Depressed Gecko?

[brillobee]

I have a female gecko. I've had her about 9 months now. She is otherwise healthy, nice fat tail (52 grams). She has always been a picky eater. Lately she has been eating less, she still eats waxworms ( 2 today) and a few crickets. She also spends all her time in her cool hide. I don't see her out and about. She has a UTH (temps good) and is on tile. Any ideas?

 

[ajveachster]

Is she ovulating?

 

[brillobee]

I don't wanna breed her, but I guess she doesn't know that. How can you tell if she's ovulating?

 

[Mel&Keith]

Link to a photo.
With a gecko that chubby, I wouldn't even feed her wax worms. That's just me though.

 

[Gonser]

You said it all when you said she spends all her time in the cool hide. She must spend much more time at 90+ or she will be lethargic and will not eat well. I would remove the cool hide for a while so she spends time in the warm hide and I'd bet you'll see a big difference in her behavior, color, etc.
Then once she adjusts to being in the warm hide more you can reintroduce the cool hide and see what happens.

Good luck.

 

[brillobee]

She never used to spend all her time there. Her usual routine was to spend the night in the warm hide ( on top of her UTH) and wander around. In the morning I would find her in her cave or other hide. She just started this about 2 weeks ago, staying in her cave all the time. Not wanting to pursue prey. She'll eat but on if it come to her. I tried to look at her belly, but I can see anything. Does she need a separate lay box (just in case) or will her humid hide which is full of moss due.
Here's a pic of her belly maybe someone with better trained eyes than me can see seomthing.

 

[brillobee]

I took out the cool hide and now she's moved into her moist hide. She's determined to stay cool. Any ideas?

 

[Mel&Keith]

From that picture it doesn't look like she's ovulating. It could be that she used to spend more time on the hot side because the ambient temperature were lower in Winter. Now that it's Summer maybe she is trying to stay cool. Have you double checked your UTH temps with a different thermometer?

 

[brillobee]

I checked it with a temp gun today. It was a little high. So I turned the thermostat down.

 

[Haligren]

Your leo sounds like my leo, only Tiamat used to eat a lot more during the winter than she does now. She hasn't eaten since the beginning of summer and spends most of her time on the warmer side of the tank, and although she is very active, she completely ignores food. Her tail is becoming quite skinny so I've started feeding her slurry and Jump Start every day.

But before that she was just like your leo; hanging out in the cool and moist hides, and only eating once in a while and never would she chase after the food. I had to put the worm or whatever right in her hide otherwise she would completely ignore it. Best of luck. I hope yours doesn't turn out like mine. I suspect she is ovulating but her tummy looks like yours does; no spot (or a very faint pink spot when I hold a flash light to it) or anything that I can see.

 

[brillobee]

Last night she was out and spent awhile on her uth. Hopefully it was just because the the temp was a little high. She even chased and ate some crickets.

 

[Haligren]

That's good to hear. I think I'll try messing with my temps a bit too.