Many leopard gecko owners try to fatten up their leopard geckos. Especially, many owners focus on fattening up a leopard gecko’s tail. But is this necessary? What is the borderline between a healthy leopard gecko and a fat leopard gecko? In this post, we will discuss how to find out if a leopard gecko is fat, and if yes, how to help a leopard gecko lose weight. We will also talk about important rules on helping your leopard gecko lose weight and discuss symptoms of a fatty liver disease.
What does a fat leopard gecko look like?
- Fat leopard gecko’s tail is often as wide or wider than its head
- The base of the tail can be very thick
- The head looks distended
- Fat leopard gecko’s belly looks very round and full, especially if looking from a top
- If your leopard gecko is fat, it will have fat rolls on the side of the belly
- Some fat leopard geckos have air bubbles in their armpits
- The backbone will be sunken in and other bones will be not be easily visible
- Fat leopard gecko’s legs will be very chunky and look swollen – in fact, if you touch the legs and they feel soft, that means there’s fat. Muscle feels more solid and strong.
- Because of fat legs, an overweight leopard gecko moves slower than normal
- Fat leopard gecko won’t move around much in the tank, and will prefer laying over climbing, walking and hunting.
How to know if a leopard gecko is fat?
Every leopard gecko is different and has a different body structure, so there is no set growth chart or ideal weight for leopard geckos. Normal and giant leopard gecko can reach 40-100 grams, some even pushing to 110-120 grams.
But if it’s more than that, your leopard gecko is probably be fat. But don’t look at the numbers only – some leopard geckos might have a small body structure and be fat at 60+ grams.
Signs that your leopard gecko is fat include fat rolls around the belly, air bubbles in the armpits, tail wider than the head, distended belly, slow walking pace, lots of laying and chunky legs.
You can test your leopard gecko by releasing live food in the tank – see if it’s interested in hunting and catching the prey, or if it just moves around slowly.
Don’t assume that your baby or juvenile leopard gecko is fat, and don’t put it on strict a diet. Babies and juveniles need to eat and grow at this stage. You can start thinking whether your leopard gecko is fat when it turns 18 months and over.
Some leopard geckos grow quicker and reach mature size by 10-12 months, but it doesn’t mean that it will get bigger or that you need to put them on a diet. Never cut on leopard gecko’s food dramatically until it becomes 18 months old and over.
You can read more on leopard gecko air bubbles in the armpits, what causes them and how to deal with them in this post.
What causes a leopard gecko to get fat?
- Overfeeding your leopard gecko is one of the main reasons of obesity
- Feeding your leopard gecko fatty feeder insects and even fuzzy mice too often causes it to become fat
- Offering your leopard gecko only freeze dried insects can make it fat, because there is no need to hunt and move around
Is my leopard gecko fat or pregnant?
You might find it hard to tell if your leopard gecko is fat or pregnant. To find out if your leopard gecko is pregnant (gravid), you need to: make sure it’s a female, take into the account the season, your leopard gecko’s age, its behavior and so on. A female leopard gecko can start laying eggs at as early as 10 months of age.
Breeding behavior will include digging (which means that she is preparing to lay eggs), anxiety. While her belly will be growing because of eggs, a leopard gecko can’t become fat suddenly.
You will be also able to see the eggs through the belly. Breeding season runs from February to October. Note that your leopard gecko can also lay eggs without mating, but the eggs will be infertile.
Read more on confirming leopard gecko’s pregnancy and how to find out leopard gecko’s gender in this post.
How to help leopard gecko lose weight?
If you have confirmed that your leopard gecko is fat, then you might start thinking about helping it to lose weight. Never put a baby or juvenile leopard gecko on a diet, as it needs to grow! So, if your leopard gecko has the above signs of obesity and is clearly overweight, then we can discuss a diet plan.
Leopard gecko should weigh at least 40 grams to be healthy, but anything above 120 grams should start worrying you. Don’t confuse leopard geckos and African fat-tailed geckos – they naturally have fat tails, but they weigh around the same as leopard geckos.
Important things to consider before putting your leopard gecko on a diet
Please read this before putting your leopard gecko on a diet. If your leopard gecko is very fat, you can’t cut its food suddenly. This is because there will be a release of large amounts of fat in a leopard gecko’s system when it start starving.
Your fat leopard gecko’s liver might not cope with this. This can in turn, cause lipidosis, or a fatty liver disease.
Try to shine a light on a leopard gecko’s belly – if it has a lighter tan color, with an enlarged liver, then it could be a FLD.
