From the weight loss and the cricket quencher incident... I realized that the weight loss is from dehydration.

After becoming curious about why he was laying inside of the cricket quencher, I picked him up and dipped his nose into the water dish and he immediately started drinking it...

I sat him down in his cage and he continued drinking the water.

But what I don't understand is that this same water dish, since we first bought him.

Even if it is weightloss is caused by not eating enough food. What would be the cause of it.

I only have one probable reason behind it, and that's impaction. But what are the symptoms behind it? Lacking of eating/ drinking?

I bought my first two Leopard Geckos from Petco and they didn't have an appetite problems, especially as babies... all the babies I've encountered are usually hardy eaters that can usually never get enough.

With that being said, I'll be looking for a vet in the area. But what are some of the things that could be prescribed for impaction.

Thanks again!

I'm not sure if it's the same for all lizards, but some signs of impaction are not moving, not eating, not drinking, sometimes you can feel where the impaction is, if it's bad enough. What substrate are you using? If you're using calci-sand or any kind of sand, I'd suggest switching to paper towels or newspaper right away. Sand is dangerous for adult animals, but it's especially dangerous for babies because their hunting skills aren't honed, and they inevitably ingest sand.

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Once you turn Mac, you never look back.

“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.” -- Ayn Rand

Blitz wasn't eating or drinking, and he could barely walk when I got him. My baby gecko was impacted, I took him in as a rescue from Petland. I didn't even know about impaction, and calci-sand until I rescued him. I started looking things up on the net, and thats when I found this site. I suspected he had Metabolic Bone Disease and that he was impacted. I took him to the vet, and they gave him a shot of B-12 and calcium straight into his gut. They said it was a shot in the dark, but they thought it might get him going. He was less than .1 ounce then. I had to give him warm water baths, and I hand fed him a liquidy slurry of food/water with an eyedropper, and it finally got him going.
Just get him into the vet when you can, and hopefully they can give you some good advice and some options. Take care!
manda

i would do a search on this site for the eyedropper food recipe. Its a combination of bugs, baby food and pedialite all mashed together. You drop it on his nose and he'll lick it off.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

Some reptiles have trouble recognizing still standing water. Thats why it is recommended with some animals to put an airstone in the water bowl to agitate the surface.
The gecko may not have realized what it was until you put its nose in it.
The chief sign of serious impaction is that the gecko won't deficate. The eating will slow down and eventually stop due to the blockage, nothing can pass.
You might try givein it a couple of drops of mneral oil with an eye dropper. Also giving a warm bath for 15-20 minutes might help.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Oh okay... I don't think he's impacted.

He's defecates on a normal routine. He's active even sometimes during the day. And he eats when the insects are moving. I'm starting to believe that he really doesn't recognize the still water. That's why he wouldn't eat the mealworms or waxworms because they wouldn't be moving.

I'm looking for a better source of worms because the ones I buy from Petco are alive but already sorted into small containers in increments of 50 or so... but I'm sure I can ask for an associate for worms that arent already sorted from their back stock or something. That way they may be a little more alive then then prepackaged ones...

you can order them online at many different sources and keep them in your fridge. Much cheaper, then you can work on gut loading. What about crickets?

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

yeah for some reason, the waxworms dont last very long at all in the fridge... from what I heard... they dont need to be fed if they're in the fridge... is that true? Every time I take the waxworms out of the fridge they rot or die before the day is over. So I must be doing something wrong.

The cricket I buy fresh, not already sorted because I can't buy that many at a time until I can work on housing them separately...

It's just that he never eats the wax worms or meal worms when they're inside of the dish and he doesn't drink the still water...

I've never had this happen to a baby gecko before... and he's definitely not wild caught or anything. I just wish I knew how he was kept before I purchased him because he was obviously eating before then... but then when I place him in preferred conditions... he doesn't eat or drink.

I'm going to keep trying different feeding methods and what not until I definitely find something that works.

Maybe it's the still water that's bothering him... has anyone else had that problem before?

do you think he needs a "ramp" up into the water dish or food dish? maybe he isn't seeing into it?

__________________
My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

That's probably not a bad idea... the dishes arent high... my full sized geckos could easily see into it and I don't remember them having any problems with the same dishes. But he is a really little guy so I'm going to try the ramps.

I mean he climbs into the dishes all the time but if it's the dishes with the meal worms in them then he still won't eat them. But he was just climbing into the same sized dish to get the cricket quencher...

I'm completely clueless about this little uys behaviors