As a leopard gecko owner, you would want your pet to always display the best mood and behavior. However, this may not be the case, and understanding your pet’s behavior is necessary to know how to treat them best. Whether your leopard gecko is depressed or not, we know it is a matter of concern that requires attention.
So, can leopard geckos get depressed? Leopard geckos can get depressed for various reasons, including adapting to a new environment, tank temperature, breeding season, lack of food, illness, and dehydration. When this happens, your leopard gecko will seem withdrawn and lose appetite. Thus, as a leopard owner, you should be alert and identify the causes of depression and resolve them before they adversely affect their health or result in death.
Leopard geckos get sad and being able to tell when they are unhappy is necessary to enable you to make adjustments to restore your pet’s joy. An unhappy gecko will be slow, sluggish, and unresponsive. You will notice that the things that usually excite your pet or make them happy no longer excite them, and your pet will want to spend most of their time sleeping. Your pet may also lose appetite, but you should note that this could also result from other reasons besides sadness.
A sad gecko will also scream or make chirping noises. Usually, such noises indicate that your gecko is unhappy with a particular way you treat them. If your gecko makes this noise when you are holding it, you should put it down and give it space and time. In the tank, a sad gecko will try to escape by climbing the tank walls. However, this could also be out of curiosity, and you should monitor the other signs before ruling out sadness.
Another way to tell if your leopard gecko is sad is by looking at their eyes. An unhappy leopard gecko will close their eyes often, even when awake. While this could indicate stress or ill health, it is also a sign that your pet is sad. However, before concluding sadness, you should check the tank lighting as bright light can often make your pet close its eyes.
Finally, a sad leopard gecko will waive its tail or make jerky body movements when stressed. These movements may also indicate fear and could be a way your pet tells you to leave them alone. Thus, when you see such movements, avoid handling your pet as you may worsen their stress, prompting them to bite you if you try picking them up.
Before concluding sadness, you should adjust the tank conditions to an optimum. You should start by ensuring the tank’s warmer side is around 80 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit with the cooler side being 75 to 89 degrees Fahrenheit.
Supplying enough hides in the tank will also improve your pet’s spirits by giving them a place to hide when they feel scared or stressed. Hiding gives them a sense of security and reduces stress. If your pet still displays the above behavior after making the above changes, you should call a vet to check on them to rule out the possibility of an illness.
Do Leopard Geckos Have Feelings?
If you love reptiles, you know that they are not expressive with their emotions, unlike other household pets. However, they will be choosy on who they allow to touch or pet them and will also behave in specific ways to let you know whether they are okay with the way you treat them.
Leopard geckos do not have feelings, as most owners assume. However, they will be choosy on who they allow to pick them up or pet them, and this can make the owner assume that they are doing this out of affection. Usually, leopard geckos act this way out of instinct. These instincts include sleeping, eating, and protecting. In the wild, leopard geckos rely on these instincts to survive and live long. Thus, unlike dogs, cats, and other household pets, leopard geckos are not emotional pets.
Although leopard geckos do not have feelings, you should not get stressed as a leopard gecko owner that your pet does not like you. The fact that they are allowing you to hold and pet them means that they trust you and are comfortable around you. It also means that they can rely on you as far as their welfare is concerned.
Once your pet notices that the things you do for them enable them to survive, they will be comfortable. They will also relate to your scent and associate it with good things. Thus, you should endeavor to maintain this trust as a proud leopard gecko owner.
Maintaining trust between you and your pet entails your participation in the habits your pet likes. This requires discipline, as you need to be mindful around your gecko to ensure that they don’t lose their trust in you. As a responsible owner, some of the things you can do to maintain trust between you and your leopard gecko include avoiding loud music, allowing them adequate time to sleep, handling them with care, and fulfilling all their needs.
While you would want to treat your pet well simply because you want to earn their trust and enjoy a good relationship with them, you should note that they are animals and require good treatment, whether they reciprocate it or not.
Therefore, if you are a new owner, you should give your pet time to adjust and get used to you. This may take a while, but your pet will eventually trust you. Mistreating your pet will make them aggressive, and they will associate your scent and presence with threats.
Can Leopard Geckos Get Lonely?
As a leopard gecko owner, you may find your pet lying down most of the time with minimal activity. This will likely trigger the assumption that your pet is feeling lonely, and you may want to give them company to lift their spirit.
Before you get a companion for your pet, you should note that leopard geckos do not get lonely. They are solitary, just like other reptiles, and prefer to stay alone. The males are territorial and getting them a partner will result in fights. Also, while your leopard geckos can live in pairs when young, they will prefer to be alone once they grow up.
Leopard geckos are cold-blooded, implying that their body temperature is dependent on the ambient temperatures. Thus, they prefer to be less active as replacing lost energy is difficult for them. For this reason, your leopard gecko will only move if they have a solid reason to do so. Therefore, it will prefer to sit or lay in a particular place for a longer time. They are not lonely but conserving their energy. Thus, you do not need to get your pet a partner unless for breeding reasons.
Getting a partner for your leopard gecko will result in fights with each other. Your pets will fight over food and hiding spots, especially if you house them in a small tank where they can see each other.
Housing two males is a bad idea, given that males are territorial. The weaker male will be intimidated and will spend most of their time hiding, failing to eat, which can result in illness or even death. On the other hand, female geckos can coexist, but if one of the females is smaller, the bigger one will intimidate it. You should also avoid housing an adult gecko with a young gecko, as they do not have mothering instincts; hence, will intimidate the younger ones
Housing younger adults together are usually successful, but they will experience hormonal changes that may make them intolerable as they grow. Thus, around seven months when your gecko is approaching maturity, it will be best to separate them to prevent stress. If you house two geckos and find them cuddling each other and are not mating, it is a way of asserting dominance or stealing warmth from each other.
Leopard Geckos Can Get Stressed
Leopard geckos can get depressed if you put them in unfavorable conditions in the tank. Thus, to ensure they are comfortable, you need to make necessary adjustments to the tank lighting and temperature and provide them with food.
As a pet owner, a relationship with your pet is very important and if you are dealing with a leopard gecko, your relationship will be built on their instinct rather than feelings. Your pet will also rely on these instincts to survive and treating your pet right will make them trust you and associate you with necessary things for your survival.
Just like other reptiles, geckos are solitary and prefer to stay alone. They are also cold-blooded and will prefer less activity unless necessary to conserve as much energy as possible. Thus, if your pet spends most of their life in an inactive state, they are not lonely, and you should not get a partner for them as this may stress them and cause fights, given their territorial nature.
Finally, if everything in the tank is favorable, but your gecko displays signs of depression, you should contact your vet for assistance. You should also treat your pet right and give it time to trust you before you can initiate physical contact with them.
