Ladybug, Rescue 193

I took in another leopard gecko who was left behind by a young adult owner. She had shed stuck on her toes and face. Her water dish was black. She's obviously not used to being held, but she's been well fed.

Geckoes, rescues 171 & 172

I'm super lame. I can't even think of names for these two. But I want to count them and make a blog record of them. :)

The female hasn't been doing that great. She did shed, but it ripped off all the scabs off her feet and made them bleed again. Plus, she stopped eating on her own. She has a very severe case of Enigma syndrome which is a neurological disorder that gives her a head tilt, makes her alligator death roll when she's stressed, and prevents her from tracking her food well.

The male is doing great. He needed some help shedding last week, but is great now. Very active and loves to eat. 

These guys were a mated pair that attacked each other one day. They were covered with bite marks and blood when their owner dumped them off at the pet store where my rescue sister works.

Geckos Update

The male gecko is shedding today! Did you know that leopard geckos eat their shed skin? It's actually a good thing for them to do. Crazy, huh?

Here he is in his moist hide.  Yes, it's a sour cream container with damp sphagnum moss in it.

The female is getting ready to shed too. 

Both are eating well and fairly active. The female was spinning in her tank this morning-- a sign of her Enigma syndrome. It's not contagious but it is aggravated by stress. My guess is that her shedding skin is irritating some of her wounds. I've had to stop soaking her because it pulled the scabs off her feet and then she'd bleed continually. 

Overalll, they are both doing great. They are in the sunshine in my room on "Gccko Row."

Honestly, I've never been a big fan of leopard geckos. I prefer the personalities of beardies more than geckos. I plan to keep these three for now and let them all get healthy. Plus, I need to come up with a name for the male & female. I will one day-- when I'm inspired. Or when I stop long enough to think about it. ;) 

Switching It Up or "I Don't Even Know What to Do Next!"

I've had Delta & Raptor for almost a month now. They are force fed almost daily and offered greens and insects too. I've preemptively dewormed them and given them extra supplements.

It hasn't made a bit of difference.

Raptor is still 5 grams. This little guy devours greens too! And poops daily!

Delta is 11 grams. She's being a pill and not eating.

I've consulted with my vet on them and tried just about everything. I don't know what else to do to get them to start growing!

Today, I decided to move my 3 gecko tanks together into my bedroom so the geckos can have more natural lighting. There are pieces of paper between the 3 tanks so they can't see each other, by the way.

I figured I might as well move the babies too and see if that helped. I put them on the top shelf that gets the most morning sunshine. Of course, not today since it's supposed to rain and snow here all week. But my bedroom is south facing and gets a lot more light than the north facing craft room they were in.

I upgraded both tanks to make them less of a "sick" tank. I got rid of the towels on the bottom for substrate and put in paper towels. Then I gave them both a branch to climb on (not pictured). For now, they have to share a UVB light until I get another one in the mail. I also put a piece of paper between the ends of their tanks so they can't see each other either.

I don't know what else to try or add to help them so I'll just keep plugging along with this set up and hope they start improving.

Yes, I now have 8 tanks in my room. Yes, my husband is very patient! ;) And let's just pretend my bed is made. :D

Update on the Leopard Geckos

Today I decided to only clean the leopard geckos from yesterday once so I could minimize their stress. I started today with the female since she takes more time.

Before I picked her up and started cleaning her wounds, her head had no tilt to it at all. She looked totally normal. SUCH a great sign!

Her normal behavior did NOT last long.

She arched her head back and thrashed around. I know it hurts her, but it must be done. Poor thing. In the bath, she pretended to an alligator and did the "Alligator Death Roll."

I got her wounds cleaned and recoated with antibiotic cream. Then I gave her pain meds and attempted to feed her Critical Care.

Nope. She wasn't having that.

I figured I'd messed with her enough so I put her back in her tank. Her two back feet are so raw that they bled the whole time I had her out.

The male was much, much easier. He's less feisty and has fewer problems. He's also bigger and healthier than the female (no surprise with that).

He got a quick coat of antibiotic cream and his tail soaked in Betadyne solution. I pulled off a few extra pieces of stuck shed too. He looks like he could use a good shed overall to help his skin look better.

You can see that he has NO toes on his back feet. They are rather misshapen and lumpy. In fact, he has only nubs on his front feet too. I think he has only one or two toenails on any of his feet. This fact alone tells me they had negligent care before. You can't leave stuck shed on gecko toes because it cuts off the circulation and kills the toes.

I noticed this morning that my MBD gecko, Gumby, had shed last night, but didn't quite get the shed off his arms. So once I cleaned my hands good from taking care of these two, I pulled Gumby out and soaked off the shed on his toes. One of his toenails popped right off with the shed too.


After we got off his shed, Gumby was happy to take a nice picture for me.

He's such a handsome boy even if he walks on his elbows, has a lump in his back, and has twisted legs. He's a nice boy. ;)

P.S. I'm still thinking of names for the other two. After 180+ rescues, names are hard to come up with sometimes!

Spot, rescue number 113

This little leopard gecko has been in a tall cage and had no heat or clean water for several days before I got him. 

He was actually shaking when I got him and put him in my warm car. He's about to be switched into a 20 gallon long take which is what they prefer. Then I'll sell the ExoTerra cage to replenish the rescue funds I unexpectedly used to take the gecko and iguana with the baby beardie. 

Spot might actually be a girl-- not sure yet. He's about 5 months old. 

He was not at all happy when I held him. Another feisty one. yippee. 

Sven, rescue number 50

50! Woo hoo! 

Sven is a baby leopard gecko with a broken leg. It will heal fine, but it will take some time. He came from a friend of mine who works at a pet store. I'll keep him and feed him until he's all better. He eats like a champ and is pretty healthy. His leg looks sad, but he still gets around fine.