Booplesnoot
New Member
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- United States
Hey you guys~ Let me give you a little (a lot, lol) background information on my Leo before I state the health issues we are worried about. Sorry for the long post. I live in South Florida, and over Thanksgiving break I traveled up to Gainesville to visit my boyfriend, Nick, who is in college at University of Florida and visit my family who lives in Newberry. Nick has a friend who has a Bearded Dragon, and once he saw it and sent me pictures we both really wanted to get a pet lizard. I suggested that we either get a Leo or a Bearded when I move up there next fall. Anyways, coincidentally, my aunt and uncle happened to have a 6 year old Leopard Gecko at their home. She (which we, up until a couple days ago thought was a "he") was in the living room, in a 10-gallon tank, by a cold window (it is almost winter, and we had a cold front, so it was pretty cold in the room, let alone by the window even colder) without any heating at all. My uncle apparently had adopted her and I guess at one point they had given her a heating pad or heat lamps of some sort, but all I know is that when we were there, there weren't any. She was barely ever brought out, or touched, but was fed every day and a had a nice fat tail.So, upon seeing her Nick and I asked if we could take her out. For a lizard not being handled often, if at all, was really friendly (even though she pooped on Nick). She didn't get defensive or make noises unless we held her and she wanted to be put down, which only happened once. She climbed on us and everything in sight, always wanting to get higher even if she was going to fall.We were in love, and my aunt and uncle did not want to keep her since their lives were too hectic to pay attention to her and give her all the care she needed, obviously.After convincing my mom, we went to the store to get her some things. We had only researched so much in the night, but not as much as we should have. Nick was going to keep her at his dorm since my mom did not want to go buy crickets and I'm not too fond on bugs. We bought calci-sand substrate, another hide, a couple more food bowls, a UTH for the 10-gallon, vitamin calci-powder with d3, a travel carrier, a leopard gecko guide book, and repti-bark. My uncle's set-up was half dark sand, and half mulch, a hide on the warm side, and a nice big water bowl-like pool that was really dirty. There were about 10 crickets in her tank. When we got back, we cleaned out her entire tank. Threw out all the old stuff (including crickets and mealies that had turned into beetles), wiped down the tank, hide, and water bowl, and put in 5 meal-worms with a couple pieces of potatoes to gut them. All the meal-worms were all about to die, since they were a month old, so it was pretty hard finding live ones. We put in half calci-sand and half of the mulch (on the cold side) since she was in the process of shedding. We brought her upstairs to the attic where we were staying, since it was warmer than buy the window. We did not know how to use the heating pad, and didn't want to put it on in-case it got too hot, since we didn't get a thermometer (bad choice -_-). On Saturday Nick and I traveled to Orlando and left Boop (the gecko) at his dorm with the set-up we had. When he went back (I had gone back down to South Florida) she was still alive and seemed fine, although she had not eaten or pooped since the first time we touched her.It is now almost a week since we changed everything. On Monday, the day after Nick got back, I read that sand is horrible and told him to change it to paper towels ASAP, and he did. He put in three crickets, since his friend with the Bearded brought some over for him, but she still hasn't eaten them. He put on the heater, and she likes it, obviously, although since we do not have a thermometer yet I am not sure if it is warm enough. He replaced her first hide since it was open for a more closed one, and the heat seems to get trapped inside of it, which she likes. He replaced her meal-worms with 3 crickets, but she has not eaten them. Thankfully, she pooped today (we have been worrying she might have been impacted due to sand). Her tail has not shrunk from what we can tell (he measured the width yesterday so we don't know yet if it is shrinking or not). She sleeps normally, and when he brings her out she runs around and climbs on everything.The only problem we are worried about is that she is not eating, and I am wondering if it is because of the sudden stress of switching homes, new substrate, and because it might not be warm enough for her so she is in her hibernation mode (it is also cold in his dorm). Another issue I'm worried about is that in a couple of days Nick's semester is ending and he is coming down to South Florida for a month. We bought a juvenile desert set up (cause you could get a few more things for the price of one tank, thanks Black Friday) which has a 10-gallon tank, the heating lights, the screened lid, reptile carpet, a humidity/temp thermometer (i think that is what it is), and a couple other things I'm not sure of since it's in my moms car and she's at work. Anyways, we are going to use the desert-set up and put it at Nick's mom's house, although we are going to either use paper-towel substrate or buy some tiles since I'm not too keen on repti-carpet. Now that we are more informed of what to get, we are going to buy two thermometers, a humidity monitor, some more hides for her moist hide, cool hide, and warm hide for her South Florida tank and Gainesville tank, wax worms, pure calcium for the tank, vitamin powder without phosphorus (the one we have now does have it) another water-pool thing for the South Florida tank, a gram weight, and mineral oil just in case she is impacted. Why I'm worried about this is because she just seems to be adapting to her home in the dorm and now he will be bringing her back down, which might set her off to not eating again. He will be here from December 10th-January 3rd, so I'm thinking that if we get her, FINALLY, the right set-up she will have that month to adapt, and see if she will eat, before going back to the dorm (which Nick should have more things to maker her set-up better there). We are going to give her wax-worms to see if she will eat them when she comes down to South Florida, and if not then we are more than likely going to take her to a vet.What do you guys think? Do you think maybe she is impacted or it's just all the stress from moving/not being warm enough/it's winter?I'll post some pictures.
the poop that she took this morning
her toes, she doesn't have any nails. i just learned that they are supposed to. the day she shed she had some stuck on one toe and we took it off. i think that she probably had bad shedding days in the past and is why she now has no nails at all. i'm a little worried since the tips of two of the toes are red? also, are her feet supposed to be this dark (you can see in other pictures that her feet are pretty dark)
the set-up she currently has.
when she sleeps, i love how her legs go back. so cute.
coming out to say hello 
her tail size after a week of not eating.
another view of her tail and when she started shedding in Gainesville.
the underside of her tummy. there's a blue dot in the middle-left, and i've read that it is their gallbladder or liver? but we are worried it could be impaction, even though she did poop this morning and there wasn't any sand in it. her tummy is see-through ish, since she hasn't been eating.
