un-coordinated gecko

[herpmado]

Recently one of my knobtails lost the ability to get crickets into it's mouth. It spots them no worries but then when it pounces it misses.. sometimes by a long long way (an inch)... it never did this before... now it misses 99 out of 100 attempts.. mostly it over shoots.. so it dives over them or into the glass and comes up empty handed.. it fluked one the other day but its been a week of this now.. the other gecko its lived with all its life is doing just fine.. but now there is a very noticeable size difference..

Suggestions on what could cause this? they are still both very active..

 

[waruikazi]

Have you had any heat waves lately?

 

[herpmado]

no there hasn't been... i thought maybe it might of had its brain cooked as the heat mat is running at like 35 or more degrees at the hot end but they are in a 3ft tank with a massive temp gradient.. like the cold end is currently 22.. and there are hides at all temps.. i would think if they were getting too warm they'd move up the cooler end..

 

[waruikazi]

Have you used any chemicals in your house?

 

[herpmado]

no def no chemicals

 

[waruikazi]

Could anything in it's enclosure fall on it? Are the pupils well defined in the eyes?

 

[herpmado]

no nothing could fall on it.. it sprints around fine. the pupils aren't at all defined but i can see them when held next to a light source.. otherwise the whole eyeball looks solid black

 

[Ned_fisch]

Waruikazi has covered some possible reasons, but this may help, you can try meal worms, mine absolutely love them.

 

[waruikazi]

Well i'm outta ideas!

 

[Wild~Touch]

Maybe he fell asleep on the heat mat....you know the feeling when you fall asleep with the electric blanket on......omg

 

[herpmado]

thnx for ya help.. there is no lack of appetite just a lack of coordination.. this is on a totally stationary cricket thats had both hind legs removed.. and still misses badly.. poor thing i feel sorry for it

if it can't feed on its own.. are their safe ways for assist feeding small geckos? they are so much more fragile than dragons.. which iv assist fed before...

 

[waruikazi]

Check if it's blind in one eye. Use a torch, wave it across the eye and look for the pupil to dilate.

 

[mummabear]

Could it not have shed properly and still have some retained shed on his eyes, affecting his vision?

 

[herpmado]

the left hand pupil is a bit weird.. maybe the source of the problem.. i might leave it alone for a lil bit and check it again later.. it wasnt dilating like the others.. hrmm.. maybe thats causing the depth perception to be out of whack and causing the misses..

 

[richoman_3]

Could it not have shed properly and still have some retained shed on his eyes, affecting his vision?

i had one that shedded very poorly all the time and i need to pull the shed off its eyes with a tweezer (carefully), and you had to get every little bit out - hard sometimes, but its like a contact lense,
id say that maybe got infected and blinded it?

 

[herpmado]

hasnt shed in the last 2wks and only went unco a week a go.. all sheds have been fine anyways.

and I get paranoid over retained eye scales so would be making sure that wasn't the issue..