New geckos: Recovery log

[Dinosaur!]

Well, yesterday i recieved my two new geckos that i have been waiting for. They are the first geckos i have ever ordered from a breeder, but they are not in very good health at the moment. They are both settling in though, and are going to be fine in the end This thread will be updated with information as they recover, and a weekly weigh in. First, the healthier gecko:

This girl is a high yellow female (nothing else), and is VERY sweet. She already shed and couldnt get it off of her toes. she obviously had problems in the past with shedding, because she has many missing toes. She is underweight in my opinion (see below pictures) but will be fat and happy in time And also, she already ate 10 mealworms! As far as names go, this girl looks like the exact reincarnation of my first leo, Squirt (RIP), minus the regenerated tail, so i think i will call her Carnation in honor of it (Reincarnation, Carnation? Get it? ) Well here she is!

And this poor mack afghanicus cross is the other girl... She is very sweet also, and she already had a complete and perfect shed for me, and ate four freshly molted mealworms a few minutes ago. As for a name... honestly i am not completely comfortable naming her yet, seeing how thin she is, and not being sure of her survival... she is the thinnest gecko i have ever tried to rehabilitate, so send good thoughts and prayers her way! I can see that she is a very pretty gecko under all of this... skinniness... and i want to see her that way!

Disclaimer!
I was informed of the mack afghanicus' condition before purchasing her!
and i will not mention the name of the breeder on here, unless she volunteers that information herself.
​

 

[trinity]

You paid money for them? Or are they rescues?

 

[Dinosaur!]

i did pay money for them, but they were very low prices at least... but i am going to consider the afghan girl a kind of rescue, because i am really fighting to keep her alive right now. she is very active though, so i still have hope for her

 

[Dinosaur!]

Oh, and i thought the high yellow was going to be full weight and fine, and i was under the impression that the afghan wasnt THAT skinny. i thought she was just in the mildly underweight range (40-45g's)...

 

[Treefolk]

Who sold you these? This is unethical!

 

[Dinosaur!]

Yeah... i would rather not disclose the breeders name out here on a public thread (against the TOS anyways), but they are free to give their side of this at any time if they want...

 

[trinity]

That is awful! Good God.. Did they get lost in the mail for three months?

 

[Dinosaur!]

well they were lost in the mail for a day because the shipment got messed up somehow... i am confident that the high yellow girl will pull through, but the afghan girl is who i am really worried about... i have only tried to save a few geckos near her weight... im going to try and find pictures of them to compare to her size, even though they did all die in the end. but they were lethargic and never even looked at food. She is already eating and actively exploring her tank, so that gives me some hope for her

 

[trinity]

Are theses pets? or do you plan to breed?

 

[Dinosaur!]

Pet only on these guys! I might reconsider in the future if they are both completley healthy, up to weight, and fit into a specific project, but no boys are getting anywhere near them anytime soon! Plus i have eggs in the incubator already from my other (healthy) girls, so im good on babies for quite some time

 

[trinity]

What is mack afghanicus ? does that mean it's like a F1 or something?

 

[Dinosaur!]

I have no idea what F1 is... It sounds familiar though..but afghanicus leopard geckos are a subspecies along with montanus, hardwiki, and fasciolatus (spelling on all of the above?). So my new girls sire or mother was an afghanicus leopard gecko, and the other was a Mack snow. I am not very familiar with the impact of the subspecies genetics on breeding projects, or the differences between most of them. Maybe someone who knows more about this stuff can chime in and explain it better to both of us

 

[stager]

Wow that one is thin. I would keep her far away from my other geckos she doesnt look very healthy. Should never have been shipped in that condition. Did they tell you the other was missing toes?

 

[favrielle]

Ok, I have to say this. That second gecko needs to see a vet ASAP. With a tail that skinny, assuming it's not a case of intentional neglect and complete lack of food over a long span of time, you're looking at a medical issue. The other gecko's tail also looks like it's had recent weight loss. Parasites and/or Crypto come to mind... at the VERY MINIMUM, please take fecal samples to your vet, and if you can, get a test swab sent out to Avian Biotech to do a PCR for Crypto (instructions here). And in the meantime, keep them both in hard quarantine... NOTHING that comes into contact with either of these gecks should go anywhere near your others. Put them in different rooms from your current animals, if possible. And wash your hands before and after ANY contact you have with these girls, no matter what.

If it is parasites or Crypto, you do not want to spread this to your others and need to maintain strict standards of quarantine to prevent it. EVen if it isn't either of those, it's still good practice, better safe than sorry!!

 

[trinity]

agreed.. F1 is a cross of two animals that are very close to each other, like say you breed a wild L Gecko to a pet one the offspring would be a F1 First generation. Not wild or pet. Breed the offspring together and they are a F2, you have the wild blood and all it brings to the mix, yet more traits of the pet.. then after that the wild blood is so thin it don't really matter.. But from a breeding stand point at least in Angelfish F1's are nice as it add's a lot to the pet fish yet not as hard to get it to breed or live in captive conditions.

 

[Treefolk]

F1 is a hybrid cross first generation. F2 is the interbreeding or backcrossing in the second generation. F3 is like F2 except third generation and so on. It's how someone creates a hybrid of something (plant or animal) and then refines the process into a new 'morph' or breed. IE; smaller Mack snows because of the afgan.

 

[Treefolk]

Also, if the breeder is on these forums... Speak up.

 

[Dinosaur!]

stager- I did not know that her toes were missing, and i could not tell from the photo provided. Whats more is that they apparently introduced her (high yellow) to a male at the beggining of feburary. HOpefully those eggs didnt take.

Favrielle- They do not appear to be sickly, and i have seen geckos that thin from simple neglect in the past, and i can provide pictures of them (post death ). but they are under a SUPEr strict quarentine at the moment, and if they begin to show signs of actual sickness, and not just pure neglect, then i will most definately go to the vet and avian biotech. But for now i am just going to treat them as neglect cases.

Trinity and Treefolk- thank you very much for that clarification! I learned something new today!

Ant Treefolk (again)- She is on the forums.

IN other news, the geckos already ate again this morning The mack girl is only being fed two freshly molted mealworms every six hours or so, so that she doesnt overload her (probably) shrivelled belly.

 

[stager]

Well you should have been told about the toes. I have a pure afghan and have produced quite a few mack afghans and none looked anything like yours I would be curious to see the breeders afghan

 

[stager]

Well you should have been told about the toes. I have a pure afghan and have produced quite a few mack afghans and none looked anything like yours I would be curious to see the breeders afghan