I just don't get.

[MusicalGecko]

This morning I was checking on my little leo, Sparx, to see how she was doing and she was licking the wet paper towel I put in her moist hide. The wierd part about it was if she would turn her head around she could have drank straight from her water bowl. But, being Sparx she had to lick the water out of a paper towel. Does anyone know what that is all about?
Oh, she is a snow bell enigma so I wonder if that is a trait of that morph.
Is it?

I have a picture of her licking it but I have to take it off the camera, so that will be a while.

 

[STUTFL]

Well if you're already *in* the moist hide, might as well drink there. :laugh4:

 

[MusicalGecko]

She was siting outside of the hide. I thought that was what made it wierd.

 

[STUTFL]

Hm. Maybe she didn't know there was water in the dish ... maybe she was "tasting" the hide/towel because part of it was new, rather than drinking from it ... maybe she's just like my gecko, and prefers licking small amounts of water off a flat surface to lapping it out of a dish (he always drinks from the very edge of the wet part of the dish).
Dunno, just throwing out guesses.

 

[MusicalGecko]

she walks through the wter dish all the time and it doesn't bother her.
hehe.But then again my gecko isn't the brightest crayon in the box.
Your guess is probably right.
She does the same thing with the jar lid full of mealies. she just walks right through it and steps all over the worms. it actually pretty funny.:main_laugh:

 

[STUTFL]

Sounds more like her vision than her intelligence. Albinos are more prone to vision problems.

 

[MusicalGecko]

Thanks. Because I really didn't know what she was doing.

 

[STUTFL]

Well, in the specific case of the paper towels I couldn't tell you. But definitely the hunting problems, stepping in things more than normal, etc.

 

[Adinar]

If it makes you feel any better...
Last night I had just gotten done hand feeding and soaking my Odin. Poor boy's been sick for a few months now. I dried him off the best that I could, but due to the squirm factor, it wasn't very dry. So I put him in his tank and sit back and watch. There he goes racing around the tank dragging his belly on the floor trying to dry off. Ok, fairly normal at this point. Until he trudges through his water dish and gets soaked again. Then repeats the process. (Yes, he even went through the water AGAIN.) By the time all was said and done I had to change his papertowels... silly nub.

 

[STUTFL]

Yeah, mine never seems to notice the water in his dish unless he's thirsty. :laugh4: He stands in it, runs through it, tries to grab mealies that fall in it. :main_rolleyes: Though to be fair, I guess it *is* pretty much invisible. :laugh4:

 

[herpencounter]

I don't use water dishes, they get all the water they want from the hide.

 

[lillith]

Some of my geckos seems to prefer paper towel to water dish.

Extra incentive to keep those towels fresh. I don't know why, either. And it isn't restricted to my enigmas, my tangerines and normals do it too.

 

[STUTFL]

I don't use water dishes, they get all the water they want from the hide.

I only keep mine's moist hide moist when he's shedding - he loves the thing even when there's nothing in it, and I'm not sure he'd leave even if he was getting too much humidity. :sweatdrop:

 

[Magis]

My leo use to do that too when we used to have papertowel in his humid hide. Here is a video of Captain Robert the dread leopard gecko licking some paper towels. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2abBebfWBU&feature=channel_page

 

[Rythm]

Mine does this too. I have had her for a year now and have never once seen her drink from her water dish, however she does walk through it a lot. I have on the other hand seen her drinking from the walls of her moist hide many times. So I just make sure it's always moist and the paper towels get changed often. I still keep fresh water in her water dish incase she's drinking when I'm asleep and can't see her.

 

[STUTFL]

I had a hamster who licked the walls too. :laugh4: Silly desert animals.