is my new leopard gecko okay?

i just got 2 leopard geckos one male and one female (was told they were both 1 1/2 year old) the other day and they came with there tank that they where housed in and everything else the person had for them but one of them ones in shed when i got them and just today he finished shedding and he hasnt opened his eyes and it looks like his mouth is open as well should i be worried? Please help me i im new to leopard geckos!!!








when i got him yesterday he still had his shed on his head and when i woke up this morning it was off but his mouth is open a lil bit and his eyes are barely open they said they were healthy and there was nothing wrong with them could it just be from him shedding?


Care Questionaire:

About your leo:
- Sex-male
- Age & Weight-was told it was 1 and half year olds not sure on wieght
- Morph (if you know)- not sure on morph
- How long have you owned your leo-2days
- Where was he/she obtained (Pet store, breeder, wild caught, etc.)-got off criagslist for free
- Is your leo wild caught or captive bred

A) Health/History-not sure
- How often do you handle your leo-havent handled them yet letting them get settled in because i just got them
- Is your leo acting any different today? If so how
- Has he/she had any problems in the past, if so please describe.-not that i know of
B) Fecals
- Describe-Do they look any different than normal- eyes are closed and mouth is open a lil bit
- When was the last time he/she went- pooped last night
C) Problem
- Please briefly describe the problem/issue you are experiencing and how long it has been going on- got him yesterday he had shed on his face when i got him and today the shed was gone and now his eyes are barely open and his mouth is open a lil bit all the time he is very active still tho he walks around the tank

Housing:
A) Enclosure
- Size-20gal long
- Type (ex. glass tank, screen enclosure, tub kept)-glass
- Type of substrate (sand, vinyl tiles, ceramic/stone tiles, etc.)- sand but will be switching to paper towels
- Hides (how many, location and type (hothide, humid hide, regular hide etc.)-this are 3 hides one on the hot side one in the middle witch is the humid hide (made it my self out of a tupperware and have wet paper towels inside of it) and it has a regular hid on the cold side
B) Heating
- What is your main heat source (heat bulbs, under tank heat mat etc) **Please include the brand and size of your UTH if you use one**-heat lamp (what would you recommend)
- What are your cage temps (hot side and cool side) hot side is 88 and room temp79
- Method of regulating your heat source (thermostat, rheostat, light dimmer etc.)--nothing
- What are you using to measure your temps (probe thermometer, infrared lazer tempo gun, stick on temp gauge, etc)-temp gauge
- Do you have any lights (describe type (red,blue, basking etc) and cycle duration)- red light
C) Cage mates- there is a female in the tank she seems to be very healthy
- How many (males, females)-1male 1female
- Describe health, or previous problems of cage mates- the female seems very healthy but the male is having the eye and mouth problem

Describe Diet:
A) Typical diet-was told they were feed
- What are you feeding-they were feeding wax worms dusted
- How often are you feeding your gecko and how much per feeding?- planning on feeding 3 days a week using crickets and mealworms (what would you use)
- How are you feeding (hand fed, tongs/tweezers, left in dish, ect)-was told they used a dish and hand fed them sometimes for fun
B) Supplements
- What calcium suppliment are you using (please include brand) i will be going to the store tomorrow to get them calcium (what would you recommend)
- What multi vitimin are you using (please include brand)- nothing yet ( what would you recommend)
-How are you implimenting your suppliment program (how often do you dust with each suppliment, do you leave calcium in the tank 24/7 etc.)-(what would you recomend
- What are you gutloading your feeder insects with-- (what would you recommend)



thank you everyone with your quick response!!!! tomorrow i am going to looking to see where i can take him to to get check out. what could have caused the mouth rot? is it okay if i leave him in with the other gecko (its a female) witch seems to be very health or could she make things worst or somehow get what he has? than you ones again for all of your help!!!!!

Welcome to the forum!

Can you please fill out the health questionnaire? It will help us in helping you. Copy and paste it into the reply box, and fill in the spaces. You can find it here: http://www.leopardgeckoforum.com/t134-please-read-and-fill-out-with-your-health-questions

First thing I can tell you is to ditch that sand. Sand can cause impaction (a blockage in the digestive tract) which can result in death if untreated. Paper towel or tiling (peel-n-stick, vinyl, slate etc) is the best substrate for leopard geckos.

