Xa-2 & ac-1

[LuLu]

XA-2 & AC-1 my two Rhac-Shack baby cresties passed the other week due to impaction

XA-2



AC-1





It is a truly heartbreaking experience to witness any animal die, as some people will know already due to previous experiences. With impaction however, it is a slow and horrible death for the gecko, and once the substrate is swallowed, there is nothing that can be done. XA-2 swallowed a small amount of substrate AND died, all in less than 24hours. There were 2 other Rhac-Shack cresties in beside this little guy so they were swiftly moved house, and put back onto Kitchen Roll, and we presumed them both to be fine, as they continued to be lively and active and eating/shedding fine. Until 5 days later, when AC-1 became a bit lifeless on the evening of 1st October. Earlier that day he had seemed a perfectly healthy perfectly active baby crested gecko. He developed the pale markings on his head and face, which is often the first sign of impaction. As AC-1 and my other unaffected baby crested gecko had been put back on Kitchen Roll after the first incident, I was baffled as to how this was possible that AC-1 had also become impacted. I came to the conclusion that both must have swallowed the substrate, but XA-2 must have swallowed a considerable amount more to have passed away so quickly. After getting a PM done on both geckos, it turns out that both had swallowed the substrate, and that AC-1, the second gecko to pass, was actually the crestie with the bigger blockage, but was that little bit stronger to live on for a few more days unaffected.

I have learned a very very hard lesson, and would strongly advise anyone who plans on keeping baby crested geckos on any kind of substate to seriously rethink this, as it can be fatal for them if ingested. I have two other baby cresteds a matter of weeks older than these guys who passed, and they were sold to me on a substrate and have always been fine. HOWEVER, these are my two cresties that DO NOT eat live food. This means that due to the fact they are not hunting, they are never likely to pounce and get a mouthful of substrate. This being said, I have since then moved them off the substrate as I feel it is dangerous for them to be on it, as they still run the risk of swallowing some of the Eco Earth whilst in shed.

RIP my two little babies <3

[beege_3]

RIP to the two little ones..

Try not to beat yourself up too much about the impaction x

[manda88]

That's absolutely awful, I'm so sorry to hear about this, they were such beautiful little cresties such a shame. RIP little ones.

[E80]

Sorry to hear about your geckos.

Is keeping a tub of spag moss in there viv for them to nest in ok?

[sarasin]

Just seen this Lu, glad we could help with doing the pm's as we wanted to know as much as you why they died. As Lauren said because AC-1 was (bigger) he took longer to die even though he had a lot more substrate in his intestines when she opened him up, and he had been moved onto kitchen towel as soon as XA-2 died.