As promised, todays post is about my adult male gargoyle gecko, Chomper, who I unfortunately lost in July 2018. I purchased him on preloved from a woman who no longer had time for him, he was 4 when I took him in, however I only had him for a matter of months, he actually passed just a week after these photos were taken.
He was eating fine, wasnt skinny, hadnt lost weight, however I had noticed he had a severely kinked spine (as can be seen a little in the video below), as well as minor kinks to the tail, and was rather small for adult male gargoyle gecko. Spine or tail kinks are not uncommon in gargoyle gecko hatchlings, and usually with the right care will straighten themselves out as the animal grows, however this adult still had his, which is what lead me to believe this was the proof of underlying issues and a factor to his early death. He was kept in the same conditions as my other 4 geckos, same food, housing, location, temps, humidity, and I remember watching him eat just the night before his death, so he wasnt even off his food. MBD leads to bone abnormalities, as well as brittle bones. Gargoyles, while arboreal, are not the most "agile" of climbers, or more specifically, jumpers, so I believe what must have happened is he jumped, didn't make the jump, and fell, causing trauma enough to kill him, as I found him laying as if just sitting at the bottom of his viv.
Chompers death hit me pretty hard, he was the first reptile I had ever lost, and I felt awful and thought that I had clearly done something wrong since I had taken him in, looking to offer him a home forever, just months beforehand, yet here he was dead. He was beautiful and the calmest gargoyle I have ever owned, perfectly content to sit and be held without trying to jump about or get tangled in my hair, and he is very missed.
No comments:
Post a Comment