Leo male with fangs?

[Myfi]

I'd like to know if anyone's taken a look in their leos's mouths and found hidable fangs, 2~3 mm in length, look kinda..gnarly. I'll get picture up of the male when he's less bratty but he's stressed now and needs rest but my female has them too and she's completely unrelated to the male, apart from sharing a tank with him. Wondering if he is potentially venomous, the same way monitor lizards have been found to be?

 

[5HiddenLizards]

Don't know anything about this, but definitely post the pictures. This would be interesting to see.

 

[Dog Shrink]

If it's a leopard gecko they are not poisonous, but I also would love to see pix of the fanged one

 

[sausage]

yeah all leos have them! although some bigger than others.
if u can get ur leo to open its mouth u will see them in the the roof of the mouth just infrontof their eyes.
they are used to grip the food as they push it down.

 

[Myfi]

I'll definitely get pics up soon, it's a matter of having a second set of hands around to take the picture so i dont get a hundred holes in my finger lol

 

[prettyinpink]

LOL

 

[Myfi]

Seriously, he's been super grumpy lately. It kind of bugs me cuz he used to be so cute and sweet. I think he's hungry but we cant let him gorge like he used to because he's obese. Fat pockets behind his front legs and the like. I dont want him to get FLD...

 

[Dog Shrink]

Is there any chance he might be coming into a shed soon? I know Eros HATES being handled the second he starts ghosting up. Also I wonder if leos/reptiles can be diabetic? Yep... apparently they can... http://www.anapsid.org/diabetes.html
http://www.petmd.com/reptile/conditions/endocrine/c_rp_diabetes_mellitus

Not saying that is why he's grumpy but any time an animal acts out of the norm kind of suddenly, I consider all possibilities even remote ones. My hubby is type 1 diabetic and when his #'s are off man can he ever be a royal PITA. what is his feeding schedule like? Maybe you could try taking his assigned weekly ration and feed him just a little bit daily-ish and see if that makes him any happier? Also how old is he? Do leopard geckos get grouchy when they approach sexual maturity? I know some of my rabbits can be straight up butt heads when they're ready to be bred. Curious but what is FLD?

 

[Myfi]

We got him from a petco, his owners had just DROPPED him off outside. Thankfully it was summer so it didnt get under 60 at night. He hadnt been handled much in years i think, because he wanted NOTHING to do with anyone or anything at first. After a while me and the hubs tamed him back down a lot but now he's all grumpy again. They assume he's about 4-5 years old, definitely sexually mature, since when we first got him a younger female companion he wouldnt stop harassing her...but they've worked that out. He gets fed a mealworm or two every other day, since we dont want to overfeed him so he'll maybe lose the fat behind his front legs. Him and his girly have a big 50g breeder all to themselves so i dont think it's that he's cramped. They have 3 water dishes and a calcium dish. I'm relatively sure he isnt close to shedding because he's nice and dark. It's strange, after he sheds he goes through a light yellow phase, then a dark yellowish almost brown phase, then a lighter brown phase then he goes grey and sheds. I'd say it could be because hes cold all the time, since he's too stupid to either bask or belly down on the heat pad area of the tank like our female.
He is...well, i wouldnt say he's lethargic. He goes to a spot we had set up for the leos on our computer desk at one point with a heat pad (it's gone now, but i'm contemplating putting it back because the cresteds REALLY dont need it and dont care) and just hides back there for a while but now since he doesnt warm up and its dark he just stares at me like "mom somethings wrooong its not warm here ]:"

 

[Myfi]

And FLD is fatty liver disease, it happens to leos when they have fat anywhere other than their tail which is why we're trying so hard to get the weight off him.

 

[prettyinpink]

The 'fat' behind his fat legs, does it look like bubbles? That's either from too much vitamins or too much protien.

Sounds like he had a bad start Hopefully he'll come around soon. I have a female, little one who is a ... but I love her to death She hisses and tries to bite me all the time. :main_rolleyes: My other guys are nice, she's still young so she has some coming around.

 

[Jordan]

are you sure the fatty bits behin the armpits are actual fat and not calcium bubbles? ... because thats where leo's store their calcium reserves?
so could be that rather than fat.
you should do a search on this forum see if you can find any pics of the calcium bubble behind the armpits and see if thats what you leo has.

EDIT: beaten to it ^

 

[Dog Shrink]

Leo with a calcium bubble:

 

[M_surinamensis]

I'd like to know if anyone's taken a look in their leos's mouths and found hidable fangs

What do you mean by "hidable" exactly?

