Leopard Gecko stress reaction?

[cassicat4]

Last night, I was going through the usual routine of removing most of the hides/decor out of my Leos' tanks to prepare them for their nightly feeding. I've been doing this since they were babies, and they're now adults, and they have never had a problem with this.

However, this time, as I was removing my incredibly docile and easily handleable female's hide, I accidentally brushed her back with my hand, and she completely freaked - tensed right up, started hyperventilating, and was waving her tail, and wouldn't stop. I took her out of her tank to help calm her down, and she didn't calm down...just froze on my lap and continued with the tail waving and rapid breathing. I placed her on the bed, where she normally loves to explore, and she wouldn't move, just kept looking around from her position and waving her tail.

So then I put her back, hoping that would calm her down. Nope. As soon as I put her in her tank, the behavior started again. She wouldn't move, and wouldn't eat. I finally just removed all of the crickets and put her enclosure back exactly the way it was, and placed her at the opening of her warm hide (where she sleeps) and she crawled right in. Never moved for the rest of the night.

I checked on her this morning and she was right out of it, sleeping away. This is different for her, as she's normally up and moving around at this time.

I checked on her at lunch, and she hadn't left her warm hide. This is very unusual for her as she always spends the majority of the day either in the middle or on the cold side of her tank.

I did offer her a cricket and a worm though, and she did eat them. And then she crawled into her cool hide.

Do I have reason to be concerned about her? Or is this simply the reaction of a startled gecko, and she should be back to normal soon? She has never acted like this in the entire year and a half that I've had her. I feel really bad about it, and I will definitely be more careful around her in the future to prevent more incidents like this, but I just want to know if she could have any adverse effects as a result of this.

Thanks

 

[SC Geckos]

No, It's just a normal reaction when she was spooked by something.

I took her out of her tank to help calm her down, and she didn't calm down...just froze on my lap and continued with the tail waving and rapid breathing. I placed her on the bed, where she normally loves to explore, and she wouldn't move, just kept looking around from her position and waving her tail.

Removing her from her tank when she is in this state will not help her calm down. If anything I would think it could make it worse in some cases. The gecko was not really "hyperventilating" she just had elevated breathing along with probably smelling her surroundings for potential danger.
I don't think that geckos have the same brain capacity as something like a dog or cat like some may think. I think they do have a certain amount of "intelligence" like many reptiles do. (if that's even the right word to use) That could be a touchy subject because I read alot of comments on here where owners are talking about there geckos having emotions like a dog, or even a person. (happy, sad, loves, hates, ect.) While this is not a bad thing it just shows how much the owners care for there geckos, I don't believe they have the brain capability to have these emotions. I think that would actually make a good thread to see what others think about that subject.

 

[cassicat4]

Good to know, thank you.

I was unsure if removing her from her tank would help. I guess my logic was, if she felt stressed in her tank, removing her may remove her from the stress situation and it may calm her. I can see that it didn't help.

I would agree with you on the lizard "intelligence" part too. I think that's what bothered me as well - with a dog or cat, human interaction is usually enough to distract and calm them and make them feel better about whatever scares them. They're reassured by your presence. I don't believe the same applies to lizards, so I really wasn't sure what to do to help. Seeing that even her enclosure and things in her enclosure were stressing her during this time, I was at a loss as to what she needed.

That would be a good thread. I know there are some who genuinely believe their reptiles do feel emotion towards them, others who believe they aren't cognitively capable, and then there are those who anthropomorphize their reptiles for fun because it makes them seem more interesting. It's an interesting topic for sure.

 

[Lindz0518]

I project human emotions on all my animals. Do I think my my geckos have feelings towards me, no, I do not believe they have cognitive abilities like that. I do use words like love, hate, along with other emotions. Like when I say Loki or Thor love their hot hides, that's me merely saying they prefer it over their other hides, or that my grumpy girl hates being held, it's just that she is not as readily handled as the others. I don't know why I project those emotions on them, I guess it just shows my attachment to them as pets. All my geckos know is I am the lady with the food lol.

 

[cassicat4]

I project human emotions on all my animals. Do I think my my geckos have feelings towards me, no, I do not believe they have cognitive abilities like that. I do use words like love, hate, along with other emotions. Like when I say Loki or Thor love their hot hides, that's me merely saying they prefer it over their other hides, or that my grumpy girl hates being held, it's just that she is not as readily handled as the others. I don't know why I project those emotions on them, I guess it just shows my attachment to them as pets. All my geckos know is I am the lady with the food lol.

I agree, and am much the same way. It's also a much more euphemistic and self-explanatory way of describing very logical, scientific, and instinctual behaviors. Heck, I do the same for inanimate objects (my computer, for example) and often have one-sided arguments with it and claim the reason it doesn't work is because it actually "hates" me.

