Feeding A Special Needs Gecko

Jolenels

New Member
3 Year Member
Messages
131
Location
Canada
So Spike is blind in one eye and partially blind in the other. Vision won't return. Currently we are feeding him four or five crickets every other day. He lost some weight and tail girth during the first stages of the infection when he couldn't see at all so we are trying to beef him up a bit. As it is you have to slowly move the thrashing cricket in front of his better eye, all the while hoping it doesn't pop a leg and take off across the massive tank. Because then you need to chase it down with tweezers and hope your ninja skills don't fail you now because you need to pluck a cricket by it's one remaining leg at neck break speeds. As well we were looking into getting a new dust (need opinions on that too) but when the cricket is flipping out the dust more or less just powders off.

I need to know if this is it for the next many, many years or if there is a better way to feed him? We had a cricket lose both it's back legs in the frenzy and crawl around the tank. Spike could see it and lunged about twenty or so times before I gave up and snagged the cricket by the head, killing it and making it useless food. While he was lunging he was biting the paper towel....it's what we have down as substrate because we were dealing with the infection...and I'm worried that could cause some sort of impaction, or can a leopard gecko digest paper? All I have available to me is crickets, meal worms, and wax worms. We used to give him about 8 wax worms a year, just as a treat lol. And he used to eat mealworms, but now we have a red eyed tree frog and he eats crickets so we switched Spike to crickets. Now he doesn't care for the worms.

I've heard of feeding bowls but how do you keep the insects inside the bowl? And make it low enough the gecko can get it? Should we more or less empty the tank and let the crickets crawl and Spike will learn? Right now it's 2 dry hides, a wet hide, a water bowl, two décor plants and a décor log in a 60 gallon tank. Someone told me to use the slurry other geckos eat but isn't that fruit? And Spike eats bugs so that would be a huge mess up in the diet no?

Thanks in advance guys! I want to make Spike as comfortable as possible.
 

acpart

Geck-cessories
Staff member
Messages
15,485
Location
Somerville, MA
You could feed Spike in a really small enclosure, which is what I did with a gecko I owned previously who was a terrible hunter. You could also hold Spike, hold the feeder in one hand and gently press the feeder against his mouth until he takes it. My oldest gecko is 12 and I've been feeding her like that on and off (more on than off lately) for years.

Aliza
 

acpart

Geck-cessories
Staff member
Messages
15,485
Location
Somerville, MA
So maybe try the small enclosure, or block him into a smaller section of his regular enclosure with a piece of plexiglass.

Aliza
 

THEHERPHUNTER

New Member
Messages
3
I saw a video where a woman made a thing she called golden gate slurry where she made this mixture for geckos with your case or MBD and used a syringe with no needle but like the ones in packs of calpol to feed it
 

Jolenels

New Member
3 Year Member
Messages
131
Location
Canada
We actually got one eye to clear up about 50%. So he has limited vision in one eye, the other is completly blind. We tong feed him, and occasionally we lame up a cricket and let him 'hunt' it. He has become aggressive due to his loss of sight and the fact that he thinks everything is food now, but we will keep him fed, safe, and well housed until he passes. I guess he is just no longer a holdable critter.
 

CourtneyZach

New Member
Messages
121
Location
British Columbia
May I ask what he has and how he went blind? I know you said he doesn't care for the worms but having one of those pottery bowls with calcium and putting mealworms in it is super easy and if he can kind of see I think that would help a lot. With crickets I don't really know. All I can think abot is holding each cricket with tweezers and feeding them to him one by one. hears a picture of the bowl I use for my mealies ( he is a baby in this picture the bowl is actually very small
 

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Jolenels

New Member
3 Year Member
Messages
131
Location
Canada
We are not 100% sure why.

One day we noticed one eye looked...off. At first I thought it was shed but then it became apparent it was IN his eye. We do not have a local vet who will deal with geckos. So we started treating him with polysporin eye drops. The infection jumped to the other eye. We kept treating with polysporin and saline.

A buddy we have breeds chameleons and he gave us an ointment that a vet a few hours away had given him for his chameleons eye infection. At this point (6 months almost of infection, massive weight loss, major stress) we figured what the hell...lets try it. Within 3 days the one eye showed signs of vision recovery. We used it for the full recommended 14 days but no more came back.

We do tong feed him. He is really jumpy amd snappy now so we just no longer hold him.
 

CourtneyZach

New Member
Messages
121
Location
British Columbia
That's good I'm happy you guys are doing your best to take care of him. In my hometown we did not have a reptile vet either so I completely understand the frustration of trying to figure this out yourselves. I wish him you and guys all the best!
 

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