They do not have folding fangs. All their teeth are fixed in position.

Wondering if he is potentially venomous, the same way monitor lizards have been found to be?

Bryan Grieg Fry is one hell of an excellent toxinologist but I have seen more laypeople who come to more weird conclusions centered around his research, discoveries and documentation than I have almost any other contemporary figure working in a biological field.

I really wish he had come up with some unique term for what he has discovered. Would have saved a lot of people a lot of confusion.

 

[Myfi]

Both my male and my female have them. Our male gapes both when he plain doesnt want to be bothered and when he's actually pissed. When he just doesnt want to be bothered the teeth do not come down. When he is very upset one or both of them come down and the flesh around them in his mouth goes a bright red wheras the rest of his mouth is light pink. Again, i'll post pics when i can. I wouldnt say anything about wondering if they were venomous if anyone had actually SAID anything confirming or denying it. I have looked around all over and i have heard nothing about their fangs, so if no one knows they have the fangs, no one knows if they are venomous.

k so. Yes, i did word all of this improperly originally and i'm sorry for being an ass about it and insulting your intelligence. I clearly didnt understand your post and if you'd still be willing to help me out i'd be very grateful. I really dont know very much about it and i have looked around several times on the internet and been incapable of finding anything of use or relevance. I apologize for acting like a know-it-all when i'm just a newbie here and i've only had a few years of experience with leos.

 

[Myfi]

And Jordan, PrettyInPink, thank you for addressing one of my questions :3
It's nice to know that my gecko's life is not threatened by that.

 

[Dog Shrink]

Myfi you may want to adjust your post a little bit hon because I don't think there is anyone on this forum that has put as much time or has as much intelligence as M_Surinamensis has into the understanding of many different species of herps. His opinion and information is highly respected and his knowledge is boundless. Hopefully once you get the pix of your leo's fangs this whole issue will be able to be quickly resolved. Also if you google "leopard geckos venomous" I think you should get some good results as to why this is often mistaken as a poisonous lizard. I don't recall if they make mention of the fangs in their explanation of why they aren't venomous but it does give some very useful information on the matter.

 

[M_surinamensis]

They do have hideable fangs, which means that all of their teeth are NOT in a fixed position.

I'm still trying to figure out what exactly you mean by "hideable."

They do not have mobile teeth. All of their teeth, barring temporarily loose ones due to wear or injury, are fixed solidly in the gums in a set position relative to the jaw. They do not have folding fangs, like crotalids and vipers or anything like the musculature of atractaspidines.

They do have some elastile tissue between the teeth which can visually obscure the base of the tooth at times when the labial tissue is relaxed, but the teeth do not move.

When he is very upset one or both of them come down and the flesh around them in his mouth goes a bright red wheras the rest of his mouth is light pink.

Have you been watching a lot of vampire movies?

So, which do you think makes more sense; that you have made a revolutionary discovery that nobody else noticed in the one hundred and forty six years since they were described despite being the single most popular and numerous lizard in captivity, or that you jumped to a conclusion based on a poor understanding of what you were observing?

They DO have fangs or i wouldnt be asking about it.

They have teeth. Fang is sort of a funny word, it has multiple related and overlapping but distinct meanings. Leopard geckos do have pointed teeth, though the subjective analysis of the length relative to the width and the length of any individual tooth relative to those surrounding it leaves the word "fang" as a bit inaccurate. They do not have hollow or grooved teeth used to deliver venom.

Obviously you havent bothered to learn enough about your leos physically to notice this.

Obviously.

Also i wouldnt say anything about wondering if they were venomous if anyone had actually SAID anything confirming or denying it. I have looked around all over and i have heard nothing about their fangs, so if no one knows they have the fangs, no one knows if they are venomous.

I really wish Dr. Fry had come up with some other word.

 

[Jordan]

Lol well done Seamus.

to the OP, i was interested in what you had to show but when you got the knowledge of an expert and denied and claimed you were right i think you may have lost a lot of peoples respect.
Just to point out Seamus' (M_surinamensis) join date, 2006, and yours, this month. so im just wondering who has owned herps and studied herps longer. hmmm?

99%of the time Seamus is right, probably even 100%, im just saying 99 since no one is perfect. So he's very likely right here so accept his information, take it in and appreciate the lesson.

 

[IslaReina]

Obviously.

xDDD