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HELP!! Adopted EMACIATED Leopard Gecko

J

JumpinBean

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Hi. I need help with a 1 yr. old, male, EXTREMELY EMACIATED leopard gecko my daughter & I just adopted a couple of days ago. We stopped at a pet store (not a large chain) to look at a bigger tank for our beardie. We saw a leopard gecko that is basically a spotted walking skeleton...skin on tiny protruding bones...& asked what is wrong with the poor little thing. Pet shop owner said someone brought it in & it hadn't been fed for 1.5 months by the kid that owned it & said we could have it as a free adoptee because he knew we would take good care of it. I know NOTHING about geckos & desperately need lots of FAST help as to how to fatten this poor creature up. We offer small gut loaded crickets & wax worms with calcium powder on them. He has a shallow bowl of water, but seems to sleep 90% of the time in his hide...all huddled up next to the warmer we have stuck to the outside of the tank. I don't know how often geckos eat. The 1st night he ate several worms...but nothing to very little the next day or so. (Our beardie eats like a hog a couple times per day...so the lack of daily eating scared me!) When he poops, he does this hillarious handstand move with his tail & back legs up in the air...is that normal?! The poops are the entire worms still intact...is he getting any nutrition from them? I tried putting a bit of beef baby food in the tank so he could get some protein without having to do much in the sense of digestion, but he won't touch it. (Yes, I know they don't eat cows in the wild..LOL) Should I be offering greens & tiny bits of fruit like we feed our beardie? Any advice you can give me would be GREATLY appreciated. He is a mainly white morph so we named him ghost...but are afraid his conditon is going to make his name take on a whole new meaning. Would a vet be able to do anything for him other that give me a large bill?

Sorry this is sooo long, but I wanted to give as much info. as possible to make it easier for you to know what to suggest.

:eek:) Thanks so much in advance!
 
I'm not a "Leo person", lol.....so I'm by far no expert. I can offer you this, it is a recipe for a slurry that has saved many a Leopard Gecko life. Do this ASAP, as well as making absolutely certain you have it warm enough and the all of his environment correctly set up.

G3 Slurry: Slurry to help stimulating the feeding response of Non-eating Geckos
By: Marcia McGuiness www.goldengategeckos.com

In a blender, combine:
1 small can Hill's A/D pet food (available at most vets)
1/4-1/3 cup Ensure (not chocolate)
1 jar baby food squash
1/4-1/3 cup Pedialite
2 crushed tablets or contents of 2 capsules Milk Thistle (herbal supplement, liver purifier, found at most drug stores.)
1/2 tsp. each calcium powder and herp vitamin powder
1 large handful of mealworms, added slowly while mixture is blending
Puree all ingredients until completely smooth, and pour into ice cube tray(s) and freeze. Store cubes in zip-lock bag in the freezer until ready to use, then thaw out 1 cube at a time and store in fridge for 2-3 days. I use the empty baby food jar for this purpose, washing it thoroughly after each batch.

*Lately, I have been adding about 1 Tblsp. T-Rex Gargoyle MRP to each new thawed out cube.

Using this mixture, draw a full dropper (1 ml. eye dropper type) and place a drop on the gecko's nose. It will start to lick it off, and as it does, slowly squeeze out a little at a time. Most geckos love this food, and will lap it up. Patience is the key here.

**NOTE: Do NOT tell anyone in your household you put mealworms in the blender!
 
:ack2: I don't have a blender. I will go borrow my Mom's! My lips are sealed about the concoction (gecko gimlet?!) I will be blending. Thanks for the recipe!! :ack2:

If anyone can answer some of my other questions, that would be very helpful!
 
If you don't have an eyedropper, you can use a teaspoon to smear the food on the gecko's nose too. That's what I've been doing for years with great success.

I would keep everything you use for the leopard gecko completely separate from anything you use with your bearded dragon. The gecko might be sick with disease or parasites. Hopefully he's not, but even once-healthy geckos can succumb to parasites when they're so sick. Heaven forbid your beardie gets sick because of your good deed!
 
leopard geckos need belly heat 84-94 degrees using an UTH -under the tank heater- measured with a digital thermometer set on the surface of the tank bottom just over the center of the uth.
their diet consists of live food,specifically gutloaded crickets and mealworms that have been dusted with a calcium powder. also a small dish of calcium powder should be available at all times for them to lick up as wanted.
the sluury really is a great thing in serious cases like what you are dealing with ...of course the leo isn't always willing at first....
I used a baby spoon to dab a small spot of slurry onto my leos nose when i used it cuz she hated the eyedropper. the spoon worked for us.... you just have to get creative sometimes with these guys.
they also need a "hide" that has moist "bed-a-beast" or sphagnum moss or even damp paper toweling in the bottom. Do not put them on a sand substrat as this is very dangerous if ingested. I use paper towels on the tank bottom cuz it's easy clean up and inexpensive.
best of luck to you and your little leo. Hope this helps! keep us posted on his progress
 
