Lots of questions

[Zoo Lady]

Couple of questions.


First Vada is my 2 year old shctb

I have been told by several self professed reptile experts that she should be much bigger then she is. Is she too small, should I be worried?

Secondly she sheds ALOT every 3-4 weeks or so... she eats mainly gutloaded dusted crickets with the occasional waxworm meal day. Does she shed so often because of the tail regen?


Thirdly.. are canned crickets nutritionally ok for my leos? Lately for some reason I have been having trouble keeping my crickets alive for more then 24 hours. I am thinking it is too cold in my house (we have ac blasting on high all the time due to a family members health issues) so the newest batch I am trying keeping in the garage to see if that works.. if not then I will have to switch the leos over to strictly canned crickets for now, mealworms are not available in this town right now due to the shortage, and supers are too big for the little one.


Next Vada is and has always been a very hardy eater, Ubu so far is less voracious... what would be the easiest way to convert her to canned meals?


Lastly does anyone know of a good online supplier of crickets etc. IF I can figure out how to keep my crickets alive, and now that I have 2 geckos I am thinking about buying in bulk but have no idea how to go about finding a good supplier.


Thanks for reading all my silly questions.

 

[chaosapiant]

Because I'm at work, I am unable to see the picture, so I can't quite advise on size. However, if you can order crickets, you may want to consider ordering mealworms instead. They will keep much longer in the colder environment. As for the canned stuff, I believe it is nutritionally sound, but good luck getting them to eat it. Leos like food that moves. Since I buy all my feeders at my local pet store, I don't have any info on online distributers.

 

[nats]

Sounds like your crics are dying from cold. They need 70 at least. If you have to, get a little space heater. I like to order from Crazy Carl's Cricket farm (online). Also, the crics will die from too much moisture or if you dont have those egg carton things in there for them to hide in. I use Fluckers gel water stuff (forget the name, but you will know it when you see it!) to keep the smell down and prevent drowning (crickets are pretty dumb!!).

Also not all leos get that big. There is no RULE about how big every animal should be. Yours looks perfectly healthy, and if as you say eating hearty (normal poop!?), I wouldnt worry about it.

 

[BamaGirl]

I'm really new to the gecko world, but her tail looks a little skinny to me. Also, it looks like she has some shed stuck on her toes and that maybe a few claws are missing? Does she have a humid hide? If she doesn't, you should get one for her. It will really help with her shedding. She is very pretty all the same! By the way, what and how much is she actually eating every day?

P.S. There are many people on here that have years of experience. I'm sure they'll be along soon to answer your questions better than I could.

 

[Zoo Lady]

I'm really new to the gecko world, but her tail looks a little skinny to me. Also, it looks like she has some shed stuck on her toes and that maybe a few claws are missing? Does she have a humid hide? If she doesn't, you should get one for her. It will really help with her shedding. She is very pretty all the same! By the way, what and how much is she actually eating every day?

P.S. There are many people on here that have years of experience. I'm sure they'll be along soon to answer your questions better than I could.

Yes her tail is a little skinny, but it is a regen.. she had absolutely no tail when I got her. She does have missing toes they have been missing since I got her. She does have a humid hide and uses it.. occasionally she does get shed stuck on her toes which I pick off faithfully. She also has dark feet that looks like she is wear "gloves" so in this photo she does not actually have any shed on her toes.


She just shed again last night after having shed a little over 3 weeks ago.


Lately she has been eating as many crickets as she can eat daily (usually 4-6 large) she is also getting about 5-6 waxworms once or twice a week.


As for eating moving food I can get Vada to eat anything with a pair of tweezers

 

[BamaGirl]

I didn't realize that you had taken her in in that condition, I didn't mean to imply anything about your care. She looks fairly healthy other than her tail being a little thin, is all I was saying.

Our leo is almost 3 months old, and she seems to shed about every 1 1/2 - 2 weeks. So it seems about right that yours is shedding that much, especially with a regen.

As for keeping the crickets alive, they do need to be warmer. We kept ours, when were feeding them to Jewel, in a 10 gal. tank with a screen top. We put in the egg crates and gave them cricket food and a clean water source every day. They not only stayed alive, but they got HUGE, and we had to let them go eventually as they were too big for our little one to eat. As for places to get them from, it depends on where you are. I'm in the Southeast, and the best places that I know of that are in this area and the shipping isn't outrageous is Armstrong crickets, Premium crickets, and Ghann's cricket farm. They are all in Georgia I believe. Great crickets, and they come packaged very well.

I'm not a bug person, and I looked into the canned feeders before we got our leo, so I'll tell you what I was told when I asked about them on another forum: There's no telling what those bugs were gutloaded with before they were canned, so you don't really know what you are feeding your gecko. If you feed your own bugs a quality gutload, then at least you have the piece of mind of knowing that your leo is getting the maximum benefit from the feeders. I could be wrong on this, but the thought process made sense to me, and convinced me not to use them.

That's awesome that you can get her to eat something that's not moving, though. Mine gets bored if her mealies don't wiggle enough, and I have to poke them every now and then to draw her attention back to them.

 

[Zoo Lady]

Sorry I didn't mean for my response to come off as defensive.. I was running late for my physical therapy appointment and was just trying to answer real quick to explain why her tail is a little on the skimpy side in that photo which is a month old her tail is quite a bit fatter now. I did find out what is causing my crickets to die, my disabled mother lives with us, and she put up a "no pest" strip last week so i am keeping the crickets in the garage now and they are doing fine

 

[syntheticreality]

It looks to me like the middle toe of the back left foot has stuck shed. It looks like you're going to have to help get that one off or it might be too late and she'll lose it. If she is loosing toes that means shed is getting stuck, cutting off circulation, dying then falling off.

Regenerated tails can get big, but they are all different. Your Leo's tail, if completely regenerated (from the base down) appears to have grown back beautifully. I can see at the 'tip' it def appears to be still growing back and looks like a regenerated tail, but the base appears practically normal.

Keep feeding her, as much as she wants. Shedding every 3-4 weeks isn't that often. My geckos, none of which have regenerated tails, shed about that much.

I do not know if your gecko sheds because her body is growing or because her tail is growing. At first thought, I would think because its regenerated and growing back, in order to actually lengthen she needs to shed. However, i am not totally positive about that.

She does not appear to look 'ill' or 'sickly' just because of a slightly skinny tail. Yes, her tail is skinny. That may be, however, just the way her tail will always be because of the regeneration. All you can do is keep an eye on her and make sure she is alert active and doing all those 'leo' things normally!

She's super cute by the way

 

[Zoo Lady]

It looks to me like the middle toe of the back left foot has stuck shed. It looks like you're going to have to help get that one off or it might be too late and she'll lose it. If she is loosing toes that means shed is getting stuck, cutting off circulation, dying then falling off.

That photo was several months ago.. here is a photo from this morning. She just shed last night as you can see she still has that toe on the back left foot. Her tail is also a little bit fatter.. but she eats like a horse (20-30 crickets a week along with about 5 waxworms/week) so I just don't think she is going to have a big fat beautiful tail because of the regen. You can also see in these pics are the odd coloring of her feet make her look like she is wearing gloves and can sometimes be mistaken for stuck shed.