Fifth day home and hes already sick...

[AlbinoNme]

What have i done?

i feel like such a fool!!

My gecko is not eatting and hasnt pooped since the morning after i got him five days ago.

Granted i have gotten him to eat a TOTAL of 8 crickets, 4 mealworms and 3 waxworms since he came home to me.

I feel like its my fault because ontop of the stress of moving to a new home... i went through a "changing" phase in which i changed his cage around almost everyday.. putting sand in.. taking sand out.. adding slate increasing the sizes of his hide and so forth. I know!! DUMB THING TO DO and im paying for it now, but i finally have his cage the way i want it.

yesterday i forced feed (chased him around the cage with the crickets with twisers until he ate them) him 5 crickets and when i came home this afternoon i see two spots of where he could have pooped but i only see the WHITE part of the poop.

He use to come out and walk around his cage when i first got him,.. but now he doesnt come out of his humid hide at all (hes NOT shedding). Please give me some idea on how to go about this problem and if only seeing the white of the poop is something VET serious considering the little that he has eaten.

Thanks!

 

[KiwisKeeper]

Ummm it is still very early to tell. honestly im surprised that he has taken anything from you at all. it could be that he is still digesting the food you gave him. how old is he? also do you still have him on sand? that could be a problem with impaction. he might be stressed from all the moving around, the chasing, and getting put into a new tank. another note you shouldnt expect him to shed that often, usually only every 1-3 weeks depending on how much hes being fed, growing, etc. how thin is he? i would consider impaction except for the fact that he was able to pass the white part. if he is still eating, thats good. just watch carefully. don't get to stressed out. it could be nothing. sometimes it takes gecko a week or two before they are ready to come out of their house, or even eat.

 

[AlbinoNme]

Ummm it is still very early to tell. honestly im surprised that he has taken anything from you at all. it could be that he is still digesting the food you gave him. how old is he? also do you still have him on sand? that could be a problem with impaction. he might be stressed from all the moving around, the chasing, and getting put into a new tank. another note you shouldnt expect him to shed that often, usually only every 1-3 weeks depending on how much hes being fed, growing, etc. how thin is he? i would consider impaction except for the fact that he was able to pass the white part. if he is still eating, thats good. just watch carefully. don't get to stressed out. it could be nothing. sometimes it takes gecko a week or two before they are ready to come out of their house, or even eat.

He will be one year on 9-22-10. i used sand for less than an hour and then took him off of it. I now have him on slate on top of reptile carpet, but the hot side doesn’t have any slate on it. I left the hot side with just carpet so he can rest his belly on the heat. he is a little less than 58g... and a week or two?!! that seems like a lot. I want him to be nice and fat and healthy.

It took me a whole hour or more to get him to eat those 5 gutloaded crickets last night and i decided not to feed him tonight and try again tomorrow night. Sound good? or should i just wait a few days? how can i get him to come out. Should i start hand taming him?

I actually started hand taming him since i got him and he was pretty good until he brushed past my arm one day while i was trying to put him back in his cage after taking the sand out and he hissed and bite me. It didn’t hurt but i left him alone after that.

He use to roam around A LOT!! now he’s constantly in his humid hide and when i open it to get him to smell my hand or get use to my hand he smashes himself closer to the wall of the hide.

Im so at a loss..

 

[M_surinamensis]

You tore up his enclosure, are constantly touching him and chased him around harassing him... and now he hides and shies away from you. And you can't see the logical connection between these two things?

 

[Tommy13b]

What are you useing as a heatsourse?
Have you tried giving him a warm soak?

 

[AlbinoNme]

You tore up his enclosure, are constantly touching him and chased him around harassing him... and now he hides and shies away from you. And you can't see the logical connection between these two things?

i do..

I guess i was/am a little bit more than over protective about keeping him healthy. I see my error, im just trying to fix it now and make things better between him and I. Any ideas about how to go about this would be a great help.

Thanks in advance.

 

[AlbinoNme]

What are you useing as a heatsourse?
Have you tried giving him a warm soak?

i have a UTH and a red light and a day light. i only use the day light during the morning hours before switching on the UTH and then the red bulb for night viewing.

I didnt think about a warm soak because he was able to pass his stool the first day i got him.. now he is having trouble. im not sure it its because of stress or it takes him a while to actually "go".

