Hello,
I am new to this forum and also a newby to reptiles.
A little history... My son is 9yrs old and his dad bought him a crested gecko (I think - it climbed walls and jumped)...
He was holding it in his hands and it jumped off and I walked in and stepped on it.... I felt horrid and cried for 2 days...
So my mom decided to buy a replacement, and she bought my son a Leopard Gecko, about 5weeks old in March sometime.
So Alex, our beautiful Leopard Gecko, has seriously slowed down his eating pattern since June and has lost so much weight.
He's not very active and isn't eating all that much.
He is shedding at least once a month and I've been helping him shed as I have just learnt that his habitat is not humid enough...
He let's me hold him and he snuggles into my hand and cuffs to keep warm.
He's very docile and sleeps a lot.
He does pass stools, whereby I see the calcium in it and they're quite large stools and solid.
His tail is so slim it looks stick like
I decided to change his food from mealworms to crickets (pin head size and 1 size up - they don't jump)
He started to go after them, but looses interest rather quickly, so I don't know if he's just not hungry or if he has colon infection or if he's hibernating?
Ok, so as of today his habitat is something like this:
A plastic rectangular habitat.
water dish (change water daily, sometimes twice daily if dirty)
log type hiding spot
heat pad
Calcium for reptiles (white powder in hand written container - purchased 3 months ago)
The cage originally had some sort of fine sand, which i removed after reading that by ingesting it, it could lead to problems.... and that's when I started seeing the weight loss - pretty much around the end of autumn to beginning of winter)
now using a Leopard gecko friendly sand with added calcium.
moist sand stuff for geckos (that is to help with shedding - got that 3weeks ago)
night vision heat lamp (purchased today)
Calcium with vit D (purchased today)
Multivitiman (purchased today)
I managed to get some mealworms as well, dusted them in the 1:1 of calcium & vit D + the multi vitamin powder.
Placed them in the tank and Alex didn't even bat an eyelid
I'm hoping with the night heat lamp (only 15w as tank is SO SMALL), I'm hoping that the temp will increase enough to promote some eating.
I'm going to be more devastated if Alex dies on me than my son, as I've grown quite attached to him over the past couple months.
I've also contacted Free Me for advice and they suggested Dr Mark Verseput (not sure of spelling) at the Craighall Veterinary Hospital. Unfortunately for me, he's away for 3 weeks on leave... Is there anyone else I could contact and go see in the northern suburbs. I don't mind driving to Bedfordview even, if that is what it takes to find out what's wrong with Alex and how I can make him better.
I've tried all avenues that I can think of.... You guys are my only hope until the Doc is back in 3 weeks time.
Hoping for some advice from anyone out there.
Thanks!