Strange Leo Story

I have had the weirdest day,...

Last night my friend who is the local herp supplier and my fiance confiscated a pair of leusitic leos from a guy who owes my friend/the supplier a lot of money for animals. The geckos were in horendous condition. Terribly thin looking, I can see the hips and all the bones through the skin, their tails are unbelieveably thin, it just brings tears to my eyes. So I put them in my warm reptile room with a shallow bowl of water and vitamin dusted crickets and a few meal worms, I said a little prayer and went to bed.

This morning I wake up go to my classes and all that, I come home around 3ish, and sit at my computer which is five feet from the front door. Around 4 my fiance comes home and we headed over to my mothers for an hour, we then return to our apartment. Nothing is amiss or strange looking. One of our tenants stopped by and paid his rent, we closed the door grabbed our coats from the bedroom and were about to head out, that's when my fiance found a little juvenile normal colored gecko on our front door floor mat. He was thin and barely breathing. His tail is a little lumpy and he's missing a toe. He wasn't moving at all. I took him placed him in a tupperware shoe box with a piece of cardboard down and a very shallow dish of water.

She/He's moving a little bit, walking just enough to get to the water and back under the cardboard, doesn't show much interest in eating (the other two have aten today thank god) I'm just so saddened by all these little guys condition, I'm hoping that with a little TLC I can bring everyone around back to healthy fattness...

I feel like a mini-orphanage for mistreated and unloved geckos...

I just wish I knew where the last one came from...

Here's a pic of one of the two we rescued

and here is our mysterious doormat gecko, I've named her Anne for now, (like orphan Anne)

Ouch....

Keep us updated on how it turns out. Good luck.

Awwwww, I just read this post. How are the geckos doing? I feel like I run an orphanage for geckos too. Currently, I have 5 rescue leopards in my home. I have had good luck in the past using a bit of pedialyte to get them rehydrated. Mixing it with a bit of chicken or turkey babyfood, and feeding through a syringe can help a gecko that is not eating. I have pulled a couple through that were that skinny but I have lost a few that were that bad too. Good Luck with these guys.

Some good news, the two patternless ones have been eating, at least trying to, they're having troubles catching the whole cricket, they tend to jsut get a leg or two and then the cricket limps off and dies, however my normal phase one isn't eating at all, I am very concerned and don't want to have to force feed because of all the stress that's involved (for the gecko and me, I tend to be a wuss and rather scared with forceing food)

keep your fingers crossed you guys, and say a few prayers, I really want these guys to live, but it's looking a little grim

I would suggest that you try wax worms to feed them. Most leopard geckos find them hard to resist and they tend to put the bulk on a gecko real quick. The last batch of them we got came from wormman.com.

Make sure you give them a damp area (like in a tupperware container with a hole cut in the top) so they can shed their skins more easily. One sure sign of people not doing this will be dried skin on the toes. You'll find that most of them will spend the majority of their time in the damp box.

Good luck!

So one of the leusistic geckos died, I didn't really expect this as they were both very alert and eating crickets. I'm really bummed about it, not just it dieing but also all the suffering it had to go through. However I did get the normal colored to eat a mealworm, I pretty much shoved it down her throat. She didn't like the idea of eating it and made faces all night at me, but at least she has that little extra bit of food in her. I have been feeding them babyfood every other night ever since I got them. They make the cutest faces when they are all messy with babyfood.

I have high hopes for the two that remain, but still I am worried.

I am still looking for sugguestions, I am soaking them in pedialyte by putting it in their little rubbermaid tub hids that they love to sit in.

thanks

In the past when I have had an underweight juvenile dragon, I would take a 3 ml syringe, put about a ml of pedialyte along with two mls of organic baby food. I would then shake the syringe to mix the two, and then feed. I foudn my dragons didn't like the taste of pedialyte and this seemed to be a good way to get them to willingly take it.

My geckos don't seem to like the babyfood I am feeding them, I mean how often do you hear of a herd of wild geckos taking down a cow, or a turkey? It's too bad they don't have cricket flavored baby food....

I've been mixing mine also with pedialyte, it seems to help, because the babyfood tends to get all gummy in their mouths