Stressed gecko, what do I do?

[Jayme]

I've noticed my gecko has been looking sort of stressed since I got home from college. Last year I wasn't able to take her with me, leaving her in the care of my mom, but luckily that arrangement will change for next year.


Basically what's causing me concern is that she's been darker in color lately, and also won't leave her hide on the cold side. She still eats fine, and I'll be weighing her tomorrow to make sure she hasn't lost weight.

It's just odd because she use to be very active and curious, and would roam around the cage and beg to be taken out. But now she is very skittish. A few weeks before college ended, on a trip home I changed her cage a little bit, changed the old shelf liner to reptile carpet, and put more fake plants and a background scenery picture on the tank hoping it would help her feel more secure. But right after that she started acting weird.

I keep her in a 20gal tank, with the warmside between 87-91 degrees. She has three hides, one being humid, and a calcium dish. I feed her only mealworms.

I thought that she got more skittish because I wasn't around to interact with her and that maybe handling her again would help. But I'm afraid to stress her out more with that. Any idea what i should do?

 

[SDCowboy]

Just leave her alone.

 

[Dog Shrink]

I have to disagree with leave her alone... the tank changes will stress, her color chage could just be maturity setting in as they do change color as they mature. Also leos get dark when they're cold. 91 is a bit low for some leos...88-95 would be a more appropriate heat range imo. I would hand feed with tweezers dropping her feeders into the tank to start acclimation her back to being handled and hands in her tank. Remember she went quite some time (I gather if mom was caring for her) without being handled so you will need to treat this like a new leo starting over retaming her. There is always stress with taming but your animal will always have stressors in her life. Giving her small stressors and helping her learn there is no bad gonna happen to her is better than letting her alone in her paranoia. As long as her appetite and bowel movements remain stable she is't over stressed. Also personalities do change over time and with maturity. My leo was a bit more outgoing when he was younger but now that he's past a year old he is more skeptical, shy and a bit reserved.

 

[Jayme]

Ok, I increased the temperature so that the max range is at 94-95ish. Fed her about five worms. I'm pretty sure she hadn't left that cold hide in a really long time (a week or two) except to poop, and so her weird coloration was probably from being cold like you mentioned. I was kind of shocked at her colors, she was blotchy dark and then the light spots were unusually light. So I moved her over to the warm hide. And now as I'm typing this, she's walking right back into the cold hide. :| I guess as long as she's eating and pooping this should be fine, despite the weird color? :/

 

[fl_orchidslave]

You might take out some of the new decor and put some old stuff back in. She might not like the busy-ness (not really a word) of a printed background, causing her to be suspicious of predators lurking about.

 

[PaladinGirl]

Toon seems downright p.o.'d when I change stuff in her tank so I don't even change the position of anything anymore. Last time I did, she rewarded me with turds in weird places where she'd never pooped before. :main_rolleyes: Did anything else change while your mom was watching her, such as level of noise, etc?

 

[Jayme]

I didn't really change much. Just the substrate to carpet, and the background. I could always try taking the background down and either replacing it with something solid, or nothing like before. Oh and also I put this little magnetic shelf that sticks to the side of the cage, since she use to like climbing around. :/

I guess I'll try moving things back to closer to how they were, but I would think that after three or four weeks she would have gotten use to it by now, heh.

Also everything else is the same. Same noise levels, lighting schedule, food, etc.

 

[Pinky81]

I think Laney hit the nail on the head...those backgrounds could make the leo feel more vulnerable. And as for the cold thing good on ya for uping the temps, but I wouldn't stress about it if she's eating and pooping, and the poop is digested and not undigested bugs then she is laying on her hot area enough to digest her food.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

More than anything, I think it's all the changes all at once. It may not seem like much but her cage is all she's got and it's changed. Some animals are just sensitive to it. Others don't seem to mind much and hardly miss a beat.

 

[Jayme]

Ok, thanks for the advice. I've taken down the background, and I'll leave that for a week and if there's no improvement with that alone, I'll slowly change things closer to how they were before.

I'm just alarmed because of her blotchy color changes and also the huge amount of time she spends in that cold hide. It was probably a month ago that I made the changes, and according to my mom she's been in that hide ever since. I don't know how she manages to digest the food, but she does. Her poop looks normal.

But yeah, thanks for the help. I'll keep you guys updated on how things go.

 

[Jayme]

Update: Removing the background worked! There was almost instant improvement. Thanks everyone

 

[fl_orchidslave]

Great Thanks for the update.

 

[Dog Shrink]

Super... glad to hear things are going better. Keep up the good work.