Plus i fear he wont allow me to pick him up to give him a soak even if i wanted to and i dont want to stress him out more..:main_huh:

 

[fl_orchidslave]

You're causing him a great deal of stress by messing with him and his cage so much. Chill out and let him adjust. It can take several weeks for an adult to settle in and be comfortable. He's not going to starve. At this point a blanket over his cage would be a good idea so he doesn't see you looking at him all the time. Leave him be!

 

[M_surinamensis]

Patience.

It doesn't hurt to do a quick check of the environmental conditions to make sure they are within the acceptable range, but for the time being- leave him alone, except as is absolutely required for maintenance. If he is not eating voluntarily, give him a few days and then try again. Once he begins eating, allow him to establish his appetite and a pattern of feeding behavior for a couple weeks, minimum, before you attempt to start any handling routines.

Force feeding, assist feeding or harass feeding are options of last resort, to be used when animals are in an immediate danger of death if they do not get nutrients in them. It is enormously stressful and frequently tends to be self defeating (especially if done by someone who is inexperienced at it) since the act of force feeding itself functions to retard natural feeding behaviors.

I recommend having a fecal examination and initial vet visit on all new animals, regardless of their apparent health. However it is not unusual to observe odd stool when animals are stressed or when the diet is interrupted, so these should be noted without being an immediate cause for undue concern, unless they persist after a normal feeding schedule has been established.

The biggest thing though... leave him alone.

 

[AlbinoNme]

You're causing him a great deal of stress by messing with him and his cage so much. Chill out and let him adjust. It can take several weeks for an adult to settle in and be comfortable. He's not going to starve. At this point a blanket over his cage would be a good idea so he doesn't see you looking at him all the time. Leave him be!

Geez.. are they really that sensitive?

A blanket or the cage does sound like a pretty good idea and i can use the uth for a few days... :main_no: i know this is mainly my fault.. i got TOO trigger happy.

Should i turn the red light off at night too? BTW, hes in my room (and my room is pretty small) at the end of my bed.

 

[AlbinoNme]

Patience.

It doesn't hurt to do a quick check of the environmental conditions to make sure they are within the acceptable range, but for the time being- leave him alone, except as is absolutely required for maintenance. If he is not eating voluntarily, give him a few days and then try again. Once he begins eating, allow him to establish his appetite and a pattern of feeding behavior for a couple weeks, minimum, before you attempt to start any handling routines.

Force feeding, assist feeding or harass feeding are options of last resort, to be used when animals are in an immediate danger of death if they do not get nutrients in them. It is enormously stressful and frequently tends to be self defeating (especially if done by someone who is inexperienced at it) since the act of force feeding itself functions to retard natural feeding behaviors.

I recommend having a fecal examination and initial vet visit on all new animals, regardless of their apparent health. However it is not unusual to observe odd stool when animals are stressed or when the diet is interrupted, so these should be noted without being an immediate cause for undo concern, unless they persist after a normal feeding schedule has been established.

The biggest thing though... leave him alone.

:main_thumbsup: Sounds like very good advice. I guess ill just leave some gut loaded mealworms in there for him in a bowel (or a waxworm so i can keep him fat/big?). I hate to put the crickets in because they would end up crawling on him and getting suck on his tree and such (i usually cut the back legs off of them before putting them in).

It seems like everyone here says that he will be okay if left without a meal for sometime..Im having a bit of a hard time thinking that he will get better even if he doesnt eat..., but i will give this a try (since my efforts mad things worse).

i want to keep him human friendly, but ill lay off the hand taming for now.. do you think he will be more use to me as he sees me more often? if i talk to him or sing? :main_huh he lives at the end of my bed where i rest my head sometimes)

 

[KiwisKeeper]

[/QUOTE]Geez.. are they really that sensitive?

A blanket or the cage does sound like a pretty good idea and i can use the uth for a few days... :main_no: i know this is mainly my fault.. i got TOO trigger happy.

Should i turn the red light off at night too? BTW, hes in my room (and my room is pretty small) at the end of my bed.[/QUOTE]


i would turn it off at night if you are using the uth. also the blanket is a really good idea. at night sometimes if i went upstairs to sleep and just opened my eyes to look at him (he was 12 ft away) he would raise his head and go back into his house.

 

[AlbinoNme]

My cage, over head light turned on for picture purposes only.

