New owners to a rehomed 2 year old leopard gecko!

[CaperJenJen]

My friend's 12 year old had a 2 year old female gecko since she was young. Purchased from a pet store. He has not been looking after it and she works a lot, so they wanted to rehome her. I'm a softie, work from home and said why not!? I've had her 10 days.

Her name was Rango, but I call her Lovey. She is so sweet and I can tell she likes things her way. I did not handle her at all the first three days but slowly I introduced my hand into her terrarium and she realized I wasn't going to hurt, so she's pretty good to handle. (Though she did make one "chirp" noise once when I picked her up. I didn't know they made noise. I felt bad )

Some things are worrying me.

A. She isn't eating much. They said they have never fed live food and I purchased the mealworms and crickets they said they have always purchased and fed her. They said they would feed her until she would stop but since I've had her she has only MAYBE eaten 10 mealworms, 1 or 2 at a time. Most times she turns her head and walks away. She will not even look at a cricket. She drinks water. I use bottled water with the vitamin drops. I dusted some of the mealworms that she did eat. There is calcium in a bottle cap with her water tray at all times. Yesterday I tried some grub pie mixture to try to see if she would eat it (suggested at pet store and she did take a few nips of it and seemed to enjoy it, but not much eaten.

B. She had one poop in 10 days that was long and brown with a spot of white. But she has been putting out what I think people call urates, snow white. A lot of it. They look like white poops. I actually heard her doing it tonight almost like diarrhea sound. And afterward she licks and licks down there at her whatever it's called on a gecko lol. Should I be worried about this?!?! Is it maybe because of the move? She is in a good size terrarium (I think?) with reptile carpet, she has a warm hide (heated underneath to around 90) she has a dark corner for her "business", she has a damp hide (new, I put in three days ago), a small climb, and since we keep it cool in our home I bought a 40W lamp that I don't shine directly directly into the terrarium and I only keep on during the day because her temp on the cool side I found was low at always around 70. With the lamp now it goes up to 85 or so in the day, an obviously cools off at night to room temp 70 again. I hope that's ok?!) I thought she would like the extra heat she has never had because they didn't have a lamp, but maybe it is what she's reacting to?!?!

Sorry so long winded, but I just want to be a good gecko mommy and have her for years to come!

 

[Onelifegecs]

A). Live food for reptiles is always better the freeze dried ones loose most of their nutrients in processing. Feeding her live may peek her interest in eating again and it could still be stress form the move.

B). I’ve never experienced this before so I’m not gonna give any insight maybe someone with that experience will pop in

C). They do better when they are given belly heat. This can be done with a heat mat and thermostat

 

[CaperJenJen]

Yeah so far my local pet store has been out of live. I really don't think crickets is going to be an option for me but I will try a few live mealworms to start.

She is heated underneath to 90, in the area of her warm hide.
Still no food today and barely out. Took the calcium out for a little while in case for some reason she is eating it instead of food and that's what is making her poop white? ‍

 

[acpart]

It sometimes takes geckos quite awhile to adapt to a new situation. On top of that, breeding season is just starting and some females, when they ovulate, don't eat much. You only need to feed her 2-3 times a week at that age. Keep offering and try not to worry if it takes awhile for her to eat. If you're dusting the feeders with calcium (and hopefully also with vitamin D3) you don't need to keep it in the cage. Geckos can end up getting too much calcium.

Aliza

 

[CaperJenJen]

Yes I am just leaving her alone for now. I see she is starting to shed again and she was just finishing when I got her ten days ago, so thats probably the stress of moving too. And you're right, I was thinking ovulation too. Poor thing she has had a rough couple of weeks. I have been dusting them with the complete vitamin and the calcium is plain. I'll keep trying each time I see her out and about and just see what happens. Thanks you

 

[CaperJenJen]

UPDATE:
She shed overnight very well, had a big ol' poop this morning and finally ate 5 dusted live mealworms and had lots of drinks and was out and about most of the day. I think she is finally settling in!

 

[acpart]

Yay!

Aliza

 

[CaperJenJen]

Our sweet girl has settled in so well in our family and we adore her. She loves to get out for zoomies every chance she gets, eats & drinks great, sheds and poops perfectly...all great! She has gained quite a bit of weight and loves live worms.

