Weight/tail thickness

[Alistan]

I have an adult female leo. She is my first. I am pretty sure she is a "normal morph" Please correct me if I am mistaken. I got her from a local place that sells fish and reptiles, but also works with local little critters rescue type groups and takes in reptiles in need of a new place. I like the place and had taken on a rescued fish from them. My leo is of the needing a new home variety. I inspected her and met her. She had a clean bill of health, with the exception that they said she was a little on the "chonky" size due to being allowed to free feed and being in too small of an enclosure. She was also full of vigor yet very friendly.

She is approximately 7-inches long in total, and 4.5-inches from nose to tail. I have had her for 6-weeks, and she seems to be thriving. Eats, poops, explores, and just had her first shed in my care without a hitch (I am so happy about that one. I saw it coming and wanted to help in someway. I had to tell myself that she is a big girl who has done this before, and to just leave her alone). Anyway, I have not put her on any sort of restrictive diet, but I don't free feed. I offer food every other day. I offer up 7 bugs and remove leftovers. She typically eats 3 to 7 gut-loaded bugs, with the rare "not hungry", in which case I offer bugs again the next day. I don't use and insect bowl. I tried it, and she wasn't interested. She will tong feed, but prefers if I release the bug a few inches in front of her for a short chase. In summary: I offer 7-bugs via a modified tong feeding/short hunt method every other day. Oh, and I try to switch up bugs: king meal worms, crickets, roaches are what I typically have on hand. She prefers the meal worms.

Her vivarium is also large (2-ft deep by 4-ft long, by 1.25-ft tall), and she fairly active in exploring it.

My question is this: How is her tail thickness/weight looking, in general? She is a bit trimmer than when I brought her home, and I want her to have what she needs for the increase in activity. The biggest change I have seen has been in the thickness of her head. It used to be rather wide. In other words: am I staying the course or do I need adjust? Her activity level and aplite have been normal. These are her "after pictures". I did not have a good before picture because she did a lot of hiding when I first got her. So thoughts on current weight/tail?

 

[Mr. Leopard gecko]

I have an adult female leo. She is my first. I am pretty sure she is a "normal morph" Please correct me if I am mistaken. I got her from a local place that sells fish and reptiles, but also works with local little critters rescue type groups and takes in reptiles in need of a new place. I like the place and had taken on a rescued fish from them. My leo is of the needing a new home variety. I inspected her and met her. She had a clean bill of health, with the exception that they said she was a little on the "chonky" size due to being allowed to free feed and being in too small of an enclosure. She was also full of vigor yet very friendly.

She is approximately 7-inches long in total, and 4.5-inches from nose to tail. I have had her for 6-weeks, and she seems to be thriving. Eats, poops, explores, and just had her first shed in my care without a hitch (I am so happy about that one. I saw it coming and wanted to help in someway. I had to tell myself that she is a big girl who has done this before, and to just leave her alone). Anyway, I have not put her on any sort of restrictive diet, but I don't free feed. I offer food every other day. I offer up 7 bugs and remove leftovers. She typically eats 3 to 7 gut-loaded bugs, with the rare "not hungry", in which case I offer bugs again the next day. I don't use and insect bowl. I tried it, and she wasn't interested. She will tong feed, but prefers if I release the bug a few inches in front of her for a short chase. In summary: I offer 7-bugs via a modified tong feeding/short hunt method every other day. Oh, and I try to switch up bugs: king meal worms, crickets, roaches are what I typically have on hand. She prefers the meal worms.

Her vivarium is also large (2-ft deep by 4-ft long, by 1.25-ft tall), and she fairly active in exploring it.

My question is this: How is her tail thickness/weight looking, in general? She is a bit trimmer than when I brought her home, and I want her to have what she needs for the increase in activity. The biggest change I have seen has been in the thickness of her head. It used to be rather wide. In other words: am I staying the course or do I need adjust? Her activity level and aplite have been normal. These are her "after pictures". I did not have a good before picture because she did a lot of hiding when I first got her. So thoughts on current weight/tail?

View attachment 82321 View attachment 82322

She seems overall on a healthy weight. I usually like to look at this chart for my gecko. my gecko is between the healthy and the overweight size. Your gecko looks exactly like mine except more yellow! i do believe that your gecko is a normal morph

 

[acpart]

I don't worry about it. I have some geckos that seem to have a particular build: Very wide head and chunky body. I feed my geckos twice a week, Monday and Thursday. They get crickets on Monday and super worms on Thursday and I do often put in a bunch of crickets and let them snack as desired. Putting new things in the enclosure for them to explore could make some of them more active; it depends on the gecko.

