Gargoyle gecko, about a year old, and he spends most of the day stuck head-down on the glass near the top of the enclosure, or flat upside down under the lid. He eats, he poops, he is all over the place at night.
Somebody mentioned floppy tail syndrome to me and now I cannot unsee it. The enclosure has two vertical cork rounds and some fake plants. Is the upside down thing itself a problem, or is it only a problem on glass?
Worth knowing what you are actually looking for so you can stop worrying or start. Floppy tail is not hanging upside down, it is the tail flopping over his back or off to the side when he rests head-down, instead of hanging along the line of his body.
So go and look at the tail while he is in that position. If it hangs where it should, you have an ordinary gecko on a surface you want to give him alternatives to.
Also fairly normal for them to pick the top because it is the warmest part of the box.
Come and see somebody if the tail consistently flops over the body at rest, if there is a kink or a bend at the tail base or along the spine, or if he is dragging a leg or looks weak.
The other one to have in mind is a soft or rubbery jaw or limbs, which points at metabolic bone disease rather than at furniture, and that is calcium, D3 and lighting. Rearranging the enclosure helps stop floppy tail getting worse; it does not undo a bone problem.
@cork_and_vines · 7d ago · 3 replies
Hanging upside down is just what an arboreal gecko does. They live in trees and shrubs and they rest in positions that look wrong to us. On its own it is nothing.
The glass is the part worth acting on. Floppy tail is associated with geckos spending long stretches resting head-down on bare smooth glass, which loads the pelvis and tail base, and in bad cases has been linked to deformity there. Your enclosure has two vertical cork rounds, which is to say it has almost nowhere to lie down.
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@head_down_glass · 7d ago
What counts as somewhere to lie down? More cork, or something different?
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@horizontal_perches · 7d ago
Different. Horizontal and diagonal branches rather than more vertical rounds, dense foliage he can sit inside, and a textured background over part of the glass so there is less smooth surface to choose. The point is to make glass the worst option rather than the only one.
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