Leo Depression

[puppiesandkitties]

I had a leo that I had lost for 10 days, one of my most productive breeders. I was clumsy and didn't fix her cage where she couldn't get out when the phone rang. I was decorating cages. So she got lost, and after that long, I thought that I would never see her again. In the past, I had lost a baby leo. While I was cooking, my kid cousin put it in time-out for attacking an adult gecko and forgot about it, when I told her don't touch them 'till I get back. I never saw it again, even after cleaning and redecorating the house.

I put a dead, frozen mouse on the floor to defrost and went somewhere for a few hours. When I got back, my lost breeder was there, he ate the hopper mice's tail and was biting the now defrosted hopper and...yuck. So I touched her and she showed signs of aggression, which is not part of her personality. She usually walked into my hand and never bit me in all 6 years I had her.

So you think that since she's been gone, out roaming around for a long time, and now she is caged up, don't you think that she would get depressed and eventually die from it? If so, she will have periods of roaming with my supervision.

That happened to my neighbor's lost hamsters when she caught them after a month.

 

[gage]

that is so strangr hopefully he will get used to his old cage and not be so aggressive

 

[Mel&Keith]

I'm guessing the aggression was probably more of a feeding response than anything else. *prepares to get yelled at* Reptiles don't have as complex brains as mammals so I don't think they have the capacity to be depressed. Being lost in the house was probably stressful so hopefully when she's back in her cage with regular food she'll settle back to normal.

 

[puppiesandkitties]

They don't. I truly agree.

She is back to her normal self...kind of.

 

[Crazygecko]

I think its more of a wildness that kicks in when they escape, like flight or fight instinct. I have a python that is tame as a puppy. But the one time she got out of her cage when i caught her the next day she was totaly not thrilled about that and showed alot of agression. But after a day or 2 she was back to normal.