Petco crested gecko with possible problem.

My local Petco has put two crested geckos on discount sale recently. I was going to jump at the chance to buy one when they had a special sale because crested geckos are difficult to find locally.
One is a male and one is a female. I decided I don't really want a male so I didn't look at him further. The dilemma with the female is that she has unusually high hips and nobody knows why. Think of it like a high sloping rear end. I would like to buy her, but not if she's sick.

I thought, I hope it's not MBD because I cannot deal with that. I'm inexperienced and cannot nurse a sick one.
I noted it could also be "floppy tail syndrome". She shouldn't be bred anymore with floppy tail, which would be fine with me, except that she is most likely already gravid/bred from the store where she's been housed for the last couple of months with a male.
Or it could be she has a unusually shaped rump( genetic) and that would be OK with me.

I took some pics today with my phone, but I don't know how to connect the phone to my computer to download them.

If her back/hips look strange, then yes there is a possibility of MBD or floppy tail (they are or at least can be interrelated.) What a shame that the store was irresponsibly keeping them together and that the female might be gravid (cresties can breed like rabbits.) If the female has been spending time upside down in her tank, that will cause FTS. Just because the male doesn't have the visible signs doesn't mean that he isn't also suffering from the same deficiencies.

No matter which you got/get, please take the gecko to the vet as it will most likely be carrying parasites (any gecko I've ever gotten from a store has had issues with this and I take all of mine to the vet, no matter where they come from.) Do you have an exotic vet in your area that you plan to use for your new pet? Maybe I should instead just say take any animal you purchase to the vet for a checkup: if you don't have the funds wait to buy an animal until after you've saved up an emergency vet fund.

Do you know what the store has been feeding the geckos? Have they had gutloaded and dusted insects? I've rescued a few from my local pet stores (mine were all babies when I got them, nowhere near adult size so I figured they had a better chance if I got some good nutrition into them) and they were fed a version of CGD but none got anything other than plain insects.

In the end, you may have to save up and purchase from a breeder who will ship to you. Some places offer 40% off shipping for your first online order (if they use Ship Your Reptiles) and places like Pangea offer some babies for around $50 to $100. I wasn't thrilled about shipping reptiles at first, but now I've done it a couple of times and have had no problems.

Best of luck to you with this issue, I just hope things turn out ok for the poor cresties.

If you could log into Fauna with your phone, and go through the steps to post a photo, it would help greatly.
If it's MBD, it can't be reversed, but sometimes it can be halted. It's really a matter of feeding a proper diet, which you should be doing regardless. If a case of MBD has gone too far, even halting it would not give the animal a chance at a happy life.

If it's floppy tail syndrome, it's irrelevant. It won't have any adverse effects. However, FTS would not be visible unless the animal is hanging in a way that allowed its tail to flop. So, you can probably rule that out if the problem is always visible. (BTW,it is thought to be due to the way they prefer to sleep, and therefore not passed on to offspring).

If it's genetic, and you just want a pet, again, bad hips are, in themselves, probably not a big deal healthwise.

Here's the problem: If they are being housed together, she is likely gravid. Whether the problem is MBD or genetic, laying eggs could have serious health consequences. There are so many Petco/Petsmart geckos with MBD, that you're probably better off not to chance it.

In my opinion, you would be far better off buying a pet-quality animal from a reliable breeder and pay the shipping charge. You're not going to get a perfect, adult female for a low price, so start with a baby. If you're not go to breed, sex doesn't matter.

Noelle

I've read that sometimes FTS can be visible when the gecko isn't upside down on the glass, as pictured below. Of course, not all with FTS will show this particular symptom, but I have seen some pics of geckos with the funky bowed tail.


Anyways, I wanted to expand upon to the above post by Rcarichter and mention that that female might be in danger of a calcium crash if she is gravid. I would at the very least mention this to the PetCo manager that they should take the female to a vet (though I'm not sure what the chances are of this actually happening. Never hurts to try, though.) If there is a local reptile rescue, you might try contacting them to see if they could work with the PetCo to 'adopt' this female and get her some help.

I'll condense my mention of 'rescuing' geckos from my local store: if you go this route, I say that you will want to assume that the gecko has parasites and possibly other health issues, even if it's a baby. Just because it doesn't look outwardly ill at the moment, doesn't necessarily mean it is OK. While on the subject of health, I'll also mention that you will want to get a gram scale that measures to a 10th of a gram, as this will help you keep good track of the geckos health.

Is there a reason that you want a female if you aren't planning to breed? Be prepared to pay a lot more $ for a gecko that has been sexed female. At some point, females will start laying dud eggs and you will need to check her calcium sacks periodically, whether or not you breed her.

One of my sweetest geckos is male, melts in my hand when he gets crest rubs and calmly sits in my hand to be tong fed insects, so gender is no guarantee of a nice personality. The reason he's mellow is that I have had him since he was 4g and I have worked with him consistently; he is very used to handling.

So, as Rcarichter said, your best bet is to start with a young gecko that has been taken care of properly and fed the correct diet from the beginning.