Is there any stuck skin around the geckos mouth and eyes? If so, you can rub gently with a wet Q-tip on the affected area to help loosen the skin. PLAIN saline eye drops can also be used to flush out the eye if there is anything in it.

Did you use a humid hide when he was shedding? A humid hide is a house in the gecko's enclosure that has higher humidity than the rest of the tank. This helps loosen the geckos shedding skin.

You should to take her to the vet, she is looking really rough in that second pic. Unless someone can talk you though how to treat her, and you are able and willing. Sounds like bad eye sheds but i don't know what would be wrong with her mouth. Seeing a vet would be best for her.

Looks to me like mouth rot. You need a vet and antibiotics to treat it. You can flush his eyes with plain saline for contacts to make sure theres no debris from the shed or the sand. Also helooks to be an albino and even red lights have been known to stress them and hurt their eyes. You def. Need an under tank heater for leos to be able to properly digest and regulate their core temperature. 88 is the bare minimum they should be, 93-96 would be better. For suppliments you need plain calcium, calcium with D3, and a multi vit OR an all in 1 suppliment such as repashy calcium plus or T-rex complete leopard gecko dust icb by sandfire foods. Al in 1 suppliments you dust once a week or every other feeding. For the others, keep a dish of plain calcium without D3 in the viv 24/7, dust once a week with the calcum with D3 and once a week with the multi vit.

Hope some of that helps

here are pics of him that i took right before i removed the sand from the cage to put in paper towels





here is the female just thought i would show you her im guessing she is a female she seems to be health of what i know of

Thank you for filling out the care sheet, it helps us A LOT in helping you

When housing multiple leos together you need to add 2 hides for each gecko. So housing two leos together, you should have a minimum of 5 houses (2 on the hot side, 2 on the cool side and 1 moist hide). This prevents fighting over the "best" hide, and allows them to get away from each other if they want.

Leopard geckos get their heat from their bellies, to aid in digestion so they need an under tank heater. I use this heater: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752561&lmdn=Heating and I love it. Works really well. Kel (Kermit) recommends the Cobra heat mats http://www.leopardgeckoforum.com/t2805-where-to-buy-ultratherm-t-rex-cobra-uth

You also need a hot side and a cold side. The hot side should be 88*-95*, but generally closer to the 90s is better. The cool side should be in the high 70s, and be at least 10* difference from the hot side to provide a proper gradient. Leos thermoregulate. Their body temp depends on their surrounding's temperature. So if they want to cool their temperature, they will go to the hot side - they want to raise their temp then they go to the hot side.

The best way to monitor temps is with a temp gun or probe thermometer. You need to measure the FLOOR temperature, as the floor is what will be touching their belly.

Waxworms are NOT healthy at all. Are you sure they were waxworms? D: Waxworms are extremely fatty and addicting.
The best diet is a varied diet. Mealworms and crickets are a great choice. You can also try superworms, which are similar to mealworms (not the same), but are larger, and more filling for the leos. My leos LOVE them.

Take a look at these threads, they have a lot of information that will be extremely helpful to you:
http://www.leopardgeckoforum.com/t166-proper-housing-for-leopard-geckos
http://www.leopardgeckoforum.com/t303-nutritional-values-and-feeder-insects

Looking at the close up shot of your male it definitely loos like mouth rot to me. I an not aware of an over the counter treatment to remedy that, you can try to google mouth rot treatment and see what comes up but from my understanding it needs antibiotics that can only be prescribed by a vet. Mouth rot can be painful and will affect your leos decor to eat. Theres likely more going on in his mouth aside of whats visible on the outside. Not being able to see his eyes open all I can do is suggest the flushing and ditching the red light which could be hurting his sensitive albino eyes. His eye lids look swollen to me do theres a good chance he has something such there. If it were me I'd start the flushes and get him off the sand as soon a possible. It holds bacteria and is never really a sanitary substrait which will ony add to your existing issues. The weight on both of them doesn't look bad so I think you're good there.

