Breeding & identification

No offense, but your English and grammar could use some work since it makes it hard to understand all of what you mean. I have read everything you have said and am still confused on most of it. You said yourself that “I only leave locasus in the tank nothing else but once they transform to the winged ones they get removed straight away”. I still have no idea what a locasus is because that isn’t a word in the English language. Also, do you give your geckos the jelly pots? Or do you give them to your bugs? Because jelly pots are meant for things like crickets. Another thing though, is that everyone should know that they need to do their own research on the animals they keep, as that is part of being a responsible owner for any animal. I personally never stop doing research on the animals I own just in case there is something more I can do for them.

As for the substrate, yes that carpet is fine. You can make a humid hide with spagnum moss for the eggs. Do you have a humid hide for both of them yet?

I have 2 hides and a small hide, But they tend to both go in the same one together, and its my phone it types what it wants, Yes the pots are for bugs but the geckos can eat it aswell I’ll find out the name of them when I next go in the shop, and yes I was told the bugs (that I carnt spell) could be left in the tank but they seem to “shed” after day or two in to big things but we remove straight away… and since having advice off here all food has been removed… And I will not be leaving any food in there again it will all be disposed of, I’ve Also order the black soldier bugs you recommended (these have to be orderd) and won’t be in shop till Friday afternoon, will my geckos be ok till then?

I’ve just measured my male gecko he’s just over 26cm in length which is 10inches, someone wanted to know what there lengths were to determine weights, (I don’t want to disturb my female at moment) and I’ve just googled and this came up, so is he obese or not as I’m getting confused?

Average weight does not mean a healthy weight given that a lot a people have overweight geckos. Can we have a top down picture of him like your female? A new picture and not an old one. Below that says average is between 40-80 grams, so it all depends on where these people source their info (healthy stock or unhealthy). I have never heard of that site that says they average 50-100 grams, so I can’t say I trust them.

Okay I won’t google and yes this one was taken today as I sent it to another reptile group who said that both are fine, I don’t know soo confusing but here is male taken today

Ok that was adorable! Leos are totally little chonks! :blush:

The thing is that hepatic lipidosis is a condition, not a disease process itself, so finding the cause is important. To be honest I haven’t treated it in a long time, so I might be a bit rusty or off with my explanation. But think of it kinda like this:

If activity is low and diet is high in fat, reptiles are likely to get fatty livers ,especially females. And if they suddenly have no intake (because of disease, starvation, stress, etc.), not even healthy intake, they will start metabolizing their fat stores to survive (wild animals will not have such high percentage of body fat). A lot of fat metabolism takes place in the liver. Though the pathogenesis is kind of a mystery to me, the classic scenario is a very obese mammal that has been fed a poor diet ‘suddenly’ stopping eating, then startsto decline. Once they become anorectic they’ll generally die without hospitalization.

Also, @donna88 , that I’m aware of, reptiles don’t tend to store fat deposits on the surface, like us mammals do. So obesity is a little bit harder to detect, since fat reptiles don’t ‘jiggle,’ all their fat is in these things called ‘fat bodies.’

This is definitely because of husbandry. In the vet community it’s kind of a gallows-humor joke how “everything” that vets see reptiles for is generally directly because of husbandry issues. I mean, if pet store employees give bad advice, and well-known hobbyist resources give bad advice (e.g. Reptiles magazine), the breeder gives them bad advice (a diet meant to maximize breeding is not a healthy diet for an entire life), and no one bothers to take their pet reptiles in for a wellness check with a reptile vet- how will anyone ever know any different? Stuff like this is a nightmare in the veterinary world (though it is WAY more of a problem with exotics medicine). Trying to convince an owner that the advice given to them by a backyard breeder on craigslist isn’t correct is a huge pain in the bum. Kind of like trying to convince owners that feeding a diet high in protein to their feeder roaches is a bad thing- if someone doesn’t tell them about uric acid and gout, or changing nutritional needs for different life stages, most owners would have no clue.

Yeah silkworms are very difficult and frustrating to find. I’ve struggled with that for years, given that I’m not able to raise them myself. I’ve recently had a lot of luck with ebay, actually.

Sure, I’ll take some in just a bit.

It is definitely very frustrating to feel like one is not being heard. I am doing my best to help, but I am not always the best at communicating effectively. If I seem short it’s because I’m stressed.

One of my geckos, Pablo, who just turned 17 years old this month, recently ruptured the globe of her Left eye. While I am a veterinarian, I am a dog/cat veterinarian, and I’m not currently practicing because I’m disabled (for now- hopefully will change). Thus, I am having to rely on other veterinarians to treat her and do the surgery. I have been dealing with a practice where not all of the staff treated me professionally or respectfully. It’s bad practice for me to ■■■■ where I eat, so I won’t say anymore, other than that it has had a very, very, VERY bad effect on my temper and patience. Because some bum-heads won’t help my daughter when her eye is running down her face. Don’t want to hijack the thread so I’ll leave it at that. Don’t worry, I have weighed all options and this is the best one for Pablo, and I promise that her pain is controlled. I just need to refrain from sharing any more detail than that.

