my first gecko. and its not eating :(

[bzlizzy]

got my first female gecko on saturday. she started shedding her skin on sunday. pooped abit on sunday. but she hasnt been eating much since that day, not that i know of. i feel her mealworms initially. but they dont really interesting to her. and they keep crawling all over the sand substrate thats why i wasnt able to tell if she's getting any or if they;re stuck in the sand!!

so i switched to superworms. i brought her over to my friend's place on tuesday cuz she's getting me really worried. my friend had many geckos in the past. and he was able to help a little. she ate ONE superworm, i think. she was still in her sand substrate but my friend went through the sand and didnt find the missing superworm so we assume she ate it. the next day, she pooped A BIG ONE! :main_thumbsup: but since then, she hasnt eaten anything and it has been 2 days. we added 4 dusted crickets into the tank but she's not interested either!! im getting worried. please do not ask me to bring her to the vet. we don have reptile vets here because we are not allowed to keep reptiles as pets here in my country. someone please help me?

btw, she's been pretty lazy. always hiding in the den and sleeping.

currently, these are the stuff in her tank. 1 water dish, 1 calcium dish, 1 drift wood, 1 rock, 1 hiding den, sand substrate, moist hiding den with moist sphagnum moss. the moist moss den is on the left side of the tank. while my exo terra moonlight lamp is on the right side of the tank with the dry hiding den is directly below my light. should i switch the normal sun glo lamp for her before night falls so she gets a few hours of sun?

can someone help me? i fell in love with her at first sight i don wanna lose her. i almost burst into tears when she got stuck in the previous hiding den (

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

Hello,

Sounds like your gecko is acting perfectly normal. It is quite common for them to need an adjustment period to get on a normal eating schedule. A good trick is to place the Leos feeding dish at the opening of the hide. They feel more comfortable there and generally will eat from within the hide.

Best things you can do for your gecko are
1. Check temps
2. give it some space
3. relax a little

Ryan

 

[bzlizzy]

check temps? im living in a sunny tropical island. sun all year round so how much do i need to bask my girl? will 1 or 2 hours be enough? as for night, i sleep in an air conditioned room, so i switch the moonlight lamp on throughout the night for here.

as for the feeding dish right outside the den, the crix are running around the tank actaully. but they cant jump. because my friend erhm amputated their legs. gross i know, but for the well being of my little girl, we don have a choice we tried dangling worms, crix in front of her but she backs away. i'll give her a week or so if not, i'll have to come up with the mixture some of the guys posted on this forum

 

[bzlizzy]

okay guys i need help again. so last week she ate 4 crickets or 3 in a single sitting. 5 mins she at 3 or 4 after fasting for 2 weeks. after that, she stopped again! what the........ im getting stressed over her again lol and the crickets i bought for her are dying off one by one. dammit. what should i do now?

i think the problem might be the temperature in the tank? room temperature in the afternoons are probably 25deg Celsius or so. i used the exo terra moonlight 75w at night for her. i have a sunglo exo terra 50w. but i seldom use that as i read that its not good to have such a bright light in their eyes. and she doesnt move around much even at night! she looks lethargic. can someone help me on this? she's housed on carpet with 2 hides and a bowl of calcium.

 

[Tony C]

25 degrees is way too cool, 35 is a good temperature for the hot side.

 

[bzlizzy]

yeah i figured that out as well i just got an under tank heater off ebay for 25usd becasue i live outside the US. and its gonna take a week for it to reach me. oh well. just gotta be patient. meanwhile do you think its a good idea to force feed her? she's such a sweetie. she doesnt even open her mouth to try to bite me when i touch her mouth to force feed her

 

[Tony C]

I wouldn't, force feeding is very stressful, and a healthy leopard gecko can last far longer than a week without eating.

 

[bzlizzy]

i feel like a horrible owner. ive been finding watery poo in her tank!! and i found something like green mucus today. sigh can anyone tell me if she's gonna be fine? she hasnt been eating. i havent seen normal poop in her tank for awhile. rather watery and muscu-ey stuff. i don have reptile vets here

 

[Daylight_Thieves]

Is it possible to get ahold of a vet via phone and tell them that you'd like a de-worming vaccination? My baby was going through the same thing and it turned out that he had parasites and my vet had some de-worming meds shipped to my house because they have to be specially made because geckos are so small...