 

[AlbinoNme]

Geez.. are they really that sensitive?

A blanket or the cage does sound like a pretty good idea and i can use the uth for a few days... :main_no: i know this is mainly my fault.. i got TOO trigger happy.

Should i turn the red light off at night too? BTW, hes in my room (and my room is pretty small) at the end of my bed.[/QUOTE]


i would turn it off at night if you are using the uth. also the blanket is a really good idea. at night sometimes if i went upstairs to sleep and just opened my eyes to look at him (he was 12 ft away) he would raise his head and go back into his house.[/QUOTE]

aw! thats so cute...but gosh okay ill turn it off and just use the UTH instead and throw a sheet over the glass..

If i do do this,.. how could i get him to get use to me or the sight of seeing me or others?

 

[M_surinamensis]

I guess ill just leave some gut loaded mealworms in there for him in a bowel (or a waxworm so i can keep him fat/big?).

Mealworms would be better than waxworms. Waxworms are not as good, nutritionally. They are fattier, which is decent for the calories, but that is about the only area in which they have a higher nutrient content than mealworms. Fat has its place in a diet but by itself it is not good for healthy growth and development.

i want to keep him human friendly, but ill lay off the hand taming for now.. do you think he will be more use to me as he sees me more often?

It has a lot more to do with them aging, adults are just less jumpy and skittish than juveniles. The behaviors change as they get bigger. Aggressive leopard geckos are an extreme rarity, you shouldn't need to worry about taming him or about an interruption in whatever you had worked up. You described behaviors that indicated he was not responding well to it at any rate, showing signs of increased stress, rather than reduced.

Let him settle in. Give him time to get comfortable enough to eat properly. Then browse through some of the threads here or grab yourself a book that details the subject if you intend to go forward with a handling schedule.

 

[GrimmyX15]

Yeah they are THAT sensitive. Didnt you research about thumb rule before bring new animal in new home and let it be for few days so he can abjust to his new home and you can feed it but supposed to not touch it because it could be stress of moving too much or other.

Well. Next time if you are bring another animal into new home, let it be alone.

 

[AlbinoNme]

Mealworms would be better than waxworms. Waxworms are not as good, nutritionally. They are fattier, which is decent for the calories, but that is about the only area in which they have a higher nutrient content than mealworms. Fat has its place in a diet but by itself it is not good for healthy growth and development.



It has a lot more to do with them aging, adults are just less jumpy and skittish than juveniles. The behaviors change as they get bigger. Aggressive leopard geckos are an extreme rarity, you shouldn't need to worry about taming him or about an interruption in whatever you had worked up. You described behaviors that indicated he was not responding well to it at any rate, showing signs of increased stress, rather than reduced.

Let him settle in. Give him time to get comfortable enough to eat properly. Then browse through some of the threads here or grab yourself a book that details the subject if you intend to go forward with a handling schedule.

Mealworms it is!

One other dumb yet honest question,.. when would i know if he has settled in?
Is it when he finally walks around and eats his mealies?

 

[AlbinoNme]

Yeah they are THAT sensitive. Didnt you research about thumb rule before bring new animal in new home and let it be for few days so he can abjust to his new home and you can feed it but supposed to not touch it because it could be stress of moving too much or other.

Well. Next time if you are bring another animal into new home, let it be alone.

I have researched, but i got TOO happy... i guess..:main_lipsrsealed::main_huh:

 

[KiwisKeeper]

Once its has been about a week or two just watch him, spend more time near the cage, stuff like that. they will get used to you eventually. they can become really attached to you. my gecko doesnt like to be handled by anyone but me now, because i spent a lot of time with him when he was young. but all geckos are different. just watch and figure out what yours is like (not yet.).

 

[AlbinoNme]

Once its has been about a week or two just watch him, spend more time near the cage, stuff like that. they will get used to you eventually. they can become really attached to you. my gecko doesnt like to be handled by anyone but me now, because i spent a lot of time with him when he was young. but all geckos are different. just watch and figure out what yours is like (not yet.).

Oh!
I hope we wont get tooooo skinny in these few weeks comming up! but i will do my best to leave him be. i have to admit, this will be kind of hard since he is in my room and im either on the phone or watching hulu on my computer, so he will hear my voice or other people voices. i hope this doesnt slow the process.:main_no: