If you’ve cleaned after your Leo for a reasonable while, the sight of poop that looks different may be puzzling. Maybe the color is off, the consistency doesn’t look right, or something you can’t put your finger on doesn’t look like it belongs. If this happens, you may ask yourself, “What the heck does leopard gecko poop look like? Lucky for you, we are here to help!
Leopard gecko poop is cylindrical shaped with two distinct colors on either end. The brown stuff, about 0.5 inches long, is regular poop, while the smaller, chalky white end is urate or solid pee. The waste has a solid texture and should not be soft or runny.
Keep reading for a comprehensive guide to leopard gecko poop. We will discuss the difference between healthy and unhealthy poop, how often a leopard gecko should poop, and more.
Dive right in!
What Does Healthy Leopard Gecko Poop Look Like?
In the perfect poop world, a leopard gecko’s poop should be well-formed into a barrel shape. It should be reasonably firm, not wet, soft, or runny. Also, it should have two different parts for food waste and urate. The larger, brown segment measuring about 0.5 inches is food waste, while the smaller white part is urate or solid urine.
Your leopard gecko’s poop says a lot about his overall health. Although handling poop is messy, every pet parent must know what’s normal and what may be a red flag for serious underlying issues.
For instance, white poop may seem off, but it’s normal if your pet is shedding. It is a sign that your scaly friend ingested some of the shed skin, and it’s showing up in the food waste. White or grayish excretion after shedding should not be mistaken for abnormal or unhealthy poop.
What Does Healthy Leopard Gecko Pee Look Like?
Leopard geckos pass urate instead of liquid pee. Because they are native to dry and hot regions where water is scarce, passing solid pee is a sneaky way for their digestive systems to conserve water. Usually, they pass poop and urate in one go, although they can also pass solid pee alone during breeding season when they barely eat.
Urate comprises uric acid and can be a small blob on one end of the poop or roughly a quarter the size of the stool. It can be chalk-white or off-white but not yellow. Yellow urate is a sign of dehydration and could indicate that you are not providing a constant source of clean water in the vivarium.
Normal Leopard Gecko Poop & Pee
Like food waste, urate is also firm and not runny or wet. Although your Leo can also pass stool with a small amount of liquid to make evacuation easier, this should create no more than a damp patch on the substrate. Such a small amount of water is lost during excretion that you even risk crushing urate into a powdery form if you are not careful when scooping it.
What Does Unhealthy Leopard Gecko Poop Look Like?
Unfortunately, leopard geckos don’t always enjoy the perfect poop world; sometimes, s %&t happens! Unusual colors or consistency in your pet’s poop should prompt a visit to your vet, especially if you notice more than one “off” poop. The same goes if the unhealthy stool is accompanied by other signs of disease like loss of appetite, lethargy, vomiting, or behavioral changes.
Let’s look at 5 types of poop indicating that something is wrong with your Leo’s environment, diet, or health.
1. Wet or Runny Poop
Healthy leopard gecko poop should be firm and well-formed. Your pet has diarrhea if the stool looks wet, runny, or liquid-like. Diarrhea can be caused by parasites, bacteria, or stress. Unlike healthy poop, it is smelly and often accompanied by other signs of illness like inactivity and loss of appetite.
2. Soft Poop
Soft stool, especially when passed once, is not necessarily a cause for alarm. You could have made a drastic dietary change, and your Leo ingested the new treats too fast. It is always better to introduce new feeder insects gradually to allow the digestive system to adjust without causing other side effects. Consult your vet if your pet passes soft poop more than once.
3. Yellow Poop
You must not underestimate the need to get your leopard gecko into a healthy feeding routine. These reptiles are purely insectivorous, and while some insects are staples and should be fed routinely, others should be offered as treats.
If your scaly friend is passing yellow stool, the chances are you are offering a diet high in fatty insects like butterworms, superworms, or waxworms. That yellow hue in the poop is the bile used to digest fat.
> Recommended Reading: Best Worms to Feed a Leopard Gecko
4. Green Poop
Leopard geckos should not eat vegetables because their digestive systems cannot process cellulose. If your pet is not eating any plant materials, it makes no sense for healthy poop to appear green.
Leopard Gecko Green Poop
Start by checking whether your scaly friend has had a bite of any plants inside his enclosure. If he has, remove the décor and monitor the reptile closely for signs of impaction.
> Recommended Reading: What Vegetables Can Leopard Geckos Eat?
5. Stained Poop
Healthy leopard gecko poop should be solid brown on one end and white on the other. Something could be off if the food waste is stained with white speckles. It could be your pet has a parasite infection passed through the feeder insects, and the white specks are parasite eggs.
If you have housed more than one Leo in an enclosure, you could be dealing with cryptosporidium infection, also known as stick tail disease. Cryptosporidiosis has no cure, unlike parasitic infections from pinworms, hookworms, and coccidia, which are easy to diagnose and treat.
The hallmark symptom of cryptosporidiosis is drastic weight and muscle loss, especially around the tail’s fat reserves. Your pet will also pass loose or bloody stool and show all signs of stress, including lethargy and loss of appetite.
If you suspect your pet has a parasite infection, visit your vet for a stool test. Fecal floats and smears should help detect parasite eggs, although they are unreliable at flagging cryptosporidiosis. The most accurate method of diagnosing crypto is expensive and involves performing endoscopic biopsies alongside testing stool samples and regurgitated stomach contents.
How Strong Does Leopard Gecko Poop Smell?
Unless you decide to get up close and personal, you should find a healthy leopard gecko’s poop to be odorless. Both food waste and urate don’t have a strong offensive stink. If you can tell your scaly friend has had a bathroom break, something could be off with his health.
Although leopard gecko poop only has a mild odor, your pet’s enclosure will stink if you don’t clean it regularly. Failing to spot clean daily to remove feces will allow bacteria and other disease-causing microbes to thrive, increasing the risk of your scaly friend falling sick.
How Often Do Leopard Geckos Poop?
Leopard gecko’s pooping frequency depends on age, metabolism, diet, and size. Adults poop 2 to 3 times weekly, while hatchlings can poop 5 to 10 times weekly because they feed more often and have faster metabolisms.
If you see your leopard gecko lifting his tail and doing a little wiggle, he is likely preparing to pass stool. Leos poop through the cloaca located close to the base of their tails. Generally, poop follows a day or two after feeding if your pet remains well-hydrated.
Metabolism plays a fundamental role in dictating how often leopard geckos poop. Hence, the vivarium temperatures can influence pooping frequency. Low temperatures cause a metabolic slowdown, similar to what happens during brumation in winter.
To ensure a healthy pooping frequency, stick to the feeding schedule, keep your pet well-hydrated, and maintain comfortable enclosure temperatures.
Why Is My Leopard Gecko Not Pooping —4 Reasons & Solutions
Abnormal poop is one thing, and not pooping at all is another. The second can be notably puzzling, mainly if you have not performed any pooper scooper duties since the last time your Leo enjoyed a hearty meal. What could be the problem? Why is my leopard gecko not pooping?
We recommend contacting your vet immediately if your pet shows other signs of illness. Make sure you have some notes for your vet, documenting any changes you have noted in the color, texture, and timing of poop.
Here are four possible reasons why your leopard gecko is not pooping.
1. Sudden Vivarium Upgrades
Leopard geckos are not fans of significant changes in their vivarium setting. Interior décor is not as important to them, and although they can tolerate small changes, anything major will likely upset them or cause confusion.
Your pet can postpone pooping if he notices changes in his washroom. Fortunately, the concern should resolve itself in a few days, making it unnecessary to visit a vet.
Leopard geckos prefer using a designated toileting spot within the vivarium. Because this also makes monitoring how frequently your scaly friend excretes easier, we recommend not changing it, irrespective of the vivarium upgrades you make.
2. Loss of Appetite
If your scaly friend is not eating, he will not poop!
The easiest way to resolve the problem is to find out why your pet is not eating in the first place. Is your leopard gecko stressed? Are you providing a varied diet, or is your gecko bored of his food?
Are you maintaining comfortable temperature, humidity, and lighting within the vivarium? Could your leopard gecko be sick?
Unless your Leo is sick and needs the attention of a reptile vet, upholding proper husbandry practices and enticing your pet to eat a tasty treat should do the trick. You’ll have to let nature take its course if you have a gravid leopard gecko about to lay eggs, your pet is shedding, or it’s mating season. In these instances, leopard geckos refuse to eat but regain their appetites after a while.
> Recommended Reading: Why is my Leopard Gecko Not Eating?
3. Dehydration
Leopard geckos can go for weeks without water, especially in the wild, where water is scarce. Their bodies are designed to conserve as much water as possible, and they even pass urate instead of liquid pee. Still, you should provide safe drinking water in a shallow bowl and change it daily to ensure it remains fresh.
Water is crