Hi, my name is Kathryn

Hello everyone! My name is Kathryn, and I'm 16 years old.
I'm a big animal lover and one day want to be a vet. I have a few pets, dogs and fish(I have a lot of fish). I now have a leopard gecko as well.

My neighbors came over 2 days ago to compare the differences in house
layouts. She saw all the tanks in my room (5 lol) and mentioned she had a
"lizard" that her son didn't want anymore. Originally she had gotten it
from her sister who hadn't wanted it, and now they didn't want it. They
hadn't fed it for a week, and it "wouldn't die". I knew something was
up right away.
I didn't know what kind of lizard it was, so I asked if I could go see
it. I did. Poor thing! From away I could tell it wasn't happy. I knew
instantly it was a leopard gecko (my best friend has 2). The poor thing
had dropped its tail.
My neighbor said she had picked it up a week ago to show it to her
niece, when its tail dropped and "started wiggling ewwwww" (her words
not mine). The end of the tail was STILL in the tank. Second warning.

Went home talked to my mom and was trying to convince her. Neighbor
mentioned "oh, you'll want to give it a good cleaning, we haven't
cleaned it in about a year".
A year.
A YEAR.
A YEAR!
O_O
Mom instantly said yes. Although she doesn't like reptiles, even she couldn't say no to a suffering animal in a filthy tank.
Brought him over, went and got him some crickets, and began the
disgusting task of cleaning. It took over FOUR HOURS. It was nasty.
There was soooo much poop, and that decomposing tail. EW. I was shocked.
Absolutely shocked. The smell was horrible. It took about four rinses,
as well as soaping multiple times before the smell was gone. My sister
literally almost threw-up.
Neighbor thought it was cute how I was "putting my heart and soul into the silly creature". -_-"
Once it was all cleaned out we fed the poor starving guy. He seemed
quite happy, and just shocked that his tank was so clean. I'm surprised
he survived as long as he did.
My respect for those neighbors has pretty much vanished now.

I took him to a reptile specialty store, turns out "he" is a "she". I
had begun to suspect it the night we got him, after my friend saw him
and said he was much too small to be a boy, unless he was under a year
old. The female gender was confirmed. I also had to buy her a stinkload
of stuff, which means I'm pretty much broke now ;( ..... it was worth it
though. She is so much happier. Can you believe they didn't have a
heater for her? She must have been freezing! She didn't have the proper
flooring, she didn’t have moist moss to shed her skin in, her calcium
powder had EXPIRED IN DECEMBER (and was barely used) etc.

I just can't believe how they left her so long. No food for a week, no
cleaning for a year, a part of her tail decomposing in one corner of the
tank. DISGUSTING.

She is gonna belong to my sister and I, but eventually will be mine. My
sister loses interests in pets quickly (except for her betta and platies
for some reason lol). She even said herself "we can share it until I
get bored of it". LOL, at least she knows! We are thinking of naming her
Miracle or Hope, because she's lucky to be alive after her ordeal!

Wow, that is some really bad care it was given.

After reading that, i have to say thank you very much for saving the little thing. You did a good thing.

Welcome to the forum by the way, im Jordan, the administrator so feel free to contact me if you have any issues.

All the information you should need should be here:
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if not there is plenty of staff about to ask, or a section called Forum Help, further down.

hiya and welcome to the forum

hope you enjoy your time on here

sam

Wow, how horrible! I am so happy that you're stepping up to the plate to care for that poor baby.

What a miraculous story of rescue! We're glad to have you here. If you have any questions, concerns, or just curiousity; we've got an answer for it all!

Welcome to the forum.

Hey Kathryn!!!!!! Welcome to the forum!!!!

Oh my goodness!!!!!! I can't believe that your neighbor did that to the poor little girl!!!

I just want to thank you for taking her in and rescuing her from that horrible home she had.

I just want to point out something. For her feeding, since she has no tail, you can feed her as much as she can eat until her tail regrows. She will have no storage since she did drop her tail and she will be using all the energy that she gets from her food to regrow her tail.

How does the end look where she dropped her tail since she was living in a dirty home??

Got to be careful not too feed too much too quickly due to her bad feeding regime previously though.

You have to build her back up to eating full meals slowly to avoid re-feeding syndrome.

Oh yes, of course!! Thanks for filling that in for me Jordan!!

Hi Kathryn

I am Jolene and the supervisor of the leo section. Good for you having such a kind heart. It is great of you to take on this poor little lady:) I look forward to chatting with you!

Thanks guys for all the warm welcomes, I really appreciate them!

She is such a sweety, and I'm an animal lover, so of course I couldn't leave her there! I can't believe my neighbors had her all that time though, and never took care of her properly, I'm just glad she's alive!

I will get a picture of the end of her tail tomorrow and post it for you guys to see. I took her to the reptile specialty store (this is actually a really nice store, its run by a bearded dragon breeder, and I believe all the stock is her own, she knows pretty much EVERYTHING lol) and the lady said it looked fine. I hope it doesn't get infected or anything, I'd feel terrible if it did.

And thank you Sweety and Jordan for the tip. I am slowly adding more to her meals each day. Right now she is able to eat about 5 crickets in the morning, a waxworm and then two or three crickets at night. I'm gonna take it slow, but hopefully she will be eating well enough for her tail to grow back fairly good.

I look forward to continue chatting with you all! Right now I'm just exploring the forum, and investigating the different sections :P

If she's already growing a nub for a tail, she *should* be ok. I use should loosely since I don't know what it looks like. The pic will definitely be helpful, plus I love seeing pics of these guys. If you are worried about infection, you can put some polysporin on it with a Q-tip. Just be very careful because she will probably be jumpy and still stressed but it will help.

Also with tails that have grown back, they may not look like an original tail would. Sometimes the tail grows back shorter and more bulbous. So if it does grow back like that, not to worry, it's normal.

I also want to let you know to be very careful with feeding waxworms. These are only advised as a snack every once in a while as they can get addicted to them very fast. When they get addicted, they will hold out and wait for the waxworm and in very severe cases starve themselves waiting for it. The waxworms to them would be like junk food to us, they are very fatty and not advised to use as a staple food.

Just a little side note, you said your new baby is such a "sweety". That's where my nickname came from. I used to call all of my female leos "sweety" as a nickname to them.

Thanks Sweety for responding!
I didn't know you could use polysporin, thanks! That is a really good idea. If I think there is any change in its appearance, I will definitely put some on for her.

I knew they wouldn't grow quite back as well. As long as it grows back at all, I'll be happy! Poor gal. I wonder if its fallen off before, the way they've treated her I wouldn't be surprised!

I didn't know that waxworms were addicting, thank goodness for letting me know! I will only feed her a few a week then. I had heard that they were fattening, so I assumed I could feed them to her to help her tail regrow. Is there a type of worm that isn't so addicting, but would assist in her tail regrowth? I was only going to feed her them mostly while she was recovering but I will definitely limit feeding them now. Thank you!

Haha, thats so cute! I think all of my pets are sweeties, :P That is a great way to have a nickname!

She will grow nicely with meal worms and super worms, and as you said, wax worms for treats. There is not much to do for her tail other than what Sweety has already suggested and just letting nature take it's course.

Oh yeah, mealworms are a great staple to use!! Silkworms and butterworms are also great for a variety. Superworms were not one of my favorites to feed, they just creeped me out too much. HAHAHAHA!!! But if your sweety likes them, by all means, use them too.