"Failure to Thrive Syndrome" in Leopard Geckos

All of the small leopards are fed crickets. We get them from Ghanns and have been doing so for 15 years or more. We get the crickets in, set them up in a tank and let them feed on carrots, rodent chow and freshly dead pinky mice for 24 to 48 hours before feeding them to the geckos.

BTW, the crickets from Ghanns have NO other bugs in those boxes. Ever...

The adult geckos are fed pinky mice every once in a while, and on occasion we will get in a batch of wax worms as a treat for them.

EVERYTHING is dusted with a combination of SuperPreen, Osteoform, and Sticky Tongues mineral supplement.

Some of our original stock we got back in 1982 from Tom Digney. Except for three added males (one from Larry Rouch, another from John Albrecht, and one from Mikki Barr), an ugly looking female from Louis Porras (I think this line may have been the origination of the "Snows"), along with a pair of Stripes from Norm Damm, and a trio of Patternless from (source?), that is the complete history of the source of all out bloodlines.

But, what are the adults fed, other than the occassional pinky or waxworms? Did you say and did I miss it? LOL!

Marcia, try hydrolife by T-rex. I used it on my very first leopard gecko that I bought from petsmart (which was sick) and it did wonders! I still have her till this day. Happy and healthy. I tried it at other stressful times and the results varied. I also heard that pedialite works aswell. Just tell your friend to not give up on the little guy. If nothing else helps then try force feeding it.

I have heard rumors of geckos being passed around that carried pathogens along with them, that when put into active colonies without strict quarantine first, completely wiped out those colonies.

TRUE. I have had this happen to me. About two and a half years ago when I first got into reptiles, I bought about five beautiful hypo high yellow/tangerine baby leopard geckos. I only quarantined them for about a month (BIG Mistake!) and when I released them, they completely wiped out my colonies. When I noticed the first sick gecko I removed him from the colony and gave him hydrolife a product by T-rex. He was sick on and off for about two months and he finally gave up. By then the virus spread quickly throughout my colony. Within a two week period I lost over 30+ geckos including my pictus gecko colonies. I haven't bred any reptiles since then.

What I'm seeing here is that folks are having some success using full-spectrum lighting.
Not because of the vitamin creation possible with UVB, but simply due to the effects on brain chemistry that full-spectrum lights/natural sunlight can have.

It might DEFINITELY be worth exploring, no? Perhaps this is a form of depression...people with SAD (seasonal affective disorder) treat their condition with full spectrum lighting--it normalizes their brain chemistry.
Depression can be a problem purely related to brain chemistry, and it can cause loss of appetite.

It might seem odd to think of depressed geckos, but physiologically, it makes a certain amount of sense.

full spectrum lighting--it normalizes their brain chemistry.

This is an interesting theory, and one I can personally relate to...

The posts so far in this thread have given some possible ideas and solutions for getting leos to recover when they are "failing to thrive", but I'm certainly not seeing as many people post as I had hoped for. Does this mean that this phenomenum doesn't happen to very many of us? Does it mean that many are reluctant to admit that it does for fear of having our reputations scrutinized? Or, can it be because if/when we lose a gecko we know the reason it died? I have lost geckos in my 10 years of working with them, and with the exception of one, I have known the cause of death.

Hydrolife? What is that exactly?

Here's a link with info.

http://www.t-rexproducts.com/Dynamic...80997&series=1

Here's a close up pic.

http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/...-2631024#image

You can get it cheaper at petsmart, just make sure it's not expired!

Oh, neat!! Thank you!!