How do you make the tail fat?? (coupled with a bit of an explanation story)

[Shandley]

My poor gecko (Sweetie is her name). She has had a rough life so far.

My leopard gecko is about 8 years old. When she was about 4, she was lef tint he hands of a family member who just didn't know the ins and outs of what is normal for a gecko. Sweetie had molted and some old skin was left on her face, primarily her eyes. This pretty much sealed them shut. She couldn't see. The family member was only home during the day so they thought she was sleeping. When the food started building up and the water didn't go down, the family member got concerned and called me... right on time.

I got over there and her tail was bone thin and her eyes couldn't open. I immediately got a cotton swap with water and started coaxing the skin on the eyes off. Then Sweetie started licking the cotton swab. I knew she was thirsty. I babied her for a good 2 hours before I was able to get all of the skin off of her eyes. She drank a lot of water.

Since that day, she developed an eye infection which the vet told me to get a syringe and saline solution and try to LIGHTLY pressure out any infection. Sweetie LOVED it when I did this. Sure enough after a week, it cleared up.

Since then, she's been a pretty healthy gecko.... except (HERE IS MY CONCERN): Her tail is still SMALL.

I feed her crickets every other day and I let her eat until she is done. I even pick some up with chop sticks and put it right in front of her face to make sure she doesn't want any more. I shake the crickets in a calcium powder called Rep Cal or something like that.

I have meal worms in a dish for when I am not around and she gets the urge to eat.

She has water changed every day or every other day at the latest.

I think I am doing everything right. What would make her tail fat??

Thanks,
Shandley

 

[ariana]

i would get feces and urate sample to take to the vet for a parasite check

 

[Mel&Keith]

How long has she been in your care? You're doing everything right sometimes it just takes a little while for them to get noticeably bigger. You can also get a digital scale that weighs in grams to monitor her progress. When you see your gecko everyday it can be hard to judge weight gain by eye. It's good that you're dusting her feeders with calcium but you can also leave a small dish of calcium in her tank and she'll eat it right from the dish whenever she wants.

 

[Shandley]

She has been mine for all of her life. She was a few weeks old when I got her. Aside from her bad stint a few years back, she's been great. I take photos of her every 3 or 4 months and I can see there is very little girth gain in her tail. I have a digital scale so I will start weighing her.

That's really good to know about the calcium. I had a cap full in there before but I would always see it tuned over and spilled.

Say, is the tail a fat reserve?

 

[Tony C]

Yes, the tail is a fat reserve. How is her overall body weight? Does she have a healthy body with a skinny tail, or is she skinny all over?

 

[Shandley]

Down by her hips she can get thin but this varies. I will see if I can get some pictures up. I am going to try an weigh her and measure her later on today as well just to get a new base point.

 

[Kristi23]

Make sure your bugs are well gutloaded, too. It makes a big difference. Good luck!

 

[Shandley]

Ah. Good point. I have orange, apple, and carrot in the cricket terrarium as well as some calcium powder and water jelly. Anything else I should put in there?

Mind you I only recently started keeping crickets again (the noise bugs me and keeps me awake at night). There was about 2 years where I would buy crickets from a reputable pet store a few days after they got their shipment, shake and bake them, then leave them all in the terrarium for my gecko to eat at her leisure.

 

[Tony C]

I would have a fecal done to check for parasite levels, deworm if the vet deems it necessary, then just feed a healthy diet and be patient. Crickets are a relatively lean feeder, try to rotate in some mealworms, superworms, and waxworms to give her a little more fat in her diet.

 

[BrilliantEraser]

Wax worms are a really good idea if you want to bump up her fat intake. Just be sure that you don't rely too heavily them (maybe one or two a week, at most), since most leos find them addicting. A friend referred to them as "gecko crack".

 

[mindgamer8907]

I'm a bit torn on the issue, unless you follow a gutloading policy and breed your own waxies, I don't think I would use them to bulk up a gecko. Then again that's just me. I'd definitely consider more mealies though, there's a reason so many people like to feed with mealies and other worms... Part of that reason is that worms have relatively little chitin to body ratio. If she's as old as you say, supers should be a good choice too. It seems they also have an even smaller Chitin to body ration than mealies... As a general rule of thumb, less chitin means more flesh and flesh is what you want.

 

[Shandley]

Much thansk to all. It's been 9 months on a diet consisting of mostly king worms (superworms) and some crickets once in a while. Well, she looooves the superworms and will eat crickets if I forget to feed her one day.

I was watching a video of her feeding a day after I posted the 1st post here as a record I took and looking at her today, I can't believe she is the same! She has a lot more girth in her tail (not quite what I want but getting there) but more than that, she appears healthier. She walks around more and checks things out more. I have also learned she has a love for Led Zeppelin (no kidding)!

So, thanks to all. I wonder if it's her time to breed.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

Glad she's all better now

 

[ajveachster]

ALWAYS like to read the stories with happy endings.