Rookie Leo Lover Confusion!

my cleo wont eat certain brands of dusting agents so maybe a change

Well, the first pet store told you wrong and the second pet store told you even worse. All loose substrates, which includes sand, walnut shell, coconut husk, and others, are bad for a leo. They are used to compacted earth, and rarely--if ever!--come incontact with sand in the wild. ceramic, slate, or vinyl tiles are fine and easy to clean. Paper towels work well too, but that's really for those of us who don't care about the viv "looking" nice.

Reptiles DO eat this time of the year, in fact the only reason they won't is because of a problem with them or their environment! So, what I'd say is that your little leo is suffering from the dreaded adjustment period. It might do him good to be left alone, other than spot cleaning, for about 3-5 days and see how he does on eating after that. This does mean no handling and not a lot of time spent nose pressed to the cage side.

I got my leopatd gecko a month ago, he has taken a while to settle but we left him completly alone and he started eating and looking happier kodiehis right about leaving him alone. As for sand well ive seen so many debateseven i dont know whats best, ive got a female on normal sand and male on extra fine sand/ paper towels (transfering him to new tank so slowly introducibg new things) i say it depends on the lizard, some dont do well on sand others do:)

Sand and particle substrait is absolutely wrong for leos. They come from packed earth deserts and live in rocky craigs and crevices so kodie was right. It is a debate but often one that ths with a sick leo, if not from impaction then from dehydration.the sand dries them out and causes improper sheds and robs their skin of the proper moisture. Also if you look at how leos are built, their feet are a dead give away that their not meant to be on sand, they have long toes and short chubby foot beds. If they were meant to be on sand they would have feet more like a dragon, super long toes, wide foot bed meant to keep the animal on to on the sand whereas leos just will sink in. also rough sand on their sensitive skin all the time can cause rub abrasions. So please do yourself and your leo a favor and get them off particle substrait.

Onto the rest of your problems... not eatng could be caused by the low temps... your leo could be brumating because of the low temps and lack of humidity from the sand. Also could be the settling in period but I'm leaning towards brumtion, and hopfully not impaction. Refusal to eat a shed is really unusual which is making me think he may be constipated. You can dab a bit of mineral oil on his nose to see if he can pass any obstructions in his gi. He'll lick it off and it is a laxative that should help move things along if there is a blockage. The moist hide you can use just plain damp paper towels misted daily with warm water to help with your humidity as well as provide a moist place for him to go to assist shedding. My leo won't use anything but his moist paper towel hide despite havin a moss hide as well. He was tub raised and I don't think he likes how it feels under his feet. His moist hide should be on the warm side of the viv.

Eating... leaving food in a bowl isn't as enticing as hand feeding where he can see the movement which trggers prey drive. Use appropriately sized food and for a 4-5 yr old. male that would be morio worms (superworms) or locusts. Feed 3-4 food items every. other day to avoid obesity and dust once a week with the multi vitamin with D3 and leave pure phospherous calcium in the viv 24/7. Sometimes they can be put off by the dust so you can either try a different brand or wait a bit to dust and just give plain feeders for now until he's eating properl, which I suspect he will do once you get his temps right and the substrait canged. I would keep him at 94-96*F for now as sick or unhealthy leos need things a bit warmer.

So that's what I would d if it were my leo. Make those changes, get his temps up, let him settle undisturbed for a few days then try eeding undusted food. Keep offering it on a regular schedule, every othe day and if he's not blocked up he should start to eat soon. Good luck.

hiya and welcome to the forum

Hi again all- thanks for all your help. Well, Leo pooped. And guess what? It was sandy! And he pooped outside his viv after the sand was removed. So, you all were right- sand is not good. Also, he ate all but a little of his skin

