Geckos Shaking? Please Help.

[Rogrokim]

I recently got my first baby leopard gecko from a local breeder. He is male and still quite young. I've noticed some strange behavior lately. The first thing I noticed was he stopped eating. For a while, Zero (his name), would eat a ton. Then, he went a couple weeks without eating but today he managed to eat two crickets. I assumed at first it was because he had his first shed since I got him, but it went on for a while. The next issue is he's been shaking. It doesn't happen often or randomly, it always happens the same way and time. I would put my hand by him until he crawled onto it, then took him out for a short time to be handled. When I first got him that went fine, this started not too long ago. While handling he's perfect, but when I try to put him back it starts. I'll lay my hand back into his tank, and he won't crawl off. Then he will lift his head, open his mouth, then quickly shake his head and lay it back down. Directly after that he shakes his whole body quickly for a second. Admittedly, I get startled and quickly put him down and he stops and acts normal again. If anyone could give me an idea why he's doing this, that'd be greatly appreciated. I'm just trying to see if I can get any insight here before contacting a vet.

A little bit on his environment and how I care for him. I keep him in a 10 gallon glass tank. In his enclosure he has a warm hide and a moist/cool hide. On one side, under the warm hide, he has a heat mat. I've always kept him on reptile carpet. He has a water bowl and a little dish with no d3, pure calcium provided at all times. Contrary to his eating habits, he seems to be drinking fine. I feed him gutloaded crickets every day, and dust them with calcium with d3. I've been handling him a bit less since the shaking started, because I'm worried he's stressed. Lately, he seems to be getting more comfortable in his cage because I've seen him walking around more. Feel free to ask if you need more information.

 

[Neon Aurora]

A video of the shaking behavior would helpful.

He looks quite a bit smaller than most breeders are comfortable selling, and that tends to worry me a bit. How long have you had him and what are his temperatures? If he isn't eating, I would stop handling him completely.

 

[Rogrokim]

Thanks for the reply! I would love to have a video of him shaking, unfortunately I never thought to take one. I would right now but he only does this directly after handling and I should wait to handle him, as you said. Yes, the breeder sold him to me quite young but told me she didn't sell unless the gecko was eating fine. I probably should have gone to a different breeder but it's difficult to find in my area. I kept him in the smaller tub she gave me for a bit when I got him because I didn't want to overwhelm him with a big tank at first. I got him on October 29th. The room temperature is usually in the high 70's, but I've been using a small heater sometimes to bring it up because the temperatures dropping. The heat mat makes it usually in the high 80's sometimes 90 on the warm side.

 

[acpart]

There is always the option to ask the breeder to take him back for a few weeks and let him gain a bit more weight with her. I assume you're feeding him the same type of feeder that he's used to from the breeder.

Aliza

 

[Neon Aurora]

What are you measuring the temperatures with? Ideally, the warm side should have a floor temp of 90 and the cool side not over 75.

I'm not sure I can say what the shaking is. It could be a defensive sort of thing if he feels threatened. I've seen geckos open their mouths and shake their heads when they want to regurgitate. I'd say at this point he may just feel threatened and be warning you off. The little ones like that are almost always super flighty and defensive.

He does look underweight, which is unusual because it sounds like he was eating alright up until recently. Is there any way you could take a fecal sample to the vet to check for parasites?

 

[Rogrokim]

That's a good idea, I might have to do that, thanks! Yeah, I'm feeding him on crickets at the moment like she was. Once he's a bit older I was going to introduce a bit more of variety to his diet but I'm sort of playing it safe.

 

[Rogrokim]

Unfortunately when getting the supplies for my gecko, the thermometers I ordered didn't have probes like I thought they would. Which means at the moment I can only measure air temp which changes for some reason. I know I need ones with probes which I'm getting asap but was having trouble finding.

Yeah, I was worried he was choking or something at first but he only ever does it when I try to set him down. I've noticed he seemed to lose some weight since he stopped eating but earlier today instead of sleeping he seemed to be roaming around looking for food. I thought he would eat much more but only ate two crickets.

I'll try to do that, the vet was my next option I just wanted to see if this was normal behavior first.

 

[Neon Aurora]

If the air temp is getting up to 90, than the floor is probably really hot. I would recommend a thermostat to regulate your heat pad. They can be pretty dangerous without one. I saw a case where geckos had been burned by unregulated heat pads. And his temps may be part of what's going on with him. Improper temps can definitely be a reason geckos don't eat.

I think if you can manage it, a fecal test would be good. I feel a little sketchy about a breeder selling babies so young, so it's just a good thing to check. It's good that he is still active, but parasites can be sneaky and if you don't get to them early enough it can be too late (happened to me with a baby tegu).