-I thought if they had parasites, they'd be thin. Wait...so every gecko you've ever bought has parasites?. If every gecko you've bought has parasites, then I have to wonder if it's normal for them to have parasites?. Or do you mean every gecko from a store had parasites and the ones from private breeders did not?.

-The local Petco feeds Repashy( same as I feed mine) and mealworms.

-I feed mine repashy prepared gecko food( which seems to be a proper diet or not depending on who you ask).

-Yeah, just a pet is fine. I'd love to hatch some gecko eggs( I get envious of FB friends who display their eggs/hatchlings) and the thought of bringing in a gravid female is quite appealing. I have no plans to breed any crested geckos on purpose.

-Actually sex does matter to me because I like the idea of keeping them together. That makes males less desirable. Having a larger crested gecko appeals to me mostly due to them being easier to handle/calmer. Hatchlings are Ok too, but I dislike how they are more jumpy and I need to wait a long time to sex them.

Okay. You may want to rethink this a bit.

Assuming this girl comes home with eggs, and assuming they are fertile, you've stated that she has physical problems. If it's MBD, as stated above, the calcium crash can be quite devastating to the female. (I'll post pics of one of my rescues for whom this very situation applies.) If it's genetic, you certainly don't want it passed on. Why on earth would you let these eggs hatch?

These two geckos are the same age, same sex, and were previously the same color. The larger one is my son's pet. The other was purchased by a neighbor from Petco, where she was fed undusted mealworms, and given incorrect heat and humidity. They brought her home at this size, and put her in with an adult male. She laid eggs 4 weeks later, crashed, and stopped eating. When they were almost sure she was dead, they brought her to me. She wasn't eating becasue her jaws had turned to rubber and she was unable to grip food. For 5 months, I have been feeding her a liquid blend of crickets, roaches, supplements, and pedialyte through an eye dropper. (NEVER do this untrained). She gobbles it up like a baby bird, but when she stops, she will be euthanized.

I am thinking it over, I've been there three times already looking at them.

Also appreciate the feedback here helping me decide.

Originally Posted by Exoticdreams

-I thought if they had parasites, they'd be thin. Wait...so every gecko you've ever bought has parasites?. If every gecko you've bought has parasites, then I have to wonder if it's normal for them to have parasites?. Or do you mean every gecko from a store had parasites and the ones from private breeders did not?.

-The local Petco feeds Repashy( same as I feed mine) and mealworms.

-I feed mine repashy prepared gecko food( which seems to be a proper diet or not depending on who you ask).

-Yeah, just a pet is fine. I'd love to hatch some gecko eggs( I get envious of FB friends who display their eggs/hatchlings) and the thought of bringing in a gravid female is quite appealing. I have no plans to breed any crested geckos on purpose.

-Actually sex does matter to me because I like the idea of keeping them together. That makes males less desirable. Having a larger crested gecko appeals to me mostly due to them being easier to handle/calmer. Hatchlings are Ok too, but I dislike how they are more jumpy and I need to wait a long time to sex them.

The ones from the pet store have had heavy parasites loads: I've not had this problem with my breeder purchased reptiles. The gecko may look healthy in the store, but you will notice that it may lose weight, struggle to gain it/keep it on, etc. If the gecko is left untreated with parasites, it can also cause nutritional deficiencies/MBD. This is why you should at the very least to a fecal test on your reptiles.

Repashy has gone through some reformulations and not all geckos will eat it now: I recommend rotating CGDs (Pangea, Clarks.) Ocassional insects are beneficial as well, but not mealworms for crested geckos (they don't digest them well and mealworms alone are very poor feeders for this species. This may have contributed to her issues.)

Yes, the idea of hatching babies is appealing but will there be homes for them to go to if you did this? Do you have the space, time and $ for vet visits if something goes wrong with one of the babies? The female can lay more than 15 in a season and can retain sperm, so you may be overrun with babies very quickly.

Also, like I mentioned and as shown with the leopard gecko above, the gecko may not seem to be too horrible at first but laying those eggs can cause them to crash (it can be the final straw, as it takes a lot out of them to lay those eggs.)

Just because the gecko is older doesn't mean it won't be as spazzy as a baby either: I have geckos from 2g to 30g and it depends more on the individual than the age. I have some very calm little ones and some very spazzy adults. What makes the biggest difference is how much they were handled when they were young.

And to address the idea of keeping females together, I personally don't recommend this. It's risky to keep them together, you have to make sure they aren't bullying each-other (you must observe and weigh them constantly to make sure one isn't depriving the other of food.) Behaviors that we interpret as cute, such as them appearing to cuddle together, can actually be a bullying tactic.

There was recently someone on the Pangea forum who had two females for a while that seemingly were fine together. One morning, this person walked in to find that one had killed the other, and left it half eaten on the bottom of the cage. There were probably signs that the females were unhappy together, but it might have been too subtle or the owner wasn't paying close enough attention. Who knows? It's not worth the risk, in my opinion.

My motto is quality over quantity: instead of keeping multiple females if you don't plan to breed, why not get a nice terrarium and a single beautiful male in a neat morph? These are things to think about; you asked an honest question and everyone is doing their best to provide honest answers to what you're in for if you want to purchase this girl.