So I hope it makes sense now why I used such brief replies.

Yeah, it’s a very good idea to be proactive about this sort of thing. I remember, back when I got my first gecko, that I was so excited! I bought everything that was recommended, read several books on husbandry, and doted on my gecko. I was so enamored of her!

Her name was Jeeves, and she died before her 2nd birthday. Nothing in the books had talked about egg binding, or signs to look for that indicate a gecko is sick. One day, when she vomited and appeared pale, I was worried, but told myself I’d wait one more day to bring her in to the vet. I had just taken her in for her first well-check a month or so beforehand, and was reluctant to spend the money. I found her dead the next morning. While I didn’t intentionally do anything wrong, I am the one responsible for her death. If I had taken more time to educate myself, maybe these days I’d have a 19 year old gecko to brag about.

He’s handsome! He’s a bit tubby, but not ridiculously so. Does he have a very short tail, or does it just look like his tail is short because of the angle? I will go take pics of some of my guys, just a sec.

Please be forgiving about my caging- my caregiver is coming on Wednesday to help me clean. I feed mostly with tongs, which results in worm entrails being thrown all over the front of the tank for some of my guys. Ok, I did my best to show a variety:

Here is my big girl Harvey, she’s about 2.5 years old (bonus points if you know what makes her very different). She is overweight, as well as being a ‘big’ gecko in the first place. I would give her a 7/9 BCS (4-5/9 is ideal); you an see her tail is much fuller than it should be. However, her body is more reasonably shaped. I’m being careful to offer healthy prey items regularly as we slowly chip away at the excess fat.

image This is Edward. He’s also a ‘big’ gecko, but he’s not overweight. I would say he’s about a 4/9 BCS, which is ideal. Edward is 12 years old.

This one is Rasputin, my super grumpy old man. He is too skinny. I score him at 2.5/9, maybe even 2/9. Though I have been putting in extra care for him, it is clearly not enough, as he needs to gain weight. He is at least 17 years old (a super messy eater!!) and very clearly in his twilight years.

This is Myrtle. You can see that she is elderly and underweight, but her body conditioning is not as concerning as Rasputin’s. You can see that her body isn’t straight- she has a little bit of outward curve to her tumtum, and her tail isn’t as stick-like. I’d score her as about 3-3.5/9. Myrtle is 18 years old.

Here is Taffy. She is in good condition (4/9) but, because she’s still growing, I want to feed her more than Edward, who is a well-established adult that does not need the extra energy. Taffy will be turning 1 year old on Thursday. :blush:

And lastly, just in case you were worried:
image

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I am too tired to make a complex reply rn, but is Harvey a paradox leo? (◎_◎)

Not a bad guess- she’s a mosaic!

This explains it better than I possibly ever could.

A type of “paradox” though, since DNA testing is needed to determine 100% if it is a chimera or mosaic (mosaics are more common by far). Have you had her tested? Never seen a leo with a split down the center like that, and have only seen it in snakes. (I have seen that post by Mr. Wyman already lol).

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It’s definitely unnecessary. Here are pics from her youth (I can’t post the pics themselves because I did not take them):

As a juvie

As a hatchling

i dont have any leopard gecko advice because i was a kid the last time i had one, and if im beinf honest, i did an absolutely terrible job. They only lived about 2 years. If i knew even half the information these 2 have been providing perhaps buddy and spot would have had a good long life :(. That being said, i do have a little bit of advice. I know it can be frustrating if it feels like people are judging and talking down to you, but it appears you have been doing your best to take the advice and do what is right by your leos. Keep up that thick skin, absorb as much information as you can. We are all just random people on the internet, and what we think doesnt matter, but if some of the advice given could give your leos a good long and healthy life, then it is too valueble a resource to give up. Hang in there, its always rocky when you believe you had good info and now need to redo everything you thought you knew. There is nothing wrong with being misled, it happens to absolutely everyone, and anyone who says its never happened to them is a liar. Its fhe willingness to move forward that matters :slight_smile:

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Dr. Wyman thankyouverymuch :nerd_face: :rofl: :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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She looks like a normal to me too and it has been a long time since I have seen a normal. I think they are as pretty as a lot of the morphs. I have been hoping normals won’t just disappear from the market.

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Hey man, if you get a ‘Dr.’ then I want one too! :wink:

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Idk, putting ‘Dr.’ on names makes me think of a super villain/mad scientist half the time. Mr. Wyman makes him sound more like a secret agent. :joy:

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You can get one, just takes five or six (or seven or eight or…) years LOL
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So I guess it would be a mistake to tell you what my day job is? LOL
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I will accept that LOL

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image

LOL indeed!

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6 posts were split to a new topic: Urgent advice needed