Help! Something's wrong with my Lola

[mascutt]

Ok, I'm at a loss as to what to do. I've had Lola for just over a month. She was doing great... eating, gaining weight, shedding, wasting, etc. Before her last shed, this past weekend, she, of course, started eating less, but once she had shed, she did not return to eating normally. She ate two crickets and two mealworms, and that's all she's had now and that was five days ago. And since she was shedding, it was three days before that since she ate what I consider a normal meal.

The temp in the tank is normal, as is the humidity. Nothing has changed, I neither rearranged her tank, nor even the room her tank is in. She has hot and cool side, and a dry and moist hide. She is on paper towel substrate, and she is wasting (only every other day), so I don't think she could be impacted. She has also taken to trying to escape (like when I first got her). She spends most of the day standing up in the corner of her vivarium trying to climb out. She only did this before when I first brought her home.

She never eats mealworms out of her dish but always does if I pull them out and dangle them in front of her face. So I know she is not eating any mealworms when I am not around (plus I count the mealworms). Same with crickets. She used to go for them immediately when I put them in the tank, now she acts like she can't see them - and runs from them if they come too close to her. The only thing I have successfully gotten her to eat is a little applesauce with calcium from my finger, but I don't want that to be her diet obviously.

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to put all the info in here to save people from having to ask the obvious questions.

Any ideas? Could she be lonely? does she want a tankmate? Could she be gravid? I mean she was housed with other geckos at the pet store and is pretty close to full grown (but I can't see an egg in her belly.)

Please help if you have any thoughts.

Thanks
David

 

[Keith N]

You know the only times my will try to climb is when they are getting close to laying, thats how I know that they are close. You could take a pic of her belly and post ,it would help

 

[ILoveGeckos14]

She could be ovulating. I don't think leopard geckos get lonely for company,unless they want to breed haha but if she just went off food you would be looking for a little pink dot/dots about midway up her abdomen vs fully formed eggs. In my experiences with crawling on the cage corners, it's usually when they want to breed, are sick, or temps aren't right (like a fuse blew and the heat pads are off.) I see she looks healthy in your avatar pic so I would have to assume she is ovulating vs. other options. Hope that helps.

 

[mascutt]

She does not like it when I flip her on her back... she squeaks like a mouse, but I can see her abdomen when she is climbing in the corners of her tank. Next time she does it, I will try and get a pic to post here. But I have seen the online pics of gravid geckos where you can clearly see the eggs, but I can't really see anything like that on her. I also read that first timers will sometimes have only one egg, which might not show then because there is not a second egg taking up the space, making the eggs protrude outwards. Is this true?

Thanks for the replies
David

 

[GeckoNub]

I noticed when i first got my leos they ate like little piggies. They werent unhealthy thin when i got them but defo had room for improvement

They ate like this for a few weeks and packed on the weight and then stopped eating as much.

Now they mostly eat every other day but dont eat the same, sometimes they will eat maybe 5-6 crickets other times theyre happy with 1-2.

Sometimes they refuse food altogether cos they are too busy wanting to be picked up, which is really annoying. I love them to bits but when its dinner time you want them to eat not try to climb up the wall :main_laugh: (The other day i pushed Freya's plastic tub near the wall and she pulled herself up and was standing on the top with her arms up in the air trying to climb up the wallpaper :main_laugh

Im still new to leos but these are just my observations. Maybe your leo is comfortable with the fact they can have food all the time and feels less of a need to stock up like they would in the wild because they wouldnt be sure when they were getting their next meal.

Aslong as shes not losing a lot of weight and seems normal and is still pooping i wouldnt worry about it You can offer them as much food as you want but they will only eat when they want it. Yoshi went 2-3 weeks without food during the winter but hes fine and eating again now

 

[mascutt]

So you think when she is trying to climb in the corner that she wants to be picked up? I've wondered about that myself, but when I do pick her up, she then wants down. She has even jumped out of my hand all the way to the floor, and then tries to make a run for it. So I never know if she wants to be held, or if she just knows that being held is the quickest way out of the tank?

 

[Samantha]

I would put a lay box with her if u want babies and see what happens keep offering food like normal and wait and see what happens thts what I would do I know its hard to know ur gecko isn't eating but there really isn't something that can make them eat. Also I would mabe try a differen foo source such as dubi roaches my gecko takes them ovr crickets and way over mealies any day best of luck!

 

[got spots?]

My two bits is if you leo is new it won't wont to be picked up. It may be a parasite imo. Think about it if you were a wild animal would you want to go up to a animal 1000x bigger then you? I'd get a fecal exam.

