Getting a little shaky

[mrdonovan37]

I have an adult tangerine leo female. She has always been a touch jerky, almost like she is second guessing her steps when she walks, but not shown any other problems until the last day or so when she got a bit shakier and in all of her movements now. My tank heating went bad when I was gone for a day or so (of course, perfect timing... the one time I'm not there to fix it the thing screws up) and she may have gotten fairly cold, into the 70s or lower for a day or so. Could the cold have messed with her? I know someone mentioned jerky movements as a calcium issue once, but she gets crickets 2-3 times a week, dusted with calcium, and there is a dish of calcium in there in case she wants more (which she hardly ever touches.) Please let me know what you guys think. I just found her moving weird when I got back and the heating pad had died on me. As a temporary fix I have a heat light set up on one side and she is sitting over beside it seeming to enjoy it.

 

[robin]

do you have photos of her and her enclosure?

 

[mrdonovan37]

I don't have a digital camera. She is on a tile base (which I'm considering changing out) with a basic two sided setup, one hide on each side and a moist hide area kind of in the middle as well, in between the temps just in case her moist hide is too cool for her on the other side. She also has a small rock ledge that lets her get a bit closer to the heat lamp I use as a secondary heating source (which is where she stayed quite a while last night once I got back and realized her heater had died and kicked on the heat light.) I changed out her water and calcium and she had some of both as soon as I did. (It had been two days, so the water wasn't fresh anymore but I couldn't get anyone to go by just to change her water.) As far as how she looks, she is a typical adult gecko, pretty fat (I make sure she gets enough to eat and keeps her belly and tail plump but not too large.) She poops regularly and its normal looking, decent sized with urate attached. Right now she is a bit darker than normal, but I read on the discussions here that being a bit cold can cause that, so I'm making sure she has enough heat. She hasn't been active this morning, just asleep, so I haven't seen if she is still a bit jerky or not, but I'm hoping it was just a cold issue.

 

[ajveachster]

It sounds like it could have been a cold issue, since everything else seems to be normal. Plus you did say she darkened up from the cold. Don't be surprised if she doesn't eat until she warms up. Keep us posted.

 

[mrdonovan37]

She seems to be feeling a lot better. I put some mealworms in there as usual for all my leos as a between real feedings snack (5-6 in a little jar lid so that they can't escape and roam around.) She ate all of them last night at some point and has spent all the rest of her time in her hide on the warm side. I didn't wanna disturb her, but she had her nose pointing out and seemed to be looking normal again, so hopefully she's ok. I haven't seen her moving so I don't know if shes shaky at all, but everything else seems to have cleared up with the fixing of the heating setup. I'm just glad I left the apartment's heat on while I was gone, because both nights it dropped down to the 40s.