Good luck, please keep us updated

just to let everyone know hes doing much better! thank you everyone for your help!!!!

Has his mouth cleared up at all? Glad to hear he's doing better

yeah its starting to do better he actually had both eyes open today a little bit he seems to be really sensitive to light i have realize but he still is eating what i know of hes a pretty healthy gecko besides this little problem we are having but all in all hes doing better Thank you every one for helping out i was really surprise with how fast i got response

Well that's what were here for to provide useful information in a timely manner otherwise what's the point of asking the question... if you can never get the answer you need. Id like to think that's one of the things that makes us a great forum big enough to provide a lot of points of view, small enough to give that personal attention.

i do have one thing that i was wondering with there calcium for the leopard geckos could you make it your self? i was just wondering because my dad works for a health and fitness and i have access to all of this stuff and i was just wondering if i could make the calcium powder my self

I think unless you have a chemist certification you'd be better off buying it. Only other think I've heard substituted was ostio biform for horses. Ron tremper suggested out to my breeder but since they both have a lot of leos is likely more economical for them rather than the wincy jars we get for our leos. They'd likely go thru a dozen every couple months.

i just checked out his work website and they have this stuff has anybody ever used this stuff on there leopard geckos and would you use this or would you stay away from it? i can get this stuff for free but if its not good for them then i will not use it

Zoo Med Labs ReptiVite™ With D3 Description (this one i would only give them ones and a while with there good dusted in it right because it has d3 in it?)

Zoo Med Labs Repti Calcium -- 12 oz (this one i would give them all the time because it doe not have d3?)

Those 2 sound good to me, similar to what i use. Just leave a little dish of the pure calcium in their enclosure, they will come out and lick it up when they need it. And just every so often dust your feeders with the d3+vitamin powder. Too much d3 can be bad tho. I don't think you can over do the pure calcium. But im a big stupid idiot head so correct me if I'm wrong plz

You CAN over do it with plain calcium. if there is an inbalance between calcium intake and D3 than you can develop psudogout which is a build up of calcium deposits in the joints and on the long bones which is why it is suggested to gutload feeders with foods high in d vitamin and dust with a multi vit once a week that contains D3 as well as dusting once a week with calcium with D3 as well. Dusting twice a week with D3 suppliment should not over dose an adult leo and is what has been suggested by long time reputable breeders for optimum health. The D3 in multi vit is a very small percentage as well as what would be transferred to the leo from eating food gutloaded with high D3 content foods.

I use the reptivite with D3 and it works great.

I definitely recommend it!

Kermit wrote:You CAN over do it with plain calcium. if there is an inbalance between calcium intake and D3 than you can develop psudogout which is a build up of calcium deposits in the joints and on the long bones which is why it is suggested to gutload feeders with foods high in d vitamin and dust with a multi vit once a week that contains D3 as well as dusting once a week with calcium with D3 as well. Dusting twice a week with D3 suppliment should not over dose an adult leo and is what has been suggested by long time reputable breeders for optimum health. The D3 in multi vit is a very small percentage as well as what would be transferred to the leo from eating food gutloaded with high D3 content foods.

So i shouldn't leave a bowl of calcium for them? Even the females with eggs? Because they will over do it? Only dust the gut loaded feeders? My mind just blew up INTO the atmosphere

If you're using seperate suppliments and not an all in 1 it is fine to leave a dish of plain calcium in the viv, just be sure you're dusting once or twice a week with a D3 suppliment. Your multi vit has D3, as well as your secondary calcium, with D3, then if you gutload with veggies rich in A & D vitamin you'll be fine even with laying females. The thing is to find balance. For example, my oy doesn't appear to go to his calcium dish very much, I straighte it out every other day and notice footie prints or nose prints in it (he's a messy boy ) if I don't notice him using it that much I'll only dust once a weeek with my all in 1 suppliment. If I notice he's been in it a bunch I'll dust twice a week. I know its generally countermanded keeping a dish of calcium and using an all in 1 suppliment but my boy really doesn't use the calcium dish much so I generally only dust once a week with the all in 1.