• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

"Failure to Thrive Syndrome" in Leopard Geckos

Golden Gate Geckos

Golden Gate Geckos

Mean Old Gecko Lady
Joined
Jan 21, 2003
Messages
3,185
Reaction score
10
Points
0
Age
72
Location
Mariposa, CA
I had a conversation on the phone this morning from someone who has several juvie albinos (his own stock) that are all doing very well except for one. This little 4-week old was eating very well on small crickets and little mealies until about two weeks ago, then just stopped eating. It is housed by itself and the environment is correct. I have no idea what the problem could be.

A few months ago, I sold an adult Patternless pair of breeders (proven) and a laying blizzard to a very good customer. The male had a bacterial infection last summer, and recovered nicely after 2 weeks of Baytril... his last fecal culture was normal. He was doing very well in his new environment, eating well and breeding with both females. Then he stopped eating, and began to lose weight, and nothing is showing on any lab tests. He has been removed from the females for quite awhile, and still is not thriving.

I know that often these kinds of 'unknown' problems get lumped into the "Failure to Thrive Syndrome", and never get resolved. There are many breeders and experts that actually claim to have never even had a sick animal (which I find very hard to believe), and I can understand how by admitting that they have had failures might be taken as a threat to their business, or ability to properly care for these particular geckos.

But, I honestly feel that by openly discussing these kinds of things we can learn so much from each other about our leos and these mysterious problems that elude us. I have always appreciated the breeders on this forum who have been able to do this. Any thoughts on the two cases I mentioned and/or "Failure to Thrive Syndrome"?
 
I have had a few that just plain refused to eat and ended up dying. Because of this, I've had to "harden" myself a bit. I wish we could figure this out. It is stressful to do everything "right" (and some things wrong out of sheer desperation) just to lose a critter. So, yes please...let's talk about it.

Does anyone have any suggestions, input, ideas, anything??
 
I have seen this also, one thing that has worked for me about 85% of the time is to give the gecko pedlyte for two weeks once a day.
Why this is going sorry no clue here.
 
just somewhat of a small trend...

I have seen this a couple times in two rescued geckos as well as three other friends geckos. In all occassions I placed the geckos enclosure near or infront of a window. I live in CA so temps are typically not an issue. My therory is the gecko needed some natural sun light. In all occassions the geckos began eating and had increased activity in a week or so. No other treatments were done.

So I wonder would or could a UVB help if a gecko if it starts going off food or if a decline is noticed? Should UVB be used as a supplement a few hours a day?

Good topic. I'm looking forward to reading what others have to say.

Joyce Brune:)
 
I don't really have anything educational or scientific to add to this discussion, but I do have a girl who doesn't seem to eat. She refuses meal and wax worms, pinkies, and sometimes crickets. I'm at a loss. I have had her treated for pinworms, which she is recovered from, but she seems more interested in playing and being handled more then eating.

I think she's just being a girl, and watching her weight, she manages to stay at a steady 44 grams, which is a bit dissapointing because I know if she ate, and ate alot, she would be a beast, her tail is fat, but can be fatter, and i think she used to have fat bubbles, oh well.

Ya, I'm done talking. lol

Michael
 
Joyce, I do believe that uvb light is filtered out be normal window glass. Therefore puting your animals in front of a window for uvb lighting would not work. If it is not someone please correct me. I do belive that 95% of uvb is blocked out though.
 
was wondering...

I have never used any form of artifical light on my LG's and have only used natural sunlight at times when they went off food. I now have a baby bearded dragon and the UVB seems to be the light of choice. I was wondering since the beardies are such sun lovers maybe this bulb better represents the suns spectrum? Not 100% sure but the beardie is growing like a weed.
Joyce Brune
 
I know that often these kinds of 'unknown' problems get lumped into the "Failure to Thrive Syndrome", and never get resolved. There are many breeders and experts that actually claim to have never even had a sick animal (which I find very hard to believe), and I can understand how by admitting that they have had failures might be taken as a threat to their business, or ability to properly care for these particular geckos.
Click to expand...

Well, I am willing to go on record here stating that we do not get sick leopard geckos. We have only lost babies from two circumstances over the years:

(1) About one or two a year will seem to be unable to shed their skin after hatching, and never seem to pull out of it.

And,
(2) Every once in a while a baby will catch the "umbilicus" on something in the egg incubating container, sometimes causing damage to them. Depending on the severity of the damage, some may die from this, but not all of them.

We have NEVER had any babies just refuse to eat, or die from anything else. We do lose some adults from old age, damage inflicted from fighting with other cage mates, or sometimes egg binding in the females. But even that is a rarity.

Our leopards are keep in large rubbermaid containers stacked in a shelf, and they do not get any sunlight in any shape or form. Matter of fact, there are NO windows in my reptile building at all. Lighting is provided via gro-light or full spectum fluorescent lighting, but since these are suspended from the ceiling, it is doubtful that they have any effect, healthwise, on the lizards.

One thing to note is that our colony has been closed to the outside world since around 1997 or so, when we added a few of the patternless leopards. They were placed in quarantine for about a year. 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.

Connie takes care of her babies, exclusively, leaving me with the corn snakes. She has decided to breed for personality, and has produced such dog tame, personable, leopard geckos that it is comical. She can actually pick out the lineage based on how they act. And will plan future breeding based on wanting to see how the babies will act from particular "characters" she has as favorites.

Now I have seen some really gorgeous leopard geckos other breeders are working with, and sometimes wish she had done more selective breeding towards appearance. But since she takes care of them, and gets a lot of enjoyment out of them, I let her have full rein on what she wants to do.
 
failure to thrive in leos

I have read that someone who had very similiar circumstances with her leopard geckos was able to trace the problem to her feeder insects. (Or rather who she got them from). It ws a very good point. Once she changed companies she didnt have a problem anymore. I am not going to name names of who the insect company was etc. Because this was her observation and I am not going to say damaging things about a company I personally know nothing about. BUT it is feasible for an insect company to have such filthy conditions that the animals being provided with the prey insects could become very ill from eating them. She made some very good points. AS well as the reptile keepers maintaining clean insect storage units!! Keeping stagnant , filthy cricket bins is only going to breed bacteria/fungi that can then be passed to your reptile.
MY .02
Shannon Richards LVT
 
feeders

I couldn't agree more about the feeders... especially since I lost 17 of 24 of my sick breeders over a period of about 6 months several years ago to mycotoxic poisoning from crickets that fed on moldy food. As soon as I switched cricket suppliers, I had no new cases and was able to save several sick geckos. (I know Webslave remembers this...) I also some had random bacterial infections last year which were also a result of crickets (I had the bugs tested at IDEX labs straight out of the box.) Again, as soon a I switched suppliers, I have had no problems.

The only reason I found this information out was because it was worth it to me to have necropsies (one performed by Dr. Frederic L. Frye, himself!) and in-depth lab tests done to get to the bottom of these problems when all other conventional tests showed nothing. But, these lab tests are expensive for most of us, so I can see why some people have 'unexplained' deaths and sicknesses.

Well, I am willing to go on record here stating that we do not get sick leopard geckos.
Click to expand...
Rich, if you and Connie are among the few leo keepers that has never had a sick animal, then I believe you, and retract the "I find it hard to believe" comment. LOL! Not letting in other animals and closing them to the world may be the reason... but I'm curious to know what you feed your geckos and where you get them?
 
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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
Hmmm.....interesting

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.
 
hmmm...

full spectrum lighting--it normalizes their brain chemistry.
Click to expand...
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.
 
Back
Top