Male Leopard Gecko Help Please

[Askalln23]

I've had this guy for a while. About a year. I'm unsure how old he was when I got him, but he has several issues.
He's always had trouble feeding, and hunting, and a fellow leopard gecko enthusiast told me he may have enigma syndrome.
I've never been able to get him to put on weight, he was around this size when I bought him. He is a Mack Snow RAPTOR, which I was told is why his eyes are pitch black, that he's got half the RAPTOR gene.
The shed on his nose has always refused to come off, and his nose has always been sensitive, he doesn't like me touching it with damp qtips, or paper towels.

I dont know what to do. I cant afford to go to the vet, because there isnt a reptile vet in 100 miles of me. And the fees they charge at the closest one are exorbitant.

I bought him at a Sacramento reptile con, and I seriously have a lot of questions for the breeders that sold me this dude for 150$.

For context, I have 3 other leopard geckos I got from Petco who have had absolutely 0 problems like this, and who get the same exact care as Jake here, but Roxy is the absolute image of health, Jade is fine, and Rose has only had trouble shedding once.

Here is Jake



For comparison, here are Roxy, Jade, and Rose.

I have no idea what to do with Jake. He's never been healthy, he's never put on weight, I've always been worried about him, and I've tried to do everything for him, but nothing has worked.

 

[acpart]

He's a Mack super snow (2 copies of the snow gene) which is why he has solid black eyes. He may have genes for the RAPTOR complex (i.e. he may have an albino gene and an eclipse gene) but obviously there's no way to know. From what I remember, when super snows were first developed there were issues with growth. I had a super snow that I produced years ago that I kept for quite awhile as a pet because she was undersized and wouldn't put on weight. Eventually someone wanted her so off she went. I had another super snow that I bought as a young adult and had for about 12 years. Every winter he would stop eating (once for 6 months!), frequently get an upper respiratory infection and often have blocked nostrils. Interestingly, though, during the summer he'd eat well, put on weight and usually reach about 89 grams. My vet told me to put a little bacitracin on the nostrils to loosen whatever was blocking them, which I did and it worked. You could try that. It's a lot less invasive than peeling shed off the nose. The shed doesn't seem to be much of a problem in the picture, he just looks kind of miserable. I think the only thing you can do is to keep trying to feed him (I have a number of leopard geckos that do best being fed by me holding them and poking feeders at their mouths. In some cases I've been doing this for years), monitor him and make however many days he has left (and he may have quite a bit of time left, you never know) as pleasant as possible.

Aliza
(I would have some questions for those breeders as well).

 

[Askalln23]

He's a Mack super snow (2 copies of the snow gene) which is why he has solid black eyes. He may have genes for the RAPTOR complex (i.e. he may have an albino gene and an eclipse gene) but obviously there's no way to know. From what I remember, when super snows were first developed there were issues with growth. I had a super snow that I produced years ago that I kept for quite awhile as a pet because she was undersized and wouldn't put on weight. Eventually someone wanted her so off she went. I had another super snow that I bought as a young adult and had for about 12 years. Every winter he would stop eating (once for 6 months!), frequently get an upper respiratory infection and often have blocked nostrils. Interestingly, though, during the summer he'd eat well, put on weight and usually reach about 89 grams. My vet told me to put a little bacitracin on the nostrils to loosen whatever was blocking them, which I did and it worked. You could try that. It's a lot less invasive than peeling shed off the nose. The shed doesn't seem to be much of a problem in the picture, he just looks kind of miserable. I think the only thing you can do is to keep trying to feed him (I have a number of leopard geckos that do best being fed by me holding them and poking feeders at their mouths. In some cases I've been doing this for years), monitor him and make however many days he has left (and he may have quite a bit of time left, you never know) as pleasant as possible.

Aliza
(I would have some questions for those breeders as well).

Thank you for the advice.
I've been mentally, and emotionally prepared for the worst. I knew it was very possible I'd have to put him down somehow, and I've been debating on the most humane way to do that. But if this is just... kinda normal(???) for Mack Snows, then... I'll just accept the responsibility of it.
I was hoping to breed him, on the account of the potential RAPTOR. That would have been cool.
But, that seems to not be possible, on account of him being nearly blind. I tried to get him to mate with Roxy, but I think she's a hot female, she's really big, bigger than Jade or Rose.

Either way, this is the hand I dealt myself. But had I known he was going to be like this, I probably wouldn't have spent 150 bucks on him.

 

[acpart]

I'm sorry you're having to go through this. The super snow I referred to in my post was initially one of my breeders but when he started having these health problems I retired him as a breeder and as I'm sure you know, your gecko isn't in good condition to be a breeder. Good luck with him.

Aliza

 

[Askalln23]

He was never in good enough condition to be a breeder. It was doomed from the start.