Possibly Blind???

ABout two months ago I purchased a bell albino leopard gecko from Petland (don't shoot me, there was a good reason). She was a good three inches shorter and much skinnier than the standard color sub-adults. Since I've had her, she has exhibited some odd behaviors that lead me to believe that she may be partially blind. Here's a list of a few:

1. Has to get right on top of prey before even striking and, more often than not, missing.

2. Doesn't react to my hand in the tank until I am almost touching near her head (I did a test to see how long it would take her to react; sometimes there wasn't even a response).

3. She explores, which I thought was just typical at first, but the way it's done, it seems like she is "mapping" out the feeling of her surroundings so as not to run into things.

On thing I will mention about her physically is her white eyes. I know eye problems sometimes come with albinism in most species (including humans), so I curious as to whether anyone else has dealt with this kind of issue, or known someone who has. If you have any information, post it here or e-mail me at indracoveritas@yahoo.com OR senadragontooth@cfl.rr.com. Thank you very much in advance.

~Cherie

Hi Cherie

Welcome to Fauna!

Bells and other albinos/red eyed Leos are notorious for being light sensitive

Do you have any overhead/direct lighting on the top of her tank/enclosure?
If so-remove it and just leave a light on in the room

I have a Tremper Albino that is partially blind that was hand fed as a baby
I adopted and as an adult she can feed on her own-but she can only catch slow moving bugs like supers

This is LemonDrop





Still-she does feed on her own
Her tank is in a relatively dark part of the living room with no direct lighting on the tank and she is fat and sassy

My other bells-including Tangs are extremely light sensitive and will hardly open their eyes when I take them out of their tanks/tubs or bring the tubs out of the rack with them in them

So yes-this seems to be a common occurrence with the red eyed Leopard Geckos

Good Luck with your little one

Sandy

Thank you! I thought that I was crazy. I don't have any direct lighting on Nenet (the light-sensitive one) and Vishnu (her buddy), the only light sources in my room are my beardie Loki's cage, which is seperated by 4-5 ft from the gecko tank, and an east-facing window on the wall their tank is on (they aren't right in front of the window). I'll post pictures of the two soon (need to find my camera). Once again, thank you!

~Cherie