There are some reptiles that have been proven to have higher-level cognitive thinking abilities and therefore are capable of some emotions as we'd relate to in the human world. Some species of Varanids, for example - I think it'd be very interesting to own one of these guys to compare their behaviors and such to those of our other reptiles.

 

[katie_]

I agree. She was telling you she was furious and to leave her alone.

 

[lisa127]

When Bert was younger/smaller he did this a couple times. The first time it took him two days to snap out of it. The second time it took him just a few hours. He hasn't done it since though. I just left him alone until he was comfortable again.

 

[Fatal_S]

IMO: She was scared. The tail wiggle implies to me that she was afraid, and was hoping that she wasn't about to be eaten. No matter how much we domesticate animals, every animal has a panic reaction. My skinks flare their tongues, puff up, tilt sideways, hiss, fling poop, urinate, and flail around desperately. I don't know geckos as well, but they seem to hiss, do circle-attacks, wiggle their tails and puff up. Reptiles will also try to stay still, in hopes you'll lose interest. The tail wiggle is a bribe - if you're going to bit me, bite the part that's wiggling. Part that scares me with geckos is they can drop the tail if they get scared enough. So when a gecko wiggles it's tail at me, I give it time to relax and get out of panic-mode.

My reactions for a scared reptile (note, I mostly deal with skinks, though this has also worked other reptile species for me, difference I see is if a gecko gets too scared, it can drop it's tail, so be very careful not to push a gecko too far):
- Try holding your hand in front of her, or lightly touching her nose. And just be patient and wait to see if she snaps out of it.
- If she doesn't relax, you can try holding her securely in your hands, against your body, so that she's all covered. Give her time and see if she relaxes and becomes curious. (Really not sure if this would work for a gecko, the skinks are naturally curious).
- And of course, you can just put a hide over her and leave her for the night like you did.

Secret seems to be patience. Their mind has gone into a panic-mode, and having things moving around or someone bugging doesn't let them relax. But staying still and waiting, you give them a chance to stop freaking. I always try to stay nearby, so when they come out of the panic life resumes as normal, no harm done.

In your case, those moving her around didn't give her the chance to relax. I understand the reasoning though (you're not scared of this, so maybe being there will put you back into your normal state of mind), it just doesn't seem to work with reptiles. But then you put her home, gave her time, and once she'd calmed (the next day) you resumed life as normal.

Geckos are definitely a bit more difficult than skinks though, at least to me. The tail wiggle that geckos do just scares me. I had to get shed off a baby last night - she was scared and upset and I'm still just hoping it wasn't scary enough for her to drop her tail. I haven't bugged her since taking the shed off. Should go check on her...

 

[Ozy]

My leo is easily startled. When she freaks out I cover her cage with a blanket. Makes her feel super secure and within 10 minutes she's back to exploring, eating or whatever.

 

[cassicat4]

Thanks for all the help guys! I agree that it sounds like she was startled or scared. Why she was, I have no idea...I must have just caught her at a bad time, as she's usually very used to me being in her space and handling her or accidentally touching her when moving things around.

I've left her alone since, other than to offer food, and haven't taken her out or moved anything in her enclosure. It makes sense what was said, that me attempting to calm her by handling just made it worse. I did try offering my hand in front of her first before I picked her up, and she licked it several times, but I'm thinking the fact that she doesn't actually know what stressed her out in the first place means everything at that point was considered a possible threat.

I wasn't too worried about the tail in her case only because I don't think she's the type that would readily drop it - she's used to it being touched and handled and has accidentally bitten it herself on more than one occasion when a cricket hopped on. That's not to say she wouldn't ever, and especially if she became even more stressed, but it wasn't one of my primary concerns at the time.

I like the suggestion of covering her enclosure - if something like this happens again, I will definitely do that.

As of yesterday, she seems just fine. Is moving around, with no signs of rapid breathing or tail-waving, and will come up to the edge of her tank as usual to watch what's going on around her. As she is the most docile/easy-going Leo, I never thought something like this would cause such a reaction in her, but now I know for next time to be more careful!

 

[Ozy]

I usually cover Ozy's vivarium every night if we are going to have the light on. She prefers it that way, keeps her alot calmer. Then I'll usually raise the blanket up enough to see if she's hungry (she won't eat out of a dish because is disgustingly spoiled) Once I feed her, I'll clean her poop tile if it needs it, clean and refill her water dish, then cover the cage back up. I take the cover off just before sunrise, and leave it off during the day, so she knows what time it is and such. But yea, covering the entire cage makes Ozy feel REALLY secure and happy.