New project - 3 leopard geckos with severe MBD...

[landlubber]

What spirit that little guy has! So in love! That picture should be in the dictionary next to the word CUTENESS.

[missAlfalfa]

You're amazing. That little guy is too cute for words. I'm so glad to see he's doing better. Please keep updating us... I think I found a new obsession. Hmmm

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[rainbow_crab]

oh my goodness that picture lit up my day! It's not much but I will send little by little as budget allows. He is looking much better then in his first picture. Something in his eyes seems brighter. Maybe it's the flash haha. It's sad to hear about all of his troubles. Physically this guy has taken a beating but he is still pushing on. He is a fighter I'm happy to help in anyway possible!

[purpleperson]

I admire you so much for saving these guys. I have always wanted a Leo and I'm just in the process of getting everything set up for one now. I was scrolling through the some classifieds and I found 5 really skinny Leo's living in a 18"x18"x23.5" Exo terra on calci sand with one hide, a heat lamp, and a water bowl. 1 male and 4 females. I really, really want to rescue them.. But he is asking 400$ CAD and that is out of my price range I'm trying to negotiate with him now.


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[wodesorel]

purpleperson - I hope he comes down on the price! Depending on the morph they can be worth a lot. Since he's got them in a breeding set-up, it sounds like he may have invested thinking he'd get lots of babies to sell off at a high price. The females are considered to be worth a lot less than a male, if you need to haggle. Use Facebook groups to figure out the local worth of the morphs if they were healthy, and go from there. I can't believe they haven't killed each other in that small of a space! They usually don't do well having to compete for heat, hides and food.



The Kid molted again! Took me by surprise as usual. Had a lot of trouble trying to get his toes clean. He kept yanking them away. I know it had to hurt, but he's already loosing one toe that wouldn't come clean from the last time. I didn't want him to loose any more.

He did a good job on his own this time. Got everything off except for a bit on his head, his vent, the bottom of his tail and all four feet. And he had to have eaten some of it this time! I left little balls of wet papertowels in the tank since he couldn't get into a moist hide, and those were pushed all over the place come morning.




20 minute soak to loosen everything.



Post soak and cleaning. I couldn't decide whether I liked it better with or without the flash.


I soaked the bottom of his cage down while we ran to appointments yesterday. I had hoped it would loosen the stuck skin on his feet a bit more, but no luck.

He is gaining some serious weight. And he's getting his strength back. It was a real fight to get his shed off of him. He actually flipped off my lap at one point!

[purpleperson]

Judging from the pictures I do not think that they are any high end morphs, and he told me most are from pet stores. Leo's here usually aren't too expensive, unless if they have a very desired morph. :/ I'm thinking he was trying to breed them too, but just couldn't handle it. They look like they are in really bad shape health wise to me at least. Skinny, and their colors seem to be really muddy for some reason. You can tell that they have patterns, I would say most of them are normals, but they all just look muddled together and brown. :/ I may ask for better pictures of the geckos however because the one he sent me has them all thrown into a bucket on top of each other and all squished in :/ I'm really hoping I can figure something out. He said everything has to go together, but He may be able to to separate the group if he gets no offers.

He's such a cutie you have there, he seems to be making good progress since the first picture. I really love to see your Leo rescues on here.


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[wodesorel]

The most shocking thing for me is to finish up with him, and then walk in to see the two chunkbutts that used to be as skinny as he was. They now seem massively huge in comparison!

My local store sells babies at $30 and adults at $60. I can sort of get where his number comes from, but that is a heck of a lot to ask any one person to pay. Breeders do it all the time for good morphs, or people who want to become breeders and think they're getting a good deal with a pre-existing colony - but not for pet store geckos that shouldn't be bred anyway.

You could always try to break even on the purchase cost afterwards - sell the Exoterra cleaned up and empty for a decent price and then once the other geckos are healthy rehome them at pet shop prices. You'd probably be loosing out on anything you needed to purchase to get them all set up separately, or for the feeders they're going to eat. I highly suggest ordering in bulk online for things like superworms (they last for three or more months without pupating). Mealworms are best if you can get your own colony started, but you can get them pretty cheap online though they turn to beetles quick. Crickets - for me at least - have been cheapest to buy by the boxful from my local pet shop. In summer it might be cheaper to order online, but this time of year they'd die without overnight shipping.

And I'd be happy to look at the photo(s) and see if I can try to spot any other concerns like MBD. Knowing what you're getting into is important!

[rainbow_crab]

Oh he is looking better great work wode! It's good to know he is still fighting on and gaining weight. Have you tried tape for the toes? You just take regular tape, roll it in a circle like around you finger and rub the tape on the shedding skin. I had to do this before with a snake who couldn't shed his eyes. My friend had him and he always had bad sheds. It's better then losing a toe to lack of circulation. Idk if it won't come off after a good soak I'd try the tape to see if there is any luck.

[purpleperson]

Yeah I could definitely break even if I wanted too. I have pretty much everything I need here now. Including a mealworms colony and a Newley started super worm colony. If he sends more pictures I'll get you to have a look.. Last communication he said someone else was also interested and I asked for more pictures and I haven't heard back yet :/

rainbow_crab I've never heard of that before! Do you use scotch tape or something stronger?


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[jclee]

You have done some amazing work. I have to admit that I was dodging this thread for a while because those first few photos were so hard to look at. I've had (and loved and cared for) leos, and to see a gecko in rough shape like that broke my heart.

It looks like you've pulled the Kid through the worst of it, and you two are going to have a wonderful life together, and a great bond, to boot, with all of that hand feeding!

Thank you for a good deed.

[wodesorel]

I have to admit that I was dodging this thread for a while because those first few photos were so hard to look at. I've had (and loved and cared for) leos, and to see a gecko in rough shape like that broke my heart.

It looks like you've pulled the Kid through the worst of it, and you two are going to have a wonderful life together, and a great bond, to boot, with all of that hand feeding!

This was the first time I made my husband wrap them up. I couldn't when they passed. We're waiting for the ground to thaw to bury them in the flower garden.

I still have reservations about his front limbs. My biggest worry is that as he gains weight it's going to put too much pressure on his chest and lungs since he won't be able to lift himself up. It's hard to see how bad the breaks are in photos, but they are clean through and the bones are side by side. The length from his elbow to wrist is about half what it should be. He looks like a little Trex. There is no way to set them so they heal straight, either. There is a chance as he does heal and as the bones remineralize that they might support weight, but I doubt it. He had swelling in both front feet today just from me getting the shed off.

[jclee]

Silly and perhaps implausable thought, but could you design a little front-end skate board for him to scoot around on once his bones are healed/set/solid? Perhaps in a very sparse cage with custom fit tile or a bare-bottom?

[purpleperson]

Silly and perhaps implausable thought, but could you design a little front-end skate board for him to scoot around on once his bones are healed/set/solid? Perhaps in a very sparse cage with custom fit tile or a bare-bottom?

The first think I thought of when I read this were tech decks. My brother and I used to collect them. I could actually see it working, but they don't turn easily. :/


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[jclee]

That sounds cool (thought I had to google them). Maybe swapping out the wheels for some tiny, turning casters?

[wodesorel]

He's still squirrely like a regular gecko about touching things that don't belong. (If he could still scream like the baby does, I think he'd be yelling his head off over everything!) If I thought for a second he'd stay put on it, I would try it.