Try getting ahold of a herp vet via phone and ask. If worst comes to worst... I can see if my vet in WI can give me the number for the place that sent me my medicines...

I hope she feels better!

P.S. Try feeding her some chicken baby food... It worked with my baby and he is eating better now...

 

[bzlizzy]

hey there thanks for your quick reply. unfortunately im not in the US, im in Asia. and we seldom have reptiles here. thats why im stressing out so much. if there were herp vets here i wouldnt wait this long to see one. i'll run out to get baby food tmr and hopefully it makes her better

 

[Daylight_Thieves]

hey there thanks for your quick reply. unfortunately im not in the US, im in Asia. and we seldom have reptiles here. thats why im stressing out so much. if there were herp vets here i wouldnt wait this long to see one. i'll run out to get baby food tmr and hopefully it makes her better

If you'd like I can try to get you the info on a pharmacy for pets that I use but they do ship all over... I'm not sure if they can ship to Asia but I can find out for you and see if they can ship you a de-worming vaccine...

Also, where in Asia do you live? It'll help me find a herp vet near you...

 

[bzlizzy]

oh please do! thank you so much for your help! i'll drop you a PM

 

[aburningflame]

how is ur gecko doing?

 

[bzlizzy]

how is ur gecko doing?

her stools have turned slightly better after feeding her baby cereal added with warm water, multi vitamins, and calcium. not as runny as before and its almost whitish in color. but she's still not active. always in her moist hide. ive gotten my undertank heater but i will have to run out to get the thermostate and heat tape before i can hook it up. and ive read that geckos thats are almost dying lie outside the hides away from the heat source. keeping my fingers crossed. :main_huh:

 

[Blacksupra94]

The green in the poop is likely the shed she ate!

Are you letting the worms crawl all over the sand before she eats them? That sounds dangerous to her health :main_huh:

 

[aburningflame]

you dont need the heat tape..did you mean electrical tape?

also - what wattage is ur UTH? i have 4W UTHs hooked up with no thermostats.

im not worried about them because theyre such low wattage i doubt they could pump out over 100

anyhow, i would hook your UTH up if its very low wattage..thats just me

 

[bzlizzy]

the last time she shed was 3 week or 4 weeks back! so i doubt its the shed. the green thing WAS muscus and it was sticky. oh crap. it sticked to my tweezers when i picked them up :/ but now her poop is whitish and still a little soft. but a great improvement from the "all mucus poop". there's no sand in her tank. only carpet. and the worms are in a dish of calcium.

 

[bzlizzy]

you dont need the heat tape..did you mean electrical tape?

also - what wattage is ur UTH? i have 4W UTHs hooked up with no thermostats.

im not worried about them because theyre such low wattage i doubt they could pump out over 100

anyhow, i would hook your UTH up if its very low wattage..thats just me

its 8W from exo terra. im afraid of it burning her as currently i only have paper towels in her tank. yeah electrical tape. will other kinds of tape work fine?

 

[aburningflame]

you can layer the paper towels, or you can make a big hide and place that over the heat mat (the extra layer would probably keep the heat down inside it)..get a container as big as the heat mat and line it with paper towel, hook up the uth and put the contianer on top of it (.not in the tank...do it on a desk somewhere)..put a temp probe inside the container and let it sit for an hour..check the temp..if the temp is like 90-94 i would say its safe to put on ur tank (remember the thickness of the glass will help)...u could also layer as much paper towel as u need to get the temp in the container down to a safe level..even 85F would be beneficial

it could be a digestive problem considering temperatures have been so low - just advice, not 100% sure on it

 

[aburningflame]

oh btw just for your information

electrical tape is the black stuff thats used in electrical wiring

heat tape isnt tape (as in sticky) its tape as in a layer of plastic that can be rolled out similar to tape - heat tape actually gets hot..you wire heat tape and plug it into the wall!

just clearing that up