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lora01fl
11-21-2010, 09:24 AM
Hello everyone! I don't post anymore, but need a little help

After a really crummy summer, my son has one gecko left. We had a power outage while on vacation and came home to dead and dying geckos (5 cresteds and 2 gargoyles), one snake and his 8 year old bearded dragon. He cried for days and is still not over it. The bearded dragon has been the hardest for him, they literally "grew up" together. Yes, we had someone coming in to check them but they didn't have reptile experience, just were doing what they were told to do every other day. As horrible as we all feel, nothing I can do now.

Anyway, the one we have left used to be a stellar pet, Trev carried him around everywhere and he never, ever showed any kind of aggression. Now he will silently launch himself into the walls of his terrarium when we walk by and launches himself out of the door and latches on to whatever he hits when we open the door and does not let go unless he is going after a better bite. He has drawn blood on both of us many times now and we both are sporting moon shaped bruises on our hands and upper arms.

To feed him is a tag team effort, Trev wraps a t-shirt or hand towel around his hand/arm and opens the door; Treeko launches out at him and bites while I replace his CGD and clean fast. Then we put him and the t-shit into his tank until the next day when we do it all again. This is not my idea of fun.

He is housed in a 18x18x24 terrarium (that now has three sides completely covered so he can't see us, I was worried he'd get hurt hitting the walls) , has tons of climbing and hiding places, eats GCD exclusively, has not been bred, and other than the heat wave he almost died in, has had the best of care and from day one was a gecko who would climb onto your hand to hang out with you.

I have searched for comparable issues here and other forums and just really don't have any answers. We have tried waiting out the bite and holding him, but he just launches and bites again, and again, and again... The moon shaped marks on my nose were a little hard to explain at work :oops: I realize that he is breeding age, but this does not present like the videos showing them doing breeding related biting. There is also no vocalization before, during or after the biting.

So, anyone with any experience with this, or advise to impart? Trev would love to get another garg, beardie and snake, but this has been a bad time for all of us and I just cannot afford to do that for him right now.

Honestly, we wondering just what to do with Treeko as he is not a pet anymore and definitely is not happy in his environment. We have to be able to open his door to take care of him. Even if we never held him again it would be fine, but we cannot safely feed or care for him like he is.

Thank you all very much in advance!

Lora

Jaybee
11-21-2010, 10:22 AM
How awful, I'm sorry for your losses...

I wonder if the heat wave affected your gecko's brain? I have no idea if that's even possible, I'm just throwing it out there. Some crested geckos -can- be a little bitey sometimes, it's not outside the realm of possibility, but that sounds pretty vicious.

How have your temps been since then? What's your average reading?

Have you tried changing his enclosure around a little bit? Maybe taking the 'furniture' out, washing everything down thoroughly, putting it back together differently? I'm not sure, maybe there's a smell or something affecting him. I don't know what else to suggest.

Lauren and Hunter
11-21-2010, 10:26 AM
Wow. I have never even heard of that kind of behavior in a crested gecko. That is bizarre. I don't know what to tell you. I hope someone with experience with aggressive animals can give you some feedback. I'm sorry for your son :cry: You guys should consider a leopard gecko or two. They are my favorite reptiles... a lot of fun to watch. Easy to care for. Your son would probably like them.

lora01fl
11-21-2010, 10:45 AM
How awful, I'm sorry for your losses...

I wonder if the heat wave affected your gecko's brain? I have no idea if that's even possible, I'm just throwing it out there. Some crested geckos -can- be a little bitey sometimes, it's not outside the realm of possibility, but that sounds pretty vicious.

How have your temps been since then? What's your average reading?

Have you tried changing his enclosure around a little bit? Maybe taking the 'furniture' out, washing everything down thoroughly, putting it back together differently? I'm not sure, maybe there's a smell or something affecting him. I don't know what else to suggest.

Thank you for your input Jen.

He is very vicious, if given "human" traits, I would describe it as rage.

He changed immediately after regaining most of his strength/weight from his near death experience as Trev likes to call it.

His enclosure was taken apart and cleaned, then rearranged, cleaned again, then we purchased a totally new one with all new furnishings thinking that the old one just had bad mojo for him. The behavior did not get better or worse.

