[Jess]

Some one dropped off their leopard gecko to be adopted out at the pet store I work at. He is 15 years old, was living on calcium sand, had no humid hide, and he hide a bright white basking light for his warm side (That hurts their eyes). He had a ton of retained shed stuck in his eye too. He broke my heart, and after LOTS of convincing my parents finally agreed to let me adopt him!


So I dumped out all of the sand, cleaned out his tank really well, gave him a new hide that he actually fits in and a humid hide, and used a ceramic heater instead of the basking light. I bought him some nice new dishes today too, since his old water dish was covered in sand stains and complete with algae. I wanted to take a "before" picture, but I had to get rid of the sand before I brought him home LOL... Here are the "after" pictures though!

He's actually pretty chunky!

His bad eye. I put some water on it and the crap softened up enough that he could open it, but once he was back in his viv it dried up again. If I can't fix it myself over the weekend, I'll call the vet to see if I can get him some ointment. Does anyone know of something I can put on his eye to help him?

Whatcha lookin' at??

Discovering his new wormie dish:

So far, he is incredibly sweet and friendly. I don't understand how someone could get rid of him! He was very patient with me when I was wetting his eye, and trying to get the retained shed off his fingers. I tried feeding him a little roach, but it kept hiding under him and he was getting really confused. He happily ate it out of my fingers though! Later when I was peeling off the mass amount of tape that is stuck to the side of his tank for some reason, he ran right over to me and stared at me... He must have figured out that me = food.


And he needs a name! I really like Stanley, but I'm still thinking. Other possible names are Captain Jack (His eye looks piratey!), Sheldon, Kody, or Quincey. Any other ideas?


And here are a few of Stella. I can't leave her out!


Why is this empty? FOOD. NOW.

Roaches or mealies? I can't decide, so I MUST be in two dishes at once.

Just randomly chillin'.

 

[Elliriyanna]

They are so cute If I ever got a reptile it would be a leopard gecko ... I am so glad you got him

 

[tinypixiexoxo]

Aww I'm sure he's so grateful to you for cleaning up his place and attempting to remedy his eye! So glad you got him. Stella looks great too, I love the "randomly chillin" pose

 

[Nibbler]

aww soo cute
what about, izzy, or iggy or smitty although i love the name stanley

 

[Elliriyanna]

His markings i think deserve a regal name

 

[Jess]

Thanks guys! I think I'm going to go with Stanley, but Oliver, Leo (Leopold or Leonardo LOL), Reggie, and Emmett are high on my list now too. There are so many cute names he could have! He is such a sweet and gentle little guy, I want him to have a little-old-man kind of name.


But he is already a completely different gecko than before, and I haven't even him him 2 days yet. At the store he was really lethargic, and would army-crawl around in the sand with his eyes closed. One of my co-workers actually thought he was dead!
Now he is exploring everything, walks normally with his eye open, and he will get really excited and come out of his little cave when he sees me. He is very alert and curious.


He still doesn't know what to do with his humid hide though. He just stares at it.


I'm going to try some Saline eye drops on him today, since I heard those were safe.

 

[Purple-Hops]

omgoodness! how terrible! I HATE petstores. Any one can have pets and do whatever they want with them. He looks good for 15 years of bad treatments. Bless you Jess for being a gecko goddess
He's cool. I like the name Stanley and Oliver (no biases there ) Quincey was nice too ^.^
How long do leopard gecko's live?

 

[Jess]

My pet store actually takes really good care of their pets... It's just the adopt-a-pets that come in really neglected!


And I guess they can live 20+ years. On a breeder's website that I was reading, they claimed to have a 30 year old male! I think this little guy has a few years left in him, because he is overall in pretty good shape for being so old.

 

[Purple-Hops]

Some pet stores do take care of the animals yes ^.^ But I meant how they'll just sell ANYONE a pet, regardless of the research or care into it. The old pwner obviously didn't know jack about gecko's Thanks goodness he's in your hands!

 

[Nibbler]

Some pet stores do take care of the animals yes ^.^ But I meant how they'll just sell ANYONE a pet, regardless of the research or care into it. The old pwner obviously didn't know jack about gecko's Thanks goodness he's in your hands!

I think its a combo of both pet stores selling people pets to whoever takes them which i totally agree with you about, and the fact that theres sooo many darn websites on the internet that give such horrible advice as well. which a lot of people not knowing any better, read this advice and do as that certain website says which is sad

 

[Jess]

Yeah, I agree. Not everyone even wants to listen to your advice either... That's what's frustrating about working at a pet store.


And Stanley has developed some attitude LOL... He decided that the HATES being picked up! Once you get him out of his tank he is OK. But when I try to get him in his tank, he flails wildly and does a little alligator death-roll to try to espace! Poor guy. I want to help his eye, but I don't know if I should be picking him up or letting him calm down for a while and leave him alone.


He is eating really well though. I hand-feed him a roach nymph every night, and I was helping him find mealies. He will go after them when they are by his "good" eye, but he looses them when they crawl near the other side of his face. He has horrible aim to, so it takes him 3 or 4 tries before he can get it.


