Hello, I want to start off by saying thank you for letting me be a part of the reptile community. I have already seen quite a few interesting threads on various topics I found very cool and hope to try someday. But I have a problem. I am a 4 day old, first time reptile owner. My girlfriend's friend moved out and had to find a new home for a nearly 2 year old leopard gecko that fell into my lap (she previously owned him for 1 year). Prior to getting him I absorbed as much information about these creatures as I could and it has now been 4 days and I feel like I'm seeing problems or I am just paranoid. He seems overall a healthy gecko with an average fat tail. I got him with 2 lamps, and a 20 gallon tank and various other items. This tank was filled with 2 hides, sand, water bowl and food bowl. I also got a container of mealworms in which he eats. At this point I already knew sand was a big no no for his habitat and got some tips on an alternate substrate from a store clerk at my local pet store. He recommended some sort of "reptile wood mulch". I put the gecko (Snapps is his name) in a separate container, dumped the sand, cleaned the tank and applied the mulch after drying it out in the sun. I dried this mulch out because I knew that Leos don't do well under humid conditions. It hasn't even been 24 hours when I officially decide that mulch is a bad idea too, given even more research I did. Yesterday, I took Snapps out for a 2nd time and placed him in a separate container, I dumped the mulch, cleaned the tank thoroughly with a lite amount of soap. I applied a grip liner and put paper towels on top as the new substrate (temporary) and a new heating pad under the tank on his warm hide. Note that he never had a heat pad in the first place. So I left him be to see how he would do with the new setup. Here is the problem. It has been 3 days and he has only eaten 1 other cricket last Friday. That was the day I dumped the sand and applied the mulch. The first day I got him he ate 5 mealworms. This morning he regurgitated those 5 mealworms but saw no cricket carcass. He has also been spending all of his time sleeping in his warm hide during the day and much of the night and he has also became unresponsive. He also did not come out of his hide the day I had mulch, too. Since I got him, I couldn't get the warm side's temperature higher than 75 degrees. Humidity stayed at a constant 45% to 50%. Since I applied the grip liner, paper towels and heating pad all on the same day I was able to get the temperature to 85 and 90 degrees but the humidity is at a constant 30%. He has been in his hot hide all day today and he vaguely explored his new surroundings, not even discovering his water bowl yet. After even more research I have discovered several things could be wrong here. Things such as stress from handling him too many times prior to all the tank maintenance I did. Cool temps wont allow him to digest properly. Or possible parasites or respiratory infection promoted by the humid climate he had. Or sand impaction and mulch problems! But when I saw the regurgitated mealworms and his current state right now I am getting really concerned. Yet, nothing I found really pinpointed MY issue. Research states I should be concerned if he hasn't eaten in a week, but it has only been 3 days. He will not move from his hot hide, he is lethargic, and he is sleeping a lot. Their are too many various things that could be wrong. So I found myself here, wanting to chat with live people who have hopefully experienced these kind of issues before and hopefully can give me a status check and a possible resolution to assure his health and happiness. Any advice is greatly appreciated and will be happy to rephrase this long message if details become unclear. Thank you, Edit: I will have pictures up soon of the gecko and the enclosure soon 1. What substrate are you using? was sand 3 days ago, then mulch, been paper towels and grip liner for the past 24 hours2. What sized enclosure do you have your leo in? 20 gallon3. What are your warm side temperatures? 88 to 92 degrees 4. How are the temperatures measured? a gauge thermometer 5. What are you using as your heat source? heat pad 6. Do you have any method of regulating the temperatures? no, plug and unplug 7. How many hides do you have for your leo? What are they? 3 hides, one hot hide (used very frequently), one cool hide, one other hide serving no purpose 8. What food have you offered? mostly mealworms and only tried crickets 9. How often do you offer food? once every night, have not seen him drink water yet. 10. Are you supplementing the food? If so, with what and how often? I have supplements but the leo has not consumed any because eating problem occurred. Exo Terra multi vitamin. 11. How old is your leo? between 1 to 2 years of age 12. How long have you had your leo? like 4 days 13. Give a little detail about the behaviour of the Leo also. sleeping a whole lot in the past 48 hours and the past 24 hours on hot side where heating pad located. Refuses to eat. regurgitated his first meal from 4 days ago early this morning. Has been handled a lot in the past few days due to tank maintenance. seems lethargic and unresponsive.
Welcome to the boards..... sorry to see nobody has responded to you yet. I know that it is hard to know what is wrong. I think it is just the stress of all of the changing of the substrate in the handling of him.You made the right choice on getting rid of the sand and the lights leopard geckos don't need the lights. I would give it at least another week -two weeks before you should really start to worry about the geck. Just make sure the temperatures are up around 85 to 90 degrees on the warm side,& get rid of the third hide he doesn't use.Just offer new food every couple days until he starts eating again & fresh water every day , hydration is most important. You can also cover half of his tank with a towel to make him feel more secure.
Thank you for the reply Naykid. As a matter in fact the day I typed that message he actually did manage to eat. I agree that stress may have been the factor. He has been doing so well in his new home since I got him and I am now beginning to undergo my first shed experience with him. So we will see how that goes too! So with that said you all may here from me again soon. Thanks.
I'm sorry that this issue has brought you here, but welcome to the boards =) To start off - is the 'gauge' thermometer you are using one of those plastic, 'stick-on' thermometers? If so, there is a possibility that it is giving false readings. These things are sometimes on-target, but often wildly unreliable. Just to be safe, I'd recommend picking up a digital thermometer w/ probe or tempgun to make sure accurate temperature readings are being made. You can pick up the prior for about $10 or less at many general stores. Otherwise - I agree with Naykid. We'll keep an eye on his behavior and keep us posted, but at this point I'd just let him settle in for some time. When he has a bowel movement, you might consider dropping it off to a vet. If you are from the US, you can use this website as a resource to find good herp vets near you (by state): http://herpvetconnection.com You can typically drop the poo sample off in a plastic baggie that is labeled with your contact info, the pet species and name. Most clinics will run a fecal for you pretty cheap without an appointment. I'd call the office beforehand to clear up any details, but they usually run about $15 for me. You'll want to drop this off while it is fresh as possible, and if you can't, put it in a plastic baggie with a couple of drops of water and keep it in the fridge until you can drop it off at the vet's office. The extreme lethargy concerns more for potential internal parasites, so it might be worth having a fecal ran for peace of mind. Otherwise, much of this could be stress related as your husbandry seems to be pretty solid.