I wasn't able to get the hill's pet food yesterday, but will get some this A.M. I also about fainted when I saw the price of the ensure! Of course I couldn't buy just 1 little bottle...they come in a pkg of 6! (That stuff is NASTY, so I know I'd never use the rest.) I got a little can of milk stuff people use to feed abandoned kittens. The ingredients seemed very comparable. I mixed the ingredients (minus the pet food) & tried to feed our skinny little leo. We must have a very jealous beardie, because he turned BLACK & completely FREAKED out!!! Ooooh that testosterone is troublesome! LOL! ~Anyway, the leo. was not impressed with the slurry being dropped & smeared on his nose. We were amazed at how much fight & struggle he put forth to get away from being held & gooped up! We were afraid to try to open his mouth...not sure how & didn't want to hurt him. He got several licks of the slurry & we called it good for the night. He was being very stubborn about licking what we had put on. We will try again after I run to a vet to get the pet food. After a while, he was doing this weird gagging thing...mouth waaay open & stuck his tongue out...several times. What was that all about?!

The leo. has several choices of where to hang out. He has a 1/2 round log looking hide & a plastic fish bowl turned on the side with green mossy stuff from the pet store. He wanted nothing to do with the mossy hidey place! He also has a triange shaped "ladder" that is similar to a hammock that he climbed up on for a while.

Are leo.'s suppose to bask in the light being that they are nocturnal?! I thought that seemed kind of odd, but I see they need uva & uvb rays.

I will keep you updated on our ongoing saga. Thanks for all of the great suggestions everyone!! Keep 'em coming!

PS If he has parasites...what does it look like? When he ate the worms & then did his "business", the worms were still completely whole & looked undigested. He won't touch the worms or crickets we offer now.
 
Update~ I got the leo. to lick a bit of the hill's a/d food off my finger & gave him some reptaid-like liquid with a dropper. He promptly gagged & threw it up. Will try again later. Poor baby!!
 
Feed him a varied, gutloaded diet...I'd get some crickets, mealworms, silkworms and butterworms. The silks and butters are especially good.

Use an under tank heating mat for him...10 gal aquiarium r similarly sized Rubbermaid works...try to get him a humid hide, too.
 
Our leo. is in a 20 gal. tank. Will pick up an under tank warmer tomorrow. (PetSmart is going to charge me rent for being in there so much!! LOL!) He has a moist hide with mossy stuff in it, but he wants NOTHING to do with it. It is the log hide only & if I take that out, he will just lay on the substrate. It stays warmer in the log hide, so I just let him have it. However he is most comfy. Would it be better if I lay a little towel in the hide for him to snuggle in? He seems to like burrowing in the folds of our t-shirt when we hold him or in my daughter's long hair. I am assuming it is for warmth. He doesn't seem like the cuddly type like our beardie.

He can't/won't eat any worms or insects. I think his digestive system is too shut down. Vet suggested to try to rehydrate him with Reptiade. Couldn't find that brand, but got something similar. He threw it up with the soft food he licked off my finger. I put a few drops in his water bowl, but have never seen him drink from it. My daughter got him to take a couple licks of the Hill's A/D food early this evening. I will have her try another couple licks before she goes to bed. I guess a little in his belly is better than nothing. I weighed him on our digital postal scale & he was only 0.8 ounce!!! How much does a healthy leo. weigh!?
 
Wow, I wish you luck with this guy, poor thing :( I just wanted to add, make sure the humid hide is on the warm side over the UTH.
 
JumpinBean said:
Our leo. is in a 20 gal. tank. Will pick up an under tank warmer tomorrow. (PetSmart is going to charge me rent for being in there so much!! LOL!) He has a moist hide with mossy stuff in it, but he wants NOTHING to do with it. It is the log hide only & if I take that out, he will just lay on the substrate. It stays warmer in the log hide, so I just let him have it. However he is most comfy. Would it be better if I lay a little towel in the hide for him to snuggle in? He seems to like burrowing in the folds of our t-shirt when we hold him or in my daughter's long hair. I am assuming it is for warmth. He doesn't seem like the cuddly type like our beardie.

He can't/won't eat any worms or insects. I think his digestive system is too shut down. Vet suggested to try to rehydrate him with Reptiade. Couldn't find that brand, but got something similar. He threw it up with the soft food he licked off my finger. I put a few drops in his water bowl, but have never seen him drink from it. My daughter got him to take a couple licks of the Hill's A/D food early this evening. I will have her try another couple licks before she goes to bed. I guess a little in his belly is better than nothing. I weighed him on our digital postal scale & he was only 0.8 ounce!!! How much does a healthy leo. weigh!?
Click to expand...

Jesus, I thought you said .08 grams for a sec 'cause I'm really stoned & my scale is in grams.

0.8 ounces theoretically COULD be the weight of a healthy gecko of the right age; but based on the fact that your gecko is emaciated, it is clearly much older than where that weight is appropriate.
 
Yes, I was told our little man is about a year old.

He licked up some vanilla yogurt & fruit medley desert baby food yesterday...but not very much. We gave him a warm bath in the bathroom sink with vitamins in the water...hoping he would absorb some of it in through his skin. He licked up a few drops of water while he was "swimming". Whenever I go by his tank, he gives me the "Oh crap...not YOU again!" look. He must know I am there to try to get him to eat something. Darn little guy sure does have an attitude for being such a skinny walking stick! Ha ha.
 
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