Some good news it that I found lamp dimmers on Amazon for only $10! The rheostat & thermostat I was looking at before was $18-$25. I should be able to get him a UTH this week, so Dud can have his CHE back.

 

[Nibbler]

Yeah, I agree. Not everyone even wants to listen to your advice either... That's what's frustrating about working at a pet store.


And Stanley has developed some attitude LOL... He decided that the HATES being picked up! Once you get him out of his tank he is OK. But when I try to get him in his tank, he flails wildly and does a little alligator death-roll to try to espace! Poor guy. I want to help his eye, but I don't know if I should be picking him up or letting him calm down for a while and leave him alone.


He is eating really well though. I hand-feed him a roach nymph every night, and I was helping him find mealies. He will go after them when they are by his "good" eye, but he looses them when they crawl near the other side of his face. He has horrible aim to, so it takes him 3 or 4 tries before he can get it.


Some good news it that I found lamp dimmers on Amazon for only $10! The rheostat & thermostat I was looking at before was $18-$25. I should be able to get him a UTH this week, so Dud can have his CHE back.

poor baby your doing such a good job with him, what if you were to,bring him to a vet could they clean his eye or something ? as for him not wanting t be touched give it time i think would be the best as some just are more shy then others, Julien for me is easy out going and wants to be held where, CYRUS did like you little man does he will come around

 

[Purple-Hops]

Take it slow with him. Can you feed him his squigglies out of your hand?

About you working at a pet store, I guess with people like me all the time saying "noooo don't listen to pet store employees!" I'm marring your actual good knowledge and experience! I ran into a few good employees at the new PetSmart when they opened (but with the turnover rate over employee contracts there's less informed workers now).. Sorry about that! there are good employees!

 

[Jess]

@Nibbler: I tried to clean his eye myself with a Q-tip, but the shed is really stuck on there. After I put some warm water on it and softed the shed up a little, I gently rubbed the Q-tip on it, and it wouldn't budge. I don't think the vet could really clean it off or anything, but I'm going to see if I can at least get some antibiotic eye cream, to make sure it isn't infected and maybe keeping something on the eye continiously will soften it enough so that it comes off easier.
But other than being half-blind, he doesn't act like it hurts him. He lets me touch it and everything.


@Amanda: He will let me finger-feed him, touch him, scratch his head, ect. but he just doesn't like being picked up! I've been trying to coax him onto my hand, just so he can get used to walking on it with out thinking he is going to be grabbed right away. (Maybe his old owner didn't pick him up nicely?)


And it's fine LOL, I realize a lot of pet store workers completey fail. It definitely bothers me how blindly people rely on pet store advice... There are some great people out there, but I've run into SO many flat-out stupid people at pet stores!

 

[Dragonrain]

Congrats on your new addition He's certainty a handsome guy! I can't believe someone would care for him for 15 years and then be able to just dump him like that, so sad! But I guess it all turned out for the best, since he has a great new home now.

Aurora haaated being picked up when I first got her. I got her from a breeder and she was well taken care of but I don't think the breeder handled his lizards very often, so it was kind of a new (and scarey) thing for her. She use to freak out and do the little lizard death rolls every time I picked her up. Honestly I actually don't handle my geckos too often either but after about a year of her living with us Aurora started to tolerate being held better. It's still not her favorite thing in the world, but she tolerates it calmly now.

 

[Sasami]

He's adorable and very lucky to have you to care for him now .

 

[Jess]

Thanks!


I don't understand how someone could just dump a pet they've had for so long either! I don't usually handle my lizards too much, just a few times a week so that they aren't scared of me. I would just like to be able to hold him without him freaking out!
BTW, is it normal for them to "death roll"? It really freaked me out the first time he did it, because I know that they shouldn't be on their backs and I was scared he would hurt himself.


And we just picked Chuey up from having a dental, so I asked the vet about Stanley's eye. Chuey's vet isn't the one that I go to for reptiles so he doesn't know as much about them, but he said that a cream called Genteele (sp?) would be safe to use on his eye. It's water based, and not medicated. I'll double-check with my reptile vet, but do you guys think it is safe?

 

[urofan]

Congratulations on your new leopard gecko.

 

[Dragonrain]

I think the death roll thing is relatively normal. Both my adults have done it on occasion. Aurora used to do it a lot. I wouldn't be to worried about it, but hopefully once he gets more comfortable around you he'll stop.

About the eye cream, if I where in that situation I'd just call up my reptile vet and see what they think. They should be able to tell you over the phone if it's safe to use or not.

 

[Jess]

Ok, I will.


And he actually lert me pick him up twice yesterday! I moved my hermit crabs dowstairs to where I was keeping his cage, and now he is in my bedroom on a little table. I'm re-painting the gross decoration he came with so it looks a lot nicer now, and I'm working on decorating his cage a little more. I'll get some new pics this weekend!