As far as handling goes- he's really social. Yesterday he stated my son and I down while we were eating dinner. When I walked up to his viv he started trying to climb up the side atop his log... He always wants to be on my shoulder or in my hair... The reptile rooms recommendation to use walnut shell had. Sensible explanation- that when the Leo's poddy on the tile it then gets dragged around- the bacteria thrives. I'm a health science major and that makes perfect sense to me. He still has not eaten. But the worm isn't really a mover. I will today try a more wriggly worm. I also want to add that the products I originally purchased with my Leo- worms, dust, sand, hide- and all, were all the same ones they were using and he seemed to be thriving just find when I purchased him.

breeziewylie wrote:Hi again all- thanks for all your help. Well, Leo pooped. And guess what? It was sandy! And he pooped outside his viv after the sand was removed. So, you all were right- sand is not good. Also, he ate all but a little of his skin

As far as handling goes- he's really social. Yesterday he stated my son and I down while we were eating dinner. When I walked up to his viv he started trying to climb up the side atop his log... He always wants to be on my shoulder or in my hair... The reptile rooms recommendation to use walnut shell had. Sensible explanation- that when the Leo's poddy on the tile it then gets dragged around- the bacteria thrives. I'm a health science major and that makes perfect sense to me. He still has not eaten. But the worm isn't really a mover. I will today try a more wriggly worm. I also want to add that the products I originally purchased with my Leo- worms, dust, sand, hide- and all, were all the same ones they were using and he seemed to be thriving just find when I purchased him.

When the gecko defecates, it moves away, it doesn't drag it on the tile, so you can just spot clean it. Walnut shell on the other hand, does house loads of bacteria, and fungus, it's still a loose substrate and can be ingested, and I don't see how it would heat up that well. That's just my 10 cents though.

You can make a little litterbox for your leo. Check out the housing sticky show off your set ups [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] mines first, I use a litterbox. You can potty train your leo snce they always want to go in the same place. If they did rub their bum on tiles its a lot easier to pick it up and use a little paper towels with white vinegar on it to disinfect the spot. A lot easier than constantly changing sand or walnut shell every time they potty.

Hi Everyone,

So... The walnut shell he didn't dig on. I tried for another day to feed him and I realized that he absolutely did have an appetite. He would strike the worm, get substrate in his mouth then try to spit it out and in the meantime he lost all interest in the worm. That being said I went out and got some really beautiful earth tone and even sparkly glass mosaic tile. It cost less than the stupid walnut shell. After I changed it out my baby was SO happy! About 15 minutes after I re-introduced him to his new upgraded home I threw in a worm and BAM, no hesitation. He's eaten every day since then

He still however is not pooing in his home! Its so weird! Every time he poops its on the carpet, and no not in the same place. I take him out to let him run around and then after about 10 min or so he starts to go! Today, I almost got him back home so he could poop there but it was already in motion. I know he's about to do it because he lifts his feet off the floor and does this like swimming motion with his hind legs.

I'm so thankful to all of you who have been helpful to us here on the forum and I enjoy reading your posts

Kermit wrote:You can make a little litterbox for your leo. Check out the housing sticky show off your set ups [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

All your pics are gone!

I'll have to double check that but I could have sworn they were there, I just checked a lot of my picture threads a couple days ago when I got my pc on line. Make sure it isn't your fire wall blocking them.

As far as his pooping, movement makes movements so if your leo is out and about it's not unusual for them to poo. Simply pick it up and put it in the viv where you want him to go and he should start. It's called baiting. Always be sure to leave 1 poo there until he's reliably going in the same spot.

Thank you again... I will post a pic of him soon for everyone... I'm really curious to find out what he is!

Ok apparently the losing of all my pix and having to reload them all to photo bucket messed up a few of my threads... I've gotten some of te pix back up on the show off your set up thread but still have some more fixing to do... geezuz... when it rains it pours

Wow... Really beautiful set up Mines very basic still, my first leo... But I think I'm becoming an enthusiast

I'm trying to post a picture but when I press the button here to locate it, nothing happens... Can you help?

Try going to tiny pic if you're having problems here with the embedded picture uploader. Tinypic.com and it'll upload the same way for you.