Obesity in a leopard gecko vs. other health issues with similar symptoms
Please don’t diagnose your leopard gecko with a fatty liver yourself. You need to take your leopard gecko to the vet who will perform a set of diagnostic tests.
A vet will take a blood sample for a complete blood count (CBC), to see if the leukocyte count is elevated, indicating an infection. With an infection, it is sometimes possible to see one or few white ‘balls’ around the the dark gallbladder/liver when shining a light.
Also, with a blood sample, they can perform a liver function test. And if there is something wrong with the liver, the number of enzymes will be elevated, too. You also need to make sure that there is no parasitic infection, which can cause poor appetite, regurgitation, and poor digestion.
If your leopard gecko is not fat but has a fat belly, it could be egg-bound (she will be digging, restless, have a swollen cloaca) or impacted with loose substrate or large insects (problem with pooping, swollen belly).
Starvation can cause not only a fatty liver in a fat leopard gecko, but also xanthomatosis – fatty deposits under the skin, causing damage to internal organs.
In this case, a leopard gecko starts losing lots of weight, its health declines, but the fat stomach remains. Without any help, this causes death.
So, to conclude, you need to put your fat leopard gecko on a diet carefully.
Also, never let your fat leopard gecko brumate! This is because lack of food and sudden change in a diet will cause release of big amounts of fat in system, same as in starvation. If your leopard gecko needs to brumate, make sure to reduce offered food gradually.
Fat leopard gecko’s diet
If your leopard gecko is fat, start its diet slowly. Adult leopard geckos need to eat 2-3 times a week, but some owners feed their leopard geckos only once a week.
Don’t leave your leopard gecko hungry on one day, but instead reduce the number of feeder insects that you are offering that day. For example, if you feed 3 times a week, reduce the number of feeder insects by 1-2 at a time.
Keep the same portion for two feedings before reduce further. Also, make sure to get kitchen or jewelry scales that weigh to nearest 0.1 grams, like these ones, and keep track of her weight.
What is more, remove any fatty worms from your leopard gecko’s diet until it loses weight. Don’t offer any superworms, butterworms, waxworms and even mealworms. Mealworms contain around 14% of fat, while superworms, butterworms and waxworms – 20-28% fat.
Compared to crickets (6% fat), silkworms (around 8-10% fat), hornworms (3% fat), Dubia roaches (7% fat), Phoenix worms (10% fat), even mealworms are quite fatty for an overweight leopard gecko.
When your leopard gecko loses weight, you can start offering fatty worms 1-2 times a month (1-2 per feeding). Mealworms can be offered once a week to healthy and fit leopard geckos.
Also, never offer your fat leopard gecko any fuzzy mice! Fuzzy or pinkie mice is not a good food for leopard geckos, as they don’t normally eat meat. Some owners only offer them when their leopard gecko is gravid or extremely underweight, once or twice a month.
Apart from the diet, make your leopard gecko move around more. Offer live food so it can hunt, handle it two times a week and let it run on your hands. You can even let it walk around a safe area for exercise.
In addition, you can add another accessory in the tank to make your leopard gecko interested in some activity. You can find inspiration for a leopard gecko’s tank accessories and other other furniture in this post
Don’t forget about optimal temperatures in the leopard gecko’s tank
Ideal temperatures are very important to keep your leopard gecko healthy and fit. Optimal temperatures and the temperature gradient (cool and warm side at the opposite sides of the tank) will help your leopard gecko digest its food and keep the digestive tract running smoothly. Low temperatures slow down the metabolism and can cause weight gain.
This is especially important if your leopard gecko is fit, but has a bigger belly after food, or can’t poop (possible impaction or constipation). Leopard gecko’s belly can be full after eating, but if it doesn’t pass, this could indicate constipation, impaction or low temperatures.
Floor temperature in the warm side under the warm hide/on top of the UTH (an under tank heater like this) should be 88-91 Fahrenheit (31.1-32.7 Celsius). An air temperature in the warm side, 4 inches above the ground should be 77-85 F (25-29.4 C).
And the air temperature on the cool side 4 inches above the ground should be 70-77 degrees F (21.1-25 Celsius). Always use a thermostat to control an under tank heater’s temperature.
To conclude, only put your leopard gecko on a diet if it’s clearly overweight. Do it carefully, and if you suspect a liver issue, see the vet who will perform some diagnostic tests. Thank you for reading this post and to learn more on leopard gecko diet, visit this post for useful info and tips.