Here's the question...I know I have seen that adults should only be fed 2-3 times a week. She LOVES live worms now that she has them and so enjoys chasing them. And as soon as she sees me now she comes running out because she just knows I'm "worm lady". Would it be OK to give her just a couple every day instead of a full feed every couple of days? I always feel bad when she comes looking for them every morning and I offer nothing!

 

[CaperJenJen]

Is she too chubby???!!!

 

[acpart]

I don't see any reason not to feed her if she "asks". I feed my geckos on Mondays and Thursdays. At this time of the year, most of them aren't eating much, but come August they're all going to be starving and when I see a gecko pacing back and forth when I'm "in range" I'll always give them something.

Aliza

 

[CaperJenJen]

Thank you! It's so cute when she sees me and comes running out every morning and then she looks right at the ground to see if I've dropped any

She even knows the difference between my son and I. He takes her out on zoomies and I am the cleaner/food lady. Haha! They are smarter than people think!

 

[Young Geckoboy]

Real quick piece of advice I wish I knew when starting: ALWAYS gut load the mealworms for at least a day before feeding them to Lovey. This way the worms are not just hollow shells being fed to her but instead juicy little food items. The mealworms become far better. Also, varying her diet is enriching. Try crickets some time as a staple or offer occasional super worms and/or waxworms, hornworms, etc. Glad to hear your gecko is getting better.

 

[CaperJenJen]

Ok, I'm freaking out. I think there are spots of blood around the geckos poo this morning. (Pic attached) She hadn't pooed in 3 days, and the one this morning is obviously large. Could they get ripped or torn vents from hard stools?!?! She is active, eating great, sheds no problem, good colour, shiny eyes, drinking etc. Her warm side is 86-88F, cool side 74-78F, recently shredded perfectly. She's an almost 3 yr old....could it be an egg problem? Parasite? Eeeek! I'm going to call around for an exotic vet in my area today, but thought I'd pop in here to speak with some "expert" owners in the meantime! So worried!

 

[CaperJenJen]

Oh and also she eats live, gut loaded mealworms. And I dust them with multi 2-3 times a week and she has calcium overnight 2-3 times a week!

 

[acpart]

That tiny smear of pink with the poop doesn't look like anything serious to me. I wouldn't worry about it. Remember that nocturnal geckos can get too much calcium as well as not enough . Consider keeping up with the dusting and dropping the overnight calcium.

Aliza

 

[CaperJenJen]

Hi guys,

I'm super scared now. Little lovey has thrown up her mealworms three times in two weeks. The first time, she had eaten 10 and was just woofing them down so we thought maybe she had eaten too fast. She's otherwise acting normal. Her next feeds were fine and then about 8 days later, on Dec 23rd, I fed her 6 dusted. She barfed them up. At this point, I realized the only thing that changed was that the place I usually get the worms had closed, and this batch I had purchased at another place. So I thought...OK it must be a batch that doesn't agree with her. I got rid of those and went back to where I usually go and got new worms. I warm them and gut loaded them with carrot (they are stored in a oat base in the fridge) and waited until this morning to try and feed her. She was hungry and came right out for them. I fed her only three, I waited 5 mins in between each so she would not gorge on them, and then she went into her warm hide right away so to me, she's doing all the right things. But now...6 hours later....the 3 worms are barfed up!

She's three, we have an UTH at 90, her warm side top of tank is 82, cool side is 78-79. Her substrate is paper towel and repticarpet.

She sheds perfectly, did so about a month ago. She poops normal. She was out to her water dish drinking last night. She has been hiding alot more lately though.

She gets bottled water fresh every second day and topped up when needed. Water is treated with Reptisafe. ( I put 2 drops per 500ml bottle)

We get standard meal worms, feed her three times a week, usually 6-8 at a time. I dust every other feeding with Retivite with D3 and she gets a small dish of repti calcium without D3 2-3 nights a week.

She is likely losing weight, but she's a chunker and likely isn't just showing.signs yet.

What have we done wrong? What could be happening here? Should I just take her to the vet immediately? It's winter here and I'm worried about moving her around!