Aliza

 

[awholeasszoo]

I have an adult female leo. She is my first. I am pretty sure she is a "normal morph" Please correct me if I am mistaken. I got her from a local place that sells fish and reptiles, but also works with local little critters rescue type groups and takes in reptiles in need of a new place. I like the place and had taken on a rescued fish from them. My leo is of the needing a new home variety. I inspected her and met her. She had a clean bill of health, with the exception that they said she was a little on the "chonky" size due to being allowed to free feed and being in too small of an enclosure. She was also full of vigor yet very friendly.

She is approximately 7-inches long in total, and 4.5-inches from nose to tail. I have had her for 6-weeks, and she seems to be thriving. Eats, poops, explores, and just had her first shed in my care without a hitch (I am so happy about that one. I saw it coming and wanted to help in someway. I had to tell myself that she is a big girl who has done this before, and to just leave her alone). Anyway, I have not put her on any sort of restrictive diet, but I don't free feed. I offer food every other day. I offer up 7 bugs and remove leftovers. She typically eats 3 to 7 gut-loaded bugs, with the rare "not hungry", in which case I offer bugs again the next day. I don't use and insect bowl. I tried it, and she wasn't interested. She will tong feed, but prefers if I release the bug a few inches in front of her for a short chase. In summary: I offer 7-bugs via a modified tong feeding/short hunt method every other day. Oh, and I try to switch up bugs: king meal worms, crickets, roaches are what I typically have on hand. She prefers the meal worms.

Her vivarium is also large (2-ft deep by 4-ft long, by 1.25-ft tall), and she fairly active in exploring it.

My question is this: How is her tail thickness/weight looking, in general? She is a bit trimmer than when I brought her home, and I want her to have what she needs for the increase in activity. The biggest change I have seen has been in the thickness of her head. It used to be rather wide. In other words: am I staying the course or do I need adjust? Her activity level and aplite have been normal. These are her "after pictures". I did not have a good before picture because she did a lot of hiding when I first got her. So thoughts on current weight/tail?

View attachment 82321 View attachment 82322

She looks healthy to me, about the same as my female Leo. I do prefer to keep her tail on the chunkier side, as long as she isn’t noticeably putting on weight elsewhere, or getting armpit bubbles (not sure if there’s a proper name lol). If you want to keep a closer eye on her weight, you could use kitchen scales and keep a log of her weight 1 or 2 weeks. There might be seasonal fluctuations in her weight (mine doesn’t eat so much in winter) so don’t worry about it too much. My girl prefers mealworms also, but i do try to give her crickets more often than mealies just because they’re a bit more work to catch, so a bit more stimulating than the worms which sometimes just kinda sit there, and get her a bit more exercise chasing them around. She loves the chase but will also always opt for the laziest meal

 

[Deano715]

Looks like mine also. Im pretty new at this so take it for what its worth.

 

[Alistan]

She seems overall on a healthy weight. I usually like to look at this chart for my gecko. my gecko is between the healthy and the overweight size. Your gecko looks exactly like mine except more yellow! i do believe that your gecko is a normal morph

Thank you for the graphic. Very helpful.

 

[Alistan]

She looks healthy to me, about the same as my female Leo. I do prefer to keep her tail on the chunkier side, as long as she isn’t noticeably putting on weight elsewhere, or getting armpit bubbles (not sure if there’s a proper name lol). If you want to keep a closer eye on her weight, you could use kitchen scales and keep a log of her weight 1 or 2 weeks. There might be seasonal fluctuations in her weight (mine doesn’t eat so much in winter) so don’t worry about it too much. My girl prefers mealworms also, but i do try to give her crickets more often than mealies just because they’re a bit more work to catch, so a bit more stimulating than the worms which sometimes just kinda sit there, and get her a bit more exercise chasing them around. She loves the chase but will also always opt for the laziest meal

Thank you for the exercise tip. I have provided mostly meal worms and dubia roaches. Crickets gross me out more so than roaches. Maybe its the ability to jump. I will try and get over myself and give her some crickets to chase.

 

[Alistan]

I don't worry about it. I have some geckos that seem to have a particular build: Very wide head and chunky body. I feed my geckos twice a week, Monday and Thursday. They get crickets on Monday and super worms on Thursday and I do often put in a bunch of crickets and let them snack as desired. Putting new things in the enclosure for them to explore could make some of them more active; it depends on the gecko.

Aliza

Thank you for the "don't worry about it". There is a strong chance I am over thinking it. She is due for a deep-cleaning this weekend. I will try and add a thing or two.

 

[Deano715]

Thank you for the "don't worry about it". There is a strong chance I am over thinking it. She is due for a deep-cleaning this weekend. I will try and add a thing or two.

First month or two l was nervous too. Shedding and egg laying stressed me more than it did the gecko.