Signs Your Leopard Gecko is Malnourished
If you notice your gecko looking skinny, or it’s dealing with a stuck shed or some other obvious health problem, it’s probably due to underlying illness. But there’s also a chance that your pet isn’t getting something it needs. Our first priority is always to prevent this stuff from happening, but what do you do if you notice something is already wrong?
In this article, we’ll talk about the causes of malnutrition and how you should respond to them. Let’s get into it.
What Does Malnutrition Mean?
Right off the bat, we need to talk about malnutrition as a concept. If you want to get nitty gritty about it, “malnutrition” is what happens when your body is lacking some kind of vitamin or mineral that it needs.
It doesn’t mean not getting enough fat or carbs, resulting in being skinny. The term for that is “malnourishment”. For simplicity’s sake, we’re going to use “malnutrition” to mean both things in this article, but it’s worth noting that they’re different things.
How Does Malnutrition Happen?
Malnutrition is usually a symptom, not the root of the actual problem. When something is wrong with your leo’s health, its body’s first response is going to be to go into survival mode and hunker down. This means less physical activity, including eating. This can result in rapid weight loss, stuck sheds, and other issues.
The takeaway here is that if you notice a problem and think “my leopard gecko looks skinny,” the first thing you should do is call the vet. You can’t diagnose the underlying problem just by noticing that your pet looks underweight or is having problems with its eyecaps.
Your vet will most likely want to do a fecal swab and might run some other tests just to be sure that your leo doesn’t have another health problem going on.
But if that’s not the case, the cause of your pet’s weight loss is most likely neglect; for some reason, it’s just not getting what it needs. Naturally, we hope you’re reading this before getting a leopard gecko, and not after! It’s good to arm yourself with this knowledge, because if your leopard gecko is dealing with malnutrition, you can usually tell what it’s lacking by the condition it’s in.
Causes of Malnutrition
Malnutrition can have a lot of causes, from macronutrient deficiency to missing vitamins to missing UVB light to dehydration. These are the main things you should be looking out for if your leo starts to look “off”.
Underlying Diseases
As we mentioned, malnutrition is usually a secondary symptom of some other problem. It bears repeating that your first instinct when you notice something wrong with your pet should be to call the vet! You need to make sure that the problem is what it looks like before proceeding.
That being said, there are a few tip-offs that can let you know that the problem is actually a disease and not just lacking nutrition. If you notice your leo having abnormal breathing, especially any wheezing or bubbling around its nose, that’s a sign of an underlying illness.
You can also look out for signs of mouth rot like yellow plaque around the mouth or excessive drooling. Last but not least is diarrhea. This is almost always a sign that something else is going on with your leo.
Lack of Macronutrients
Macronutrients are the main things we think of when we think about what we get from our food: fat, protein, and carbs. If your pet isn’t getting enough chemical energy from its food, it will start to burn through its fat stores quickly, resulting in visible weight loss.
The main way leos store fat is in their chubby tails, so you’ll notice your leo losing weight in its tail first. Your leo’s tail should be about ¾ the thickness of its body, or about as thick as its neck. Too thin, and it’s probably underweight. Too thick and you might consider putting it on a diet.
In more extreme cases, you might start to see bones protruding under your leo’s skin, particularly its ribs, hips, or spine.
Vitamin A Deficiency
Leopard geckos are prone to vitamin A deficiency, which can lead to bad shedding and eye problems. If your notice your leo’s eyes look swollen, puffy, or mucusy, or its eyecaps get stuck, or it can’t open its eyes, that’s usually a vitamin A issue.
Vitamin A also commonly results in stuck sheds, especially around the fingers and face. Your leo might get little “gloves” of shed skin that refuse to come off or stuck shed around the nostrils or eyes.
Vitamin D3 Deficiency
Vitamin D3 has two main ingredients: calcium and UVB light. If your leo doesn’t get both, it can’t make vitamin D3, which it needs to grow bones. Lack of D3 results in metabolic bone disease, which causes soft, rubbery bones and can lead to broken limbs. It’s often called “rubber jaw” because your pet’s jaws are the first places that show weakness. It’s usually accompanied by lethargy.
Dehydration
Dehydration can be confusing because it can look like so many other things. It usually causes lethargy, stuck shed, and loss of appetite. The way to know for sure is to pinch your leo’s skin between your fingers and see if it springs back. If not, your leo is probably dehydrated.
What to Do if You Notice Malnutrition in Your Leopard Gecko
This part’s simple. Once you know the problem isn’t a parasite or an infection, and you figure out what your leo is lacking, just make sure it’s getting enough of it. Provide a balanced diet with both protein and fat for energy. If your leo looks really skinny, be sure to feed them slowly, as too much food too quick can be deadly. Dust your feeders with a vitamin A/calcium supplement for micronutrient balance, and make sure your leo’s tank has a shallow water dish on the cool side, so it doesn’t evaporate.