I'm a new leo owner(less than 2 months), but I'm not a generally stupid person. I got my first leo because a neighbor of mine's wife hated the SHTCT that a friend had given him(honestly, it was probably for drugs, which is why I HAD to rescue it. It's also the one that's in my avatar). Whether I'm new or not, and whether I've loved reptiles for years or not(I've loved them for years, it just took my wife falling in love with Melo for me to convince her to let me buy one), I can still take care of animals.

Since the old owner didn't even know what breed of lizard he had, I felt that I had to do everything in my power to rescue the lizard he gave me, and I haven't been disappointed since. I might not know as much as some of the other breeders on this site(though I'm working on learning as much as possible), I completely appreciate you taking credit for the way your obese gecko is growing up.

Yes, you're the owner and yes, you have made a small mistake in raising it, but you are not only doing everything you can to make it better, but you told us that you've made a mistake, and are trying to fix it.

I totally respect that, and just wanted to let you know.

 

[Tony C]

Either way, the health of the animals we keep should always be the most important thing, even if that means that sometimes we need to be corrected if we're making mistakes.
Dave

I agree with you 100%, too many people seem to think that "the fatter the better" with their geckos.

 

[L-G-C]

Not to intrude on the post but what is a good weight for a normal sized leopard gecko?