Rescues - Confirm ID and tips to help them get healthy again

[reichiere]

Last night I got called by a friend who does snake rescues and while rescuing several snakes from an apartment (guy left them behind) somebody approached her and asked if she'd take his lizards that he no longer wanted. She agreed to check them out, and apparently it was quite horrendous. The cages were filled with dead geckos, some clearly dead for several days, if not weeks. None of them had any water, and the cages were filthy. She found four live ones left and took them. She had no experience with geckos so she called me as she knew I did, well I'm more experienced with cresteds and other tropical geckos, not these guys.

I'm assuming their leopard geckos... but I could be wrong, so please let me know if I'm off.

When I got them home everyone got a soak in a tub of warm water and a gentle scrub. One of them is shed free (or nearly) but the other three have various degrees of stuck shed on them. I gently scrubbed off what I could and then dried them off. One of them has some pretty bad stuck shed so I picked off as much as I could, but he'll probably need a few more soaks to get clear.

All of them drank water while soaking. Two of them are pretty active and were climbing everywhere. Two aren't, the one with the most stuck shed was having troubles holding his head up, out of the water, but I'd gentle hold his head up and he'd be fine. Another one was pretty lethargic but perked up after a drink, bath, and getting the shed off his head. When I went to bed last night all four them were standing up checking things out.

I offered some small crickets and a two of them ate a couple of crickets but mostly ignored them.

They're all on paper towel substrate right now, and this morning I had a couple of poops. I was late getting up so I didn't spend a lot of time with them this morning, but they were all still alive so I count that as a good sign!

I'll be stopping by the store on the way home to get some more food for these guys and a few other things I need to get some 10 gallons set up for them. So I'd appreciate any advise you all can share with me! Thanks

 

[reichiere]

 

[reichiere]

 

[acpart]

Welcome to GF. Yes, they are leopard geckos and are actually not that bad looking. Do you have enough care info? Mostly what they need is adequate belly heat (low 90's on hot side), water and food. Besides crickets, dubias and mealworms are other options. They look to be stripe morphs and some may be Mack snows as well. If you choose to rehabilitate them and try to rehome them I think there would be plenty of people who would want them. You should also try to sex them so you know what you have.

Aliza

 

[cowana]

To add to what Aliza said it may take the two not eating a bit to acclimate to a new environment, but a lot of times waxworms will jumpstart a Leos appetite. I wouldn't try them until they haven't ate for about a week and wouldn't use them as a sole source of feeding. They are super fatty and a lot of Leos will only want to eat waxworms if given a lot. Just give a few to jumpstart the appetite if necessary.

The tails are a bit thin, but not scary thin. The stuck on shed looks to be their worst problem based on the photos.

While setting up their ten gallons of you provide them with 3 hides... 2 dry ones (one on the hot and cool sides,) and a moist one (in the middle) that will be good. The moist hide will help them get the dead skin off. Other than that they only need the belly heat on one end like Aliza said, paper towels work great as a substrate, a dish of plain calcium (no D3) and water dish. You may want to provide a dish for worms if they're too weak to hunt (some won't eat from a dish so you may need to drop them in front or tong feed). And gut load & dust their feeders each feeding. I suggest Repashy Calcium Plus.

Thank you for taking them in and trying to rehabilitate them! Please keep us updated! [emoji3]

Amy