Miles died and I need help

Hi guys, as I am writing this Miles my crested gecko has just been found dead about 15 minutes ago. :cry: I think I know why, but I’m not entirely sure, why I think is because I recently switched from hand feeding him to just putting it in his enclosure in a place he has eaten from multiple times before. I did this because he did not like eating from my hand, (or I should say from a toothpick, instead) so I started doing this instead. he has been getting skinnier and I might have been late to feed or missed a feeding before the last time I fed him. Anyway I’m a little afraid it might have been crypto, but I more think it was him not eating. what do you guys think?

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I am sorry for your loss.

I don’t have geckos, and I’m not sure how long it would take for a healthy one to pass from not having food. With snakes, this would take a very long time indeed: many weeks. Being late with a feeding or even missing a feeding should not spell the end for most healthy reptiles. Someone who knows about geckos can give you better clarity there.

Crypto can be a problem, but if an animal has a severe enough infection that its life is in imminent danger, there would be define signs of illness. One such sign I’ve read about in geckos is a very thin, “stick like” tail. This is in addition to a very thin body, and general lethargy. These aren’t
easily missed.

I’m obviously not there, and can’t really tell you what happened. It’s hard to not know. Your best shot at getting answers is a necropsy. If you want to do that, you should refrigerate (DON’T freeze) his remains and get them to the vet tomorrow. Even with a necropsy, you may not find out for certain what happened, though an infectious agent like crypto would show up.

Again, I am sorry for your loss. Hugs and prayers.

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Im so sorry for your loss.

Im sorry to say this, but based on your description, it does unfortunately sound like he was either sick, or something was very wrong with his care.

A healthy gecko will not starve themselves. They can also go for over a month without eating without any noticable issues. So since he didn’t like eating from your hand, or in the enclosure it seems, and he was losing weight, something was most likely wrong.

What you did with just leaving the food in there is a very common way to get them to eat on their own, when they refuse a new flavour of CGD, is stressed from a move, or have gotten too hooked on insects. It’s not uncommon for them to go for upwards of a month without eating, and they typically barely lose any weight.

The most likely culprits are parasites and infections, but it could also be due to immense stress or very cold temperatures.

Like Caryl said, if you want to know for sure, you need to get a necropsy.

If you decide to not get a necropsy, i would personally assume that something was up and very very thoroughly clean the enclosure and anything related to him, if you want to use the supplies again

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I’m very sorry to hear it.

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So sorry for your loss :disappointed:

In my care and knowledge of Cresties it is not normal for them to starve themselves. There very well could have been illness or some other form of internal/external issue at play here as others have said. I’d definitely either get a necropsy done if you need to know the cause (if you do chose this, do NOT freeze the animal, refrigerate it until you can get the necropsy done.) or assume it may have been an illness and sterilize everything your Crestie came into contact with.

Without knowing or seeing the situation your Crestie was in theres not much else I can say unfortunately.

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I’m sorry for your loss.

In order to help figure out whether illness or care is most likely, I have a few questions. Were you keeping track of his weight regularly? Over how long a period was the weight loss, and how long have you had him? Were your temps/humidity correct? Was he still pooping regularly?

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I see what you mean, he was due for an enclosure upgrade (and I was looking for one), the plants have died and I needed to find new ones, and I’m not the best at humidity ( which I did almost every night and when I could remember). And could petsmart roaches have parasites?

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I do try to use reptile care tracking apps to keep track of that kind of thing… but I remember to, although I could tell he was losing weight for about two weeks I think but I must not have noticed much in the beginning. And I’m almost positive he was pooping regularly.

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Based on that, it doesn’t sound like it was your care tbh, if he was eating he wasn’t stressed, and humidity issues would not cause sudden death or weight-loss, but dehydration and trouble shedding. The only care mistakes i can think of that could cause death is extreme heat or cold, or extreme stress causing them to not eat.

Any kind of live feeder can have parasites, it’s less likely from well-established feeder breeders, but it is never 100% risk free.

If he was pooping, he was eating, and if he was losing weight while eating, it was most likely some kind of parasite id say, since most other illnesses would make them anorexic, which would then cause the weight loss as a secondary symptom.

A noticeable weight-loss over only 2 weeks is also pretty concerning as they should be able to go that long without eating with no issue.

How long did you have him for, and where did you get him from?

If you can find any poop that hasn’t completely dried up, it might be worth seeing if you can get it checked out by a vet :thinking:

Regardless, once again im super sorry for your loss, it really really sucks to lose your pet. It’s good that you’re trying to figure out what happened though, so it doesn’t affect any of your other/future animals

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As I was reading you comment I saw that you said extreme heat could cause death, and I remembered that I went to check on the reptile room and the space heater was hotter than it should be ( I use a space heater because are basement is currently barely heated), it made the room a temp of just over 80 degrees.

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and also two days before he had shed stuck on his toe pads

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Neither of those things are issues, extreme heat would be 90+ for a while. Some people keep their geckos with basking spots of 85-86, them struggling the second the temp gets above 80 is a common myth. There’s even studies that have shown that they’ll purposefully position themselves in spots with temps in the 90s for short whiles, given that they have the ability to move away from it as needed. Toepad shed is a common issue even in animals with perfect humidity, as they sometimes end up with longer nails than they would in the wild due to less wearing down.

So i wouldn’t worry about those factors

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