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NaterD   Isujustice05   Shutterstud06  
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 #1848918


NaterD
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 Petco Leo - Sad

Hey all! Yesterday I decided it was time for me to own a tank reptile. I went down to petco (the only pet store in town) and bought a leo, a 10 gallon tank, a screen for the tank, calcium powder suppliment, vitamin powder with D3 suppliment, a dozen really small pinhead crickets, an under-tank heating pad, and food bowls for the water, meal worms (when I get some) and calcium powder. Well when I see the little guy I had just bought he was extremely skinny and almost totally inactive with his eyes always being shut when not disturbed. When moving him or handling him, which I’ve done very little of, he does seem to wake up and move very quickly to avoid being grabbed. However as soon as he’s had a few minutes away from contact or being disturbed he closes his eyes and goes to sleep. In his tank I placed a humidity chamber with damp peat moss covering 3/8" of the bottom and he pretty must just stays in there and doesn’t come out for anything.

So knowing this must be a bad sign I started doing some research and found that leos should be much more active than this guy is. This little dude is extremely skinny too. His legs are really just skin and bones and his tail has no bloat in it at all....totally skinny like a lizard’s tail. His body is long and very skinny as well. In fact, near his hind legs you can see loose skin in on place. Sadly you can also see what looks like his hip bones pretty plainly as well.

One thing I notices is when I hold him up with light behind him I can see that he has a black blotchy area under his belly not far from his vent and it takes up roughly 1/4" of his entire underside in size. I’ve read this might be a sign of impaction, but I’m not sure (yes? probably?)

He did have a bowel movement which was black and I didn’t detect any sand in it. As far as I know it’s the only bowel movement in the 24+ hours that I’ve had him.

So reading some suggestions on this forum I decided to give him a bath in some warm distilled water for about 15 - 20 minutes. During this time I got some calcium powder and lined his entire mouth with a little bit (and a small amount of water as well). He did lick about half of it off, the other half he rubbed off moving around. During and after this bathing I saw no difference in behavior @ all. As soon as I returned him to his tank he went to his humidity dome and passed out again.

So needless to say, I got a very unhealthy pet from petco. It is unacceptable that these companies provide pets if all they are going to do is kill them or almost kill them first. They gave me a 15 day garuntee but I am afraid he’s not going to live 48 hours from the time of purchase. They also told me if he dies I can replace him or get a refund, to which I replied if he dies I’ll not be getting another from you I’ll be getting my money back.

Is there anything else I can do to help this guy through it (I know it’s probably a hopeless cause but I’m going to try anyway)? I have though about trying to dust & feed him one of these tiny crickets which I’ve been gutloading since yesterday @ purchase, but right now he has no interest in being fed or pretty much anything @ all. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!!!



09/01/08  06:17pm

 #1848924


Isujustice05
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   Message To: NaterD   In reference to Message Id: 1848918


 Petco Leo - Sad

search for marcias golden gate gecko slurry plain and simple!
09/01/08  06:25pm

 #1848983


Shutterstud06
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   Message To: Isujustice05   In reference to Message Id: 1848924


 Petco Leo - Sad

Link there a link to the post mentioned above!



09/01/08  07:11pm


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