Leopard gecko possibly impacted? Help!

[Olievertraiqn]

Hi, I'm really new to this site, and having a pet, let alone a reptile.

I don't know if I'm just overthinking this way too much, but I'm really concerned. I think there's a chance my leopard gecko (Oliver) is impacted. He has a UTH, water, calcium, and all three hides. I feed him everyday (he's three months old). I feel as though I'm taking proper care of him, but I'm new, I might be doing something wrong.

I've done a lot of research, trust me, and anything related to impaction usually said that the geckos back legs wouldn't work right. I've seen Oliver in action, he has no issues walking at all. He's eating fine, moving around fine, going to the bathroom fine, and he's drinking water fine. However, I also read that their tummies could be blue because they're bruised. It looks to me like his tummie is blue. Not just a tint, it looks a fair bit blue. I haven't hand tamed him yet, so I don't want to just pick him up and flip him over to look. Especially because if he is impacted, I don't want to hurt him.

If this matters at all, I feed him meal worms. I know there are a lot of different views on this, and I say pro mealies for food, so if you disagree with that, that's cool. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I've heard of so many geckos being fine on them, so don't argue it with me please. Where I got him from they fed him on them, just to point that out.

What should I do? Am I just making too big of a deal out of this? Please help! Some advice from experts, or other noobs like me who have any thoughts on this, please share.

Thanks so much!

 

[EckoTheGecko2012]

Hi, I'm really new to this site, and having a pet, let alone a reptile.

I don't know if I'm just overthinking this way too much, but I'm really concerned. I think there's a chance my leopard gecko (Oliver) is impacted. He has a UTH, water, calcium, and all three hides. I feed him everyday (he's three months old). I feel as though I'm taking proper care of him, but I'm new, I might be doing something wrong.

I've done a lot of research, trust me, and anything related to impaction usually said that the geckos back legs wouldn't work right. I've seen Oliver in action, he has no issues walking at all. He's eating fine, moving around fine, going to the bathroom fine, and he's drinking water fine. However, I also read that their tummies could be blue because they're bruised. It looks to me like his tummie is blue. Not just a tint, it looks a fair bit blue. I haven't hand tamed him yet, so I don't want to just pick him up and flip him over to look. Especially because if he is impacted, I don't want to hurt him.

If this matters at all, I feed him meal worms. I know there are a lot of different views on this, and I say pro mealies for food, so if you disagree with that, that's cool. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I've heard of so many geckos being fine on them, so don't argue it with me please. Where I got him from they fed him on them, just to point that out.

What should I do? Am I just making too big of a deal out of thIis? Please help! Some advice from experts, or other noobs like me who have any thoughts on this, please share.

Thanks so much!

I am new 2this as well but sounds like u doing everything you shod for ur gecko I just found this on the net hope it can give you the answers you need! An if not just take it 2the vet or 2where u got it from for peac of mined!
What is Reptile Impaction

 

[Olievertraiqn]

I am new 2this as well but sounds like u doing everything you shod for ur gecko I just found this on the net hope it can give you the answers you need! An if not just take it 2the vet or 2where u got it from for peac of mined!

Thank you for the site, I'll definitely check it out! And thank you for taking the time to read this.

Just looked, I already looked at that site. : P Great minds think alike I guess, lol!

 

[EckoTheGecko2012]

Thank you for the site, I'll definitely check it out! And thank you for taking the time to read this.

Just looked, I already looked at that site. : P Great minds think alike I guess, lol!

Yep well hope it gets better soon an keep use updated!

 

[Mardy]

What substrate do you use?

I know how it can be scary to pick them up, but you may have to just so you can look. Don't flip him over, just place him in a clear container (or clear bowl) so you can look from the under side. If you can take a couple of pictures, then we can probably help you better.

 

[Olievertraiqn]

I use paper towel. I'm very much pro paper towel for substrate.

I'm a very nervous/cautios person. I'll see if I can get a picture up soon, but he's about to go into shedding, so if I do get one, it will be after that.

Do you know if it's at all possible for the bruised abdomen to be the only symptom of impaction? Because there's no other signs of anything unusual that he's showing. Every now and then I'll see him half lying down/half sitting up (by that I mean he's lying down on his tummy, but he's up on his front legs), and I wonder if there's anything wrong with his legs, but then he gets up and walks around like he's completely healthy.

