Color darkening and lethargic leo

Hello everyone - I need to know if I should worry.
I have a sub-adult female leo about 6 inches long. She is in a 20 long tank by herself with two normal hides and 1 humid hide. She has a couple deco rocks, a piece of driftwood, bowl of mealworms, water dish, calcium dish, paper towel substrate, undertank heater and spot lamp. Heat ranges from approx. 70 degrees at night to approx. 82-25 degrees daytime. Humidity range is mid 40%. Anyone know of an explanation for her color darkening and sudden lethargy in the past couple days ?

I had Vita-Sand in as a substrate, I thought she was large enough I didn't have to worry about impaction. Hope thats not what this is. At any rate, I removed the Vita-Sand and am going to stick with paper towels, at least until she is full grown.

Please give me some advice or opinions.

Thanks

It could be the sand caused inpaction, is she eating? Could also be parasites, sounds like the temps, hides and paper towels are perfect. Id try to get her to a vet for a fecal very quickly.

if you think it may be sand inpaction you can try a couple of warm baths, just put an inch of warm water in a shoebox or small container and let her soak for a few minutes and give her a few drops of castor oil on her nose and that will help her pass the sand if it is sand impaction.

here is a good site with alot of info on illnesses that my help you help her until you can get her to a vet Monday

www.thegeckospot.com

They cover impaction and parasites on the health section.

good luck with her!

Originally Posted by fschburg

Heat ranges from approx. 70 degrees at night to approx. 82-25 degrees daytime.

I'm going to assume you meant 82-85 degrees daytime. I'd kick it up a little bit to around 88-90F during the day, measured directly on the substrate over the heat pad/under the lamp. Do you have a temp gradient set up? Where do you have the lamp/pad? Are they on the same side? If you're measuring the temps in the air, it could be too warm/cold on the ground. If you don't have one already, you can find a decent in/outdoor digital thermometer at Target for about $10. You can use the probe on it to measure the temp on the ground.

I use those as well as a infrared temp gun which you can find online at a few places, like www.tempgun.com, I believe. It allows me to check the temps in a variety of places real quick.

Check those temps, geckos that are too cold dull up in color and could cause the lethargy. Let us know how it goes.

I was thinking it was 82-95, didn't read that right at all.

But if you did mean 82-85 up the temps like Rob mentioned, low temps cause color to darken, lowers activity and food intake.

I keep mine at 88-92. I use an ESU digital thermometer and it is taped down on the paper towel on the hot side and I just tape it back on the new peice when I change it so it can't get knocked around by the leos.

Thanks for the input. I will be getting a digital in/outdoor thermometer today. I will also step the spot lamp up a notch to bump the heat.

The heat pad and spot are on the same side of the tank. And where I have the gauges now, it is just measuring the ambient air temp. I will fix that when I get the digital. What about the humidity ? I read that leos need it to be around 30% but I can't get mine any lower than mid 40's. Is there any way to lower it even further ? Or do you think it will be ok where it is at?

Frank

my humidity varies from 30-40 its hard to get it lower than that Id think. The humidity is going to be what it is in your home usually. And its hard to get no moisture in the air.

Originally Posted by fschburg

The heat pad and spot are on the same side of the tank. And where I have the gauges now, it is just measuring the ambient air temp. I will fix that when I get the digital. What about the humidity ? I read that leos need it to be around 30% but I can't get mine any lower than mid 40's. Is there any way to lower it even further ? Or do you think it will be ok where it is at?

Frank

the humidity is what the humid hide is for, do you mist the tank?, or do you have a very large water bowl inside? if so, thats what may be making the humidity high

i keep my geckos at 88*f-90*f, if you do think she has impaction, like wendy said, you can give her warm baths, and if that doesnt work, you can try a drop of mineral oil, that usually helps, vita-sand is up there with the worst of the worst, all the vitamins in the sand causes them to want to lick it up, so they do, and the sand is not digestable, so it ends up clumping up inside the geckos belly, if you must use sand, washed playsand would be best, but i do not reccomend it, papertowel, or tile works just fine, keep us posted

I just got back from the hardware store. Picked up a Taylor digital indoor/outdoor thermometer for $15.
I have it in the setup now just waiting for it to settle. Ambient temp is constant at 76 degrees.

Will give you another update in a few minutes. Thanks again

Okay, without the spot lamp on, the temp looks to have settled in at 87 degrees. That is with the probe just lying on top of the paper towels. The ambient air temp is still stationary at 76 degrees. If I turn the spot lamp on (100 Watt infrared) the probe temp goes up to 97 degrees. Is that too warm ? Should I not use the spot ?

I really appreciate the advice. I just got this girl about two weeks ago from the local petco. I'm not even sure what type of leo she is. She has some orange on the base of her tail so I was thinking maybe a carrot-tail cross. How would I post a pic here ? Maybe you could tell me more accurately what I have.

Heres my attempt at attaching a pic. Hope it works.