 

[roger]

This is a common thing when leos sometimes go off food.How old is she?. Mine are constantly climbing the corners.I've had leos the past 25 yrs and they have always done this.She just might be at an age where her appetite has levelled off which mine have done.Can u post a pic of her.Is her tail still fat??

 

[Keith N]

I wouldn't be surpised if she was ovulationg. Mine climb the walls when they are ovulating or getting ready to lay

 

[mascutt]

To answer the last couple posts. Mine is not that new, I've had her for over a month. I didn't hold her much for the first week or so, and now she's not afraid of me. She was also raised in a petstore (captive bred) and has been handled all along. The climbing of the corners was something she only did when I first brought her home, and has just now started doing again, prior to last week's shed. Her tail is still fat, but I'm keeping an eye on it. I'm going to put a lay box in with her. Bought some new sphagnum moss today

Will post a pic in a bit

 

[mascutt]

Above link is a picture of Lola's abdomen. I do not see any eggs but someone said to post so they could see.

As far as how fat her tail is, I also uploaded a picture to my album that says: 02/20/10. Hopefully it still looks healthy

 

[mascutt]

Yeah!! She finally ate this morning. Three crickets, she went for a fourth, but didn't have a good hold on it, and it got away. I guess she wasn't interested enough to chase it down. So, I am much relieved that she ate this morning, but she is still acting strangely besides... She has started trying to pull the paper towels up. She's never done that before, she finds the corners and then scrapes at it with her claws until she gets it pulled back?????

 

[roger]

Just make sure her warm side is 95 deg.I wouldnt worry too much about her.we tend to worry.Just weigh her and keep track of her weight.If she has a nice plump tail I wouldnt be too concerned

 

[mascutt]

95 degrees? All the leopard gecko care sheets I've seen always say to keep it between 86 and 90 f. One day last week it got unseasonably cold in FL, so I put her heater up a bit higher than normal. It was 95 and she hated it - she wouldn't even stay in her hide and went to the cool side of her tank and sat in her water dish. When I lowered the temp back down, she started acting normal again and going into her hide.

 

[Tony C]

I like Gregg M's explanation from his care sheet:

Basking spots should be in the mid to upper 90’s. I find that my leopard geckos do their best when the hot spot is up around 97 and 98 degrees. No, your gecko will not burn or melt with a hot spot in the high 90’s. If you think about it, your body temp is 98.6 degrees F. Does your gecko burn or melt when you hold it in your hands? Didn’t think so. If you offer your gecko the hot basking spot it needs it will stay on it long enough to raise its core temperature and will not spend the day trying to heat up. They will be more active and will digest and metabolize their food intake much quicker. This equates to healthier, faster growing geckos.

The reason geckos kept at cooler temperatures spend so much time in their warm hide is that it takes much longer for them to reach the proper core body temperature. A gecko with a proper hotspot will warm up quickly and be free to go about their daily activities.

 

[Shera]

I noticed in another thread you said you are turning off the UTH at night. I have never heard of anyone doing this. That could very well be your problem.

 

[mascutt]

I do turn it off at night, but it does not change the temperature, only how warm the paper towels are. In the wild the temp is a little cooler at night than during the day. It was on various gecko care sheets that I read to do this. My tank thermometer only changes by about 4 degrees with uth off, 85 -90 during the day when uth is on, and drops to 82 - 87 at night (and I have the thermometer all the way down at the ground. My UTH is never on high though because she doesn't like it. I keep it very low, so there probably is little difference. She gets most of heat from the lamps.

 

[Shera]

Well leaving them on all night is something you could try. The air gets a lot cooler at night in the desert, but the ground keeps a lot of it's heat. They need belly heat, not back heat from lamps to aid in digestion.

Is she getting daylight? I was keeping mine in the dark all day with just the red lamp on, and they stopped eating. As soon as I started opening the curtains during the day they started eating again. It might have been coincidence, but it seems to have worked.

 

[mascutt]

Oh yeah. She gets daylight every day. She is under a regular bulb all day, and the red bulb at night, with the uth during the day. She eats at 6:00 am and spends most of the day napping either in her hide or just next to it. I live as far south in Florida as possible. The ground of her tank is never cold even when the uth is off, but, as I said in an earlier post, if the uth is too high, she doesn't like it. She goes immediately to the cold side of the tank, climbs the glass for awhile and finally just sits in her water dish. So the UTH is always on low because that seems to be what she likes best.