Temp is steady at 74 (night) to 76(day) measured with a digital thermometer and confirmed with a temp gun and he does not have any artificial lighting so just ambient room lighting. Lights in the room are out at 8:30pm and back on at 6:45am. Humidity between 65 and 70% measured both top and bottom of enclosure.

It feels like we are doing everything we can for him, but very frustrating!

lora01fl
11-21-2010, 10:50 AM
Wow. I have never even heard of that kind of behavior in a crested gecko. That is bizarre. I don't know what to tell you. I hope someone with experience with aggressive animals can give you some feedback. I'm sorry for your son :cry: You guys should consider a leopard gecko or two. They are my favorite reptiles... a lot of fun to watch. Easy to care for. Your son would probably like them.

Thank you for your suggestion.

We did have one leo that also died during this time. She was an albino stripe giant who was fun for him. I can't believe I forgot to include her!

We may look at getting another one when we can afford it.

PandaParade
11-21-2010, 11:36 AM
If you can afford shipping I can send you one of his favorite morphs if you would like. I am so sorry for your loss.

Geckogurl
11-21-2010, 11:37 AM
It does sound as if the heat wave that he almost died in might have caused some form of damage. I know with people exposure to intense heat cause lead to damage just as much as exposure to extreme cold can. The cells overload and start dying, or sending false signals, any manner of things. Why should the brain of a gecko be any different than ours? If it is brain related, there may not be anything that you can do. It's not exactly as if there are gecko neurosurgeons out there, and if there were, they'd probably be just as pricey as the human ones.

So sorry for your loss though, especially the beardie. I know from experience what it's like to lose a pet that you 'grew up' with. Except in my case, it was a cat that I'd raised from a kitten on a doll bottle because his momma wouldn't feed him. Had him for eight years before we lost him, that was rough. I can't imagine how horrible it must have been to come home to what you came home too.

Lauren and Hunter
11-21-2010, 12:01 PM
The others are probably right. I'm not saying that you should stop trying to calm him down, by any means, but he may just be your responsibility now, to deal with for the rest of his mean little life. My suggestion would be to take Ashley (PandaParade) up on her offer and get another pet for your son so that it can help all of you (especially your son) heal from this. Ashley has some very nice animals :) I do hope things turn around for you with your little guy, though.

Jayne
11-21-2010, 01:04 PM
Yes, I was thinking brain damage too.

You might be able to manage him easier if you had some sort of setup like part of the enclosure could be closed off for feeding/cleaning. Like, get him to come to one side and close off that side, then tend to the other side, then let him back out.

p.s. - Also, have you tried keeping him at cooler temps? Like, 68 - 74 degrees F?

lora01fl
11-21-2010, 07:52 PM
Thank you everyone.

He is our responsibility and have no fear we (read I) will deal with him for "the rest of his mean little life". Love that btw!

The divided cage may just work; kind of like Tigers at the circus. Maybe we can figure out a way to divide the top from the bottom, but will have to figure out a divided door too. It would be easy enough to move him where we want him in the cage since he is so aggressive that he will beat feet to get you.

We haven't tried lowering his temps that low, we live in mid Florida and it is just too hard/expensive to get temps that low just yet. May try it though when the nights start to stay cool.

We really appreciate all of the support. We do love him and he is for sure a survivor.

Trev suggested changing his name to "Mr. Grinch" and we might just do that.

Lora

lora01fl
11-21-2010, 09:43 PM
If you can afford shipping I can send you one of his favorite morphs if you would like. I am so sorry for your loss.

Ashley,

Thank you for your condolences and your kind and generous offer. I didn't come here looking for anything other than support, but suspect you know that already don't you?

You really don't want to promise his favorite morph though as he is partial to dark based full pins with lots of creamy contrast and tails. Which is number one reason why I cannot afford to replace what he lost. He would be happy with any morph, any color but he does not care for dalmatian spots, loves fringe and fur and too.

We can afford shipping though and just may take you up on your offer! Is tomorrow evening too late to let you know?

Thanks again.

Lora

lora01fl
11-21-2010, 09:50 PM
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s201/lora01oh/Treeko112110-1.jpg

This is a picture of Treeko. He is partially fired here and fully ticked, sitting on the towel I used to deflect the launch attack this evening so that I could put fresh food in. He is still regaining his weight and was about to launch at my hand and camera so this is not the most flattering shot, but thought we'd put a face to the name:)