#pet gecko

[conkreetmonkey]

Fuck, my leopard gecko has fallen ill. He's had a squinty, slightly puffy eye for about two weeks now, which I was hoping was just irritation from a bit of substrate. He was still functional, just with worse vision, but he's tong-fed anyway so it didn't really matter. I had to help him remove shed from that eye at one point, which he did NOT make easy because, understandably, animals generally don't like it when big metal tweezers come within a millimeter of their eyeball.

NOW his other eye has started to go in the same direction; he can still open it, but doesn't seem to like to, and when he does it looks wrong, as if it's fully black and matte-er than it should be (it's hard to tell, because he naturally has dark grey eyes with black patterning on the irises/scleras and black pupils, and also his eyelids are mostly rimmed with black), AND his right "gonad" (whatever you call the two lumps on male gecko genitals, I honestly forget) is pink and swollen... he's definitely sick.

I tried to feed him, but he wasn't having it, and I can't tell if it's because he's refusing food as seriously ill animals often do, or if he simply can't see the waxworm. When a leopard gecko keeps its mouth firmly shut as you rub a dusted waxworm against his nose, you KNOW something's wrong. I was honestly hoping to annoy him into chomping down on it, upon which, if it's a vision issue, I imagine he'd recognize it as food, swallow, and understand I was trying to feed him. He eventually hid in his hole (so he can still navigate his tank to some degree, but maybe it's just memory?), so I'll try to feed him again and use our old "feeding time" pavlov signal (scrunching plastic) to hopefully get him in an eating mood. I know he can hear, because he has been following my voice.

What rotten timing, I now need to find an exotic vet before they all shut down for the holidays. I messaged one right after noticing his eye, and after several days they emailed me back saying that their reptile specialist was out for an indeterminate period of time and recommended other offices in the area. After this, I foolishly, irresponsibly thought I could just use some eye flush on him to get the substrate out, but it's clearly not substrate but an illness at this point... Guess it's time to get searching. I should probably try to find and contact the couple that ran the small local mom-and-pop herp store before an improbable chain of unlucky life events forced them to temporarily shut down (injury, illness, the landlord jacking up the price, AND car troubles all within a month... poor guys), they'll likely have advice.

Honestly, this is almost certainly 100% my fault. I procrastinated on obtaining the eye flush, because I'd need to get a ride to the store and was stupidly afraid of asking my own parents or sister for help for almost a WEEK... I keep him on sub-par substrate because it's easier to clean, and feed him a sub-par diet because he's picky and too bad at hunting for crickets so he lives mainly on dusted worms (the equivalent of a human living mainly on red meat).

I've felt guilt over this for about as long as I've owned him, but if he survives this, I may well just bite the bullet and rehome him to someone more capable or the local sanctuary. I'm a serial procrastinator and generally just an irresponsible pos who has killed multiple cactuses... I shouldn't own an exotic pet. I got him when I was 10, and I shouldn't have. I have no business owning such an advanced, finicky animal now, let alone did I as a child. I've avoided facing this for too long, and now my pet is paying the price for my unwillingness to face my guilt.

FUCK.

(If anybody thinks they know what this illness is and/or anything I can do to help him before I'm able to get him to a herp-qualified vet, PLEASE let me know)

[flyingwiththefishes]

The coolest goober you ever did see

[paleomancy]

Got a Crestie today!! This is Renfield. He's currently trying to figure out how glass works in his new enclosure.

[ghostly-gator-snek]

Gary is so photogenic

[pumpkin-the-leo]

This is a picture I took the day I got my leopard gecko on September 17th, 2022 💕

[wolfchanw]

My daughter asked for a crested gecko for Christmas. I am incapable of half-assing anything with any animals in my house, so $800 worth of setup later….meet Brownie. She slept like this for hours yesterday, I am so glad we brought this ridiculous creature home.

Also yes, Brownie is 1000% my total and complete responsibility.

[tagerrkix]

Eden was their ✨disney princess era✨

[niqvassieart]

Pet Commissions

Hello! I'm going to take on 6 A4-sized pet portrait commissions to work on next week for anyone interested. Any animal species is fine, I just need high-quality photos of your lovely animal friends in good light. ✨

Can do pencil or coloured pastel and i always send along any pages of studies/sketches i make as well.

Please order via my online shop before Dec. 4th!

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Will send them by December 10th so hopefully will arrive in time for holidays/christmas but cannot be 100% sure <3

Feel free to message or email at niqvassie.art(at)gmail.com if you have any questions. Thank you! ��️

[sneksnack]

New Caledonian Geckos 🍌🥭🦎

[rosepetalexotics]

I am thankful you shared nubby. What a lovely lad

this thanksgiving i am thankful for Nubby

[scoriarose]

It's difficult to know what our beloved pets want; doubly so when they have no facial expressions and can't make many sounds.

Here's a quick and easy way to communicate with your snake! Specifically, finding out where they'd like to go! I start out by playing a game I call "airplane" where they are the pilot and my hand flies them around. At first they usually don't realize they are in control, and I usually end up slowly flying them into a wall. When they look away from the wall I'll fly in that direction. Some catch on faster than others, but at a certain point your pet will realize, "Hey, I go whatever direction I'm looking in!" and instead of being a helpless passenger being carried, they actively decide what they'd like to explore!

Learning this is great as it not only gives them a way to communicate with you and feel empowered, but it will also encourage them to try to communicate even even not being held. It's a great way to let your snake explore if you can't let them go on the ground and free roam.

In this video you can see a very simple example of how this helped me know where Scoria wanted to be put in her enclosure. She directed me where she wanted to go, and once I had her in the correct place, off she went!

Once your pet realizes they can communicate with you, it's important to pay attention and reward their behavior (so long as it will not put them in danger) to reinforce that this action works. They might even try other actions to communicate specific things- Scoria made up her own gesture for "I'm tired and want to go to bed for the night." She'll dig with her nose at the palm of my hand- and only does it then! I'm curious if anyone else's snake created their own "words".

(This is different than even Scoria burrows between my fingers. Maybe times she will sweetly nuzzle them too. That's play and affection! Palm digging is only for when she's done for the day, I think she was trying to communicate she wanted to burrow to her den to sleep, and me putting her to bed enforced this, so we both know her doing this action results in her being put back.)

[lingrimmart]

[ceticalys]

i have so many herbies to post....... watch him grow into his neck folds with me

[thekeymonster]

Hydrangea Kitty and Friend Again - Botanimal Pet Portrait

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If you like what I do and would like to support my artworks, consider joining my Patreon!

[lpsotd]

todays littlest pet shop of the day is … gecko #947 !!