pinkie = gecko death?

[geckomom]

I've had 3 female leos for about 6-7 months. Got them as babies, and they've all been doing great, eating, growing very well, nice fat tails, plenty of weight on them...

Thought they were at a size where I could try to feed a frozen/thawed pinkie to each of them. My two "normals" didn't have a problem...after a bit of coaxing, they really pigged out on one pinkie each. My albino, who was a bit smaller, seemed interested ("nosed" the pinkie, tried to take a bite, etc.), but it seemed too large for her, so I cut it into "bite-sized" pieces. She then chomped most of the pieces down, didn't seem to have a problem.

The next day, I saw she had regurgitated the pinkie "bits", and was lethargic and a bit skinnier looking. By that evening, I found her, dead.

With no obvious previous health problems, does this sound like even tho I cut the pinkie up, she might have gotten a piece that was too big for her to digest, or got impacted in her digestive tract? I also noticed she hadn't pooped the night after the pinkie feeding (this may sound weird, but I'm so familiar with each individual gecko, I can usually tell the poops apart! :o ).

Well, no more pinkies for my girls, not right now at least. The other two are doing just fine, but I don't want to push my (their) luck...

Just hoping for some opinions from those who know better...and thanks!

[meow_mix450]

Was the cage warm???, did you turn the heat off??? when there cold its harder for them to digest...Maybe it was to big, pr it could of been something wrong with the pinkies, im just giving thoughts

Meow

[reptiguy123]

Exact same thing happened with mine (except with crickets). I cut them up, one ate them and threw up. The other one ate them without a problem. The first one died.

[Bartman]

I had my gecko a long time ago regurge and i thought it was nothing, ended up being nothing...this was before i had any experience with reptiles so i didnt think it was a big deal at all...im happy it wasnt but that just reminded me of that...They were a bunch of little meal worms i gave her

[geckomom]

Originally posted by meow_mix450
Was the cage warm???, did you turn the heat off??? when there cold its harder for them to digest...Maybe it was to big, pr it could of been something wrong with the pinkies, im just giving thoughts

Meow

All good points, Meow - I check the temps several times every day, warm and cool sides both very stable. I have a UTH on warm side, plus a DayGlo light above that's on a timer and turns off at night, and a red light and blue "moonlight" light (of lower wattage) that shine toward the cool side (they stay on 24 hrs/day). Heat wasn't turned off at all, I know how important that is to digestion, and there were no power interruptions.

Nothing wrong witht he pinkies that I could tell, they seemed fresh, I thawed them thoroughly, and the other 2 girls ate theirs whole. I think she must have gotten a piece that was too big, even tho i cut the pinkie up...that's just the only thing I can think of, especially w/ the regurge and no poop (all 3 were regular as clockwork on the pooping, and the other 2 still are).

I wish that fewer husbandry "mistakes" were lethal...I feel so bad for her and miss her, Squeaky was a real sweetie! But now she is o> , and I guess I've learned a lesson that was way harder on her than it was on me....

Thanks, everyone!

[Blazin]

Actually I find it hard to beleive that impaction was the culprit here. Usually impaction draws out longer than a period of a day or so. I am wondering if there wasn't something toxic on the pinky. Also whats amazing to me is that the leopard even ate a cut up pinky to begin with. I think I would have gotten a necropsy done to see if you could pinpoint the actually cause. Keep us posted on the health of the others.

[Tim and Julie B]

Perhaps the meal itself was too large for her. That often causes them to regurge and the actual reugurgitation process is what causes the stress that can lead to death. Sorry to hear the bad news.

Julie