Very Skinny Giant Day Gecko

My cousin just bought a fat male Giant Day Gecko from a couple about an hour away. I believe it was a craigslist find. When he went to pick up the male ( I call him fat Albert) he was housed with a very skinny "female" (who i now call Sad Sally, from American Horror Story; Hotel), and had been for almost 2 years. They told him he could take the Sally for free or leave her, since he bought the male and the enclosure. Soon to be a Vet student, he took her. His heart broke when he saw her. He thought Sally might have MBD, because they had only been feeding crickets, for two years! I told him I had two thoughts and MBD wasn't one, because she has no kinks, still climbs very well, loves to eat and very active. I think its A) Parasites (he doesn't know if she was wild caught or captive bred) or B) Sally is stressing because of Albert trying to breed constantly, or bullying if Sally turns out to be a Sal. Her spine and ribs are very prominent. I told him he needed to separate them IMMEDIATELY, which he did. The closest vet is an hour away, and with his college, its hard to get the time to go. So this is what I told him to do. Now I am no expert, I am just trying to help him out, until he can get her to the vet. Day geckos are not my thing. A quick google search and this is what I found;

Temps: Mid 80's with a basking spot around early 90's. Night temps low 70's

Humidity: Between 55 and 65. Mist twice a day.

Paper towel substrate for now to get good view of the poo.

He is feeding them Rapashy gecko diet, and occasional dusted crickets. They are both great eaters.

I can't load the pictures right now, (work computer can't access photobucket) , but as soon as I get a good signal with my cell, I will show you Sad Sally.

Any advice that you can give him, to help until he can get her to the vet (if the vet even works with reptiles) would be appreciated! I asked him to send me a picture of her poo, so I am waiting on that also.

Thank you in advance.
Betty Mae

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I have no idea how that posted lol how do I delete her neck?


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Some kind of appetite addition may help, along with an increase in insects in the diet. I have a young hatchling of this species, but don't have any experience with them as adults, but here is what I would do:

1. Place a small water dish in the enclosure treated with Reptiboost or another similar appetite stimulant (generally available at Petcos, not sure on other shops). This is just to get the hunger going, hopefully to trigger more feeding.

2. Start adding bee pollen or a drop or two of pure honey (no additives) to the Repashy, maybe mixing in a quarter teaspoon of baby food and a quarter teaspoon of a vitamin dust as well. The idea here is to encourage eating. My adult cresteds eat about a teaspoon of mixed diet every two days, so this should be roughly what these guys should be eating, but this is not their WHOLE diet. In essence, I'd go 1/4 tsp dry mix, 1/4 tsp fruit baby food, 1/8 teaspoon vitamin dust, plus water to the normal texture. Bee pollen or honey could work in place of the baby food, but I would still add the dust and use those more sparingly (maybe 1/8 or 1/16 teaspoon)

3. More bugs! Bugs are a big part of day geckos' diets, so maybe introducing more bugs could help. Lately I have had a lot of luck with black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) with my day gecko. He loves them, they are usually sold as "calci-worms" by some companies. I would avoid mealworms or superworms at this stage. Waxworms might also help pack on some weight, but like anything else, don't do them in excess and make sure all insects are dusted with a good multivitamin.

- Note that if this is something parasitic, the above will only help for a time, as you seem to already know. This is just to treat the symptom being seen: weight loss. This is a similar regimen to what I did when I had parasites in some of my tree frogs after purchasing them.

You'll want to have your friend go in to the vet with a nice and fresh stool sample. I hope Sally starts to perk up more and put on some weight! Please keep us updated!

Thank you so much! I will screen shot this and send it to him!!! I’ll update about Sally as I get the info!


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Even non-herp vets can run fecal tests to look for worms. My local one will do it for $25 and she has absolutely no interest whatsoever in seeing my snakes. If the test comes back positive then I know I need to visit my regular herp vet but he's 90 minutes away so having a local option for testing is nice.

I agree that MBD does not seem to be the issue, that the animal is just severely underweight. Separation from the larger animal will be a big plus. I second the recommendation for a fecal test, and also recommend a test for the larger animal, as he may also be infected if he was living with her. If that comes back negative, it is likely that she was just out-competed by a more robust animal. I have seen this before with other species, and once had to permanently separate a breeding pair for this reason. I personally suspect that this is the case, because I would imagine that if it was parasites, both animals would be infected and skinny. But you won't know until you get that test.

Make sure there is there is UVB lighting.....humidity level between 55%-65%......basking spot around 90 degrees. I mist my terrarium twice a day. I use pangea gecko diet. Keep a small dish with Rep-Cal in it. I feed mine crickets, wax worms, dubia roaches and medium super worms. Mine love to sleep on Sanseveria plants. I keep live plants in my terrarium.