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!

Update on Gumby

Gumby is my poor little Leopard Gecko with severe MBD. His bones were RUBBER when we first rescued him. It was tragic-- and 100% preventable!

Gumby just shed two days ago and did it all on his own! That's fantastic news for him. He was able to pull off all the shed off his toes too except one toe I helped him with. His bones are getting really strong too and he's eating much better.

Pictures don't seem to really show how distorted Gumby's body is now. He has several spinal lumps on his back and he walks on his elbows. His wrists and ankles are folded flat against his arms. He's very pathetic looking. He does get around though and he's fast when he wants to get away from me! Gumby will just always be a very special Leo.

Reptile Roll Call for January 5, 2017

Here's most of my reptile zoo (minus the 3 ball pythons who didn't want to leave their hides to have their pictures taken; I have Lucy, Sunny, & Bones). Also, Gumby, the MBD leopard gecko didn't want to come out either.

First the Torts. I only have FOUR! That amazes me. 

Georgie, my female Leopard tortoise 

Hermy, my hibernating Desert tortoise

Leo, the happy little Russian tort

Otis, our house tort

And now my beardies-- 

Baby Sawyer, with a little pudgy food belly

Dash, my old man who is shedding

Flame, who is also shedding 

Gen, my big girl who is sorta bruminating

Max, my big boy who is 6 years old

Neville, the latest addition 

Noel, who is looking sickly this morning

Smaug, my big boy who is looking for a home as the ONLY beardie

Tiger, who has been wheezing again :( 

Ziggy, who has pretty much trashed his tank in the last few days 

 And last, but not least, Lady Squinty Dink the Dainty Skink of bluTonguesville!

Couldn't get the lighting right for a good pic 

We also have two dogs (Belle & Teddy) and a hedgehog (Pixie).

Gumby & Pokey, rescues 165 & 166

In the last two weeks, I've helped rescue two different leopard geckos from two different owners that both have *severe* MBD (Metabolic Bone Disease). These guys' bones are rubber. It is tragic.

Gumby's owner was selling him even though he knew that the Leo had MBD. The owner just shrugged it off. The poor Leo walks on his elbows! and the owner said it was fine. Ugh.

He's got stuck shed on several of his toes that we've been working on removing. Several other toes have already fallen off from stuck shed. 

Gumby can be really fast at running-- even when he's using his elbows and army crawling.

Pokey's owner is a Leo breeder who blamed his poor arms on an injury caused by other leopard geckos in his clutch. Um, no. The other Leos may have hurt him but he was easily hurt because his bones are like mostly cooked spaghetti!

This poor guy walks on his elbows too. Both of their wrists are so bent and fragile that they can't even walk on them.

These two guys look like twins. :( But they came from two different people in two different cities. Two different people who should have known better and didn't fix it. Instead they both tried to pawn off their "healthy" geckos on unsuspecting owners. 

Both these boys (I don't actually know if they are boys yet) are in separate tanks. They are both getting calcium syrup and gut loaded & coated insects. They are both headed to the vet tomorrow or Thursday for a checkup.