My UTH is warm, but I don't think it's quite as warm as it should be. I feel terrible because I can't go out and buy him a new one at the moment. I was looking into getting some sort of lamp to produce heat. He has enough belly heat I believe, but the air is probably too cool. I know that the belly heat is the most important, but still.. I know they're nocturnal so I don't want to just go buy a regular lamp. Would a red lamp (one for night viewing) produce any heat at all? If not, other than a whole new UTH, is there any other form of heating I can provide for him?

One last thing, I've read a lot that you should (along with dusting the food) put a bowl of calcium in the viv and they'll take it as they need it. I have one, but I'm not sure if he's taking any from it since he'd do it at night. I notice a difference in his water level, and I watch him eat his food (since he's getting a lot of hand feeding to help with the hand taming), so I know he's doing that. I'm assuming they wouldn't take a lot of calcium at once, so I don't think I'd notice a difference in the amount right away. I also filled the bottle cap half way, so there's a fair bit in there. Is there any chance he wouldn't take the calcium even if he needed it?

I will for sure keep you guys updated!

 

[Mardy]

Leopard geckos do lay down the way you describe sometimes, where they prop the front legs up while hind legs lay relaxed. So that doesn't mean something's wrong with him. But if you do see that the stomach is blue, know that their internal organs would appear blue through their skin. So we really need the pictures to help you see if it looks normal or not.

If a gecko falls off something, they can bruise themselves or have internal bleeding. They do look different than impaction, so again a belly pic will help.

You use paper towels, so that's good, zero impaction risk.

If you want to supplement heating needs, get a ceramic heat emitter. These are heat lamps that emit heat without light, they are preferred to use with your leopard geckos. Be sure to take surface temperature to know for sure how hot it is on the floor where your gecko is laying on. You can use either a temperature gun or digital thermometer with a probe to test surface temperature.

As for dusting/supplementing, if you dust with an all-in-one multivitamin supplement, then no there's no calcium dish needed inside the tank, especially if you have a male. Now if you have a growing juvenile, or a female breeder, then a dish of calcium is a good idea to have. Make sure you dust your feeders with a multivitamin supplement, some popular brands are Repashy Calcium Plus, Zoo Med Reptivite, and Rep-Cal Herptivite. Multivitamin supplements should contain D3 (repashy calcium plus comes with D3), and they should be dusted 2-3x a week. Too much D3 is bad, too little equally as bad.

Hope that helps

 

[Olievertraiqn]

He did have a little fall, but it was a soft landing. I was worried at first, but he was acting normal as soon as he got up, so I just kept an eye on him. He's been acting normal since too, so I figured he was okay. Maybe he still got a bit of a bruise and that's the blue.

If he was bleeding internally, do you think there would be signs of it other than the blue tummy? There's no blood anywhere in the tank, not even in his feces. So I'm hoping that it's just his organs showing through his skins or a bruise that will go away.

I'm thinking I will get a ceramic heat emitter. I'm just unsure what wattage to get?

He's three months old, so a dish is probably better right now then, huh? The thing is, it's calcium with vitamin D3 in it. Should I take that out in case he's taking too much of it?

And yes, it does! You're honestly helping so much, it means so much to myself and Oliver!

 

[Mardy]

If there's internal bleeding, you may not see any blood in the stools depending on where he was bruised. You would see a dark red/brownish spots on the belly where internal bleeding/bruise occurs. But now that you mentioned he's 3 months old, you have a lil juvenile. Their belly will look blueish at that age, so chances are your lil guy is ok. Will be hard to tell without pics though.

As for wattage for the ceramic heat emitter, first you want to test to see just what the temperature is. Once you know how cold it is, then you can buy wattage according to how warm you want it to be. Since it's really just to supplement heating, I would pick the lowest wattage you can find as you don't want to create too warm of an environment. There should still be temperature gradient inside the tank, from warm to cool side.

If you have calcium with D3, then you are correct, you don't want to put those in a dish inside the tank. When leaving calcium in the tank, you want to only use the calcium without D3.

 

[Olievertraiqn]

Okay, that's a huge relief! I'm guessing he's okay then, because as far as I've seen, there's no red or brown spots on his belly. I'll keep an eye on him, but I'm guessing he's good.

I will definitely do that then.

Sounds good, but since he's a baby still and needs the calcium, should I keep the D3 calcium in the viv until I get pure calcium, or just take it out now?

 

[Mardy]

I would take it out for now. As long as you dust with multivitamins with calcium, that'll be good enough.

 

[Olievertraiqn]

Okay, will do. I'll try and go get calcium and possibly the ceramic heat emitter tomorrow.

On a whole other note, I know I need to stop worrying about this as much as I do, but I'm very nervous about hand taming Oliver because I have a huge irrational fear of his tail falling off. I know it grows back so it wouldn't be the end of the world, but I'm assuming he'd be more comfortable with the first one. How likely is it that he'd drop it because I freak him out?

 

[Mardy]

He shouldn't drop his tail unless you pull/tug on his tail. Just avoid his tail, and you'll be fine. Touching his tail is fine, leopard geckos don't drop their tails very easily. But if you hold onto their tail to prevent them from running, he'll probably drop it.

 

[Olievertraiqn]

That's a relief. I think I'll still give him some time before I start actually picking him up or anything. I'm not the one hand feeding him (I cannot bring myself to touch the worms, I hate bugs/insects with a burning passion) so I get my brother to do it. : P I have stuck my hand in the viv and just left it there for a few minutes until he came out and walked around and sniffed it though.

Is it ever too late to actually start picking him, or can he be hand tamed at any point in his life?

Sorry these questions are getting so off topic, but you've been such an amazing help, I'd love to hear any tips/advice you might have.

 

[Mardy]

Leopard geckos by nature will get more docile as they get older, so there's no harm in not handling him early. I've had some geckos that were extremely aggressive. But over time, without me doing anything special or having handling sessions, they just all of a sudden calmed down. Now these geckos would crawl onto my hand without me even scooping them up.

So don't worry either way, because the older they get, the easier it will be to hold them. Also if you just got this lil guy not long ago, it's generally a good idea to allow him to settle in first and get used to both you and the environment.

When you are ready, you can start by simply laying your hand inside the tank, lay it flat. Let the gecko approach you first, allow the gecko to check out your hand and get your scent. If he feels comfortable enough, he'll just crawl on your hand by himself. He may also walk away. If you continue to do that once or twice a week, eventually he'll get used to you. Just know that leopard geckos generally are more skittish when they are younger. So don't feel bad if he doesn't like to be handled just yet.

 

[Olievertraiqn]

Okay, that's what I thought. He does really well with the hand feeding, and he does come up to my hand when I lay it in the viv (it takes awhile). He won't climb on, but he does check it out and all that. It's a good start, and I'm proud of him.

Because they're nocturnal, I figured his movements would be mainly at night. I thought there might be a little movement during the day, but not too much. However, Oliver is out a lot of the time during the day. I'm not sure how much he moves around at night, but that's mainly when he goes to the bathroom and drinks his water because I see it in the morning. Is it normal for him to move around so much during the day? I make sure he gets close to an even 12 hour night/day schedule. It's not perfect, usually the day is a bit longer, but I can't really do much about that.

I don't think it's anything serious, I'm just curious.

 

[Mardy]

Being out and about during the day in captivity isn't abnormal, he may just be hungry and looking for food. But sometimes they'll be out because they got woken up by something, noise, movement, etc..

It's usually not a cause for concern. But you want to make sure he gets to have comfortable hides he can sleep in, hides that he can feel secure in without big holes and lights shining into them.

 

[Olievertraiqn]

Makes sense. He has all three hides, one of which I keep moist all the time, even when he's not shedding. He's in there often.

He's also almost always in his dry, warm hide which he seems to love. I've only ever seen him in his cool hide so I'm wondering if it's too big or if he only goes in there at night. Either way, he seems to like the other two at least.

 

[LeoMad]

Im no expert and i have only had geckos for a little over a year so I can only tell you what I would do if it were my gecko.

If it is just that he has a blue belly but he is eating, pooing and moving around normally, bright and alert and his normal self I would wait and see if any other syptoms develop.

if he is eating and pooing the food is going in, being processd and the waste coming out as it should so indicating no blockage. if he is bright and alert then he isnt feeling any discomfort or pain.

Im not saying hes fine and your over reacting by any means, you know your gecko and u know when something isnt right, i would just watch for anything else that may change rather than pining it all on the one syptom.

Again I am no expert I am just saying what i would do.

 

[Olievertraiqn]

No, that makes perfect sense, thank you.

As for your quote "you know your gecko and u know when something isnt right", I've only had him for a week today, so I actually don't yet, and that's why I was concerned.

What you said is completely true though, and Mardy has been such an amazing help also and pointed out to me that when they're young their bellies tend to be a little blue, so that's almost certainly why it is.

So again, thank you all for your time and advice. It's really helped and I feel a lot more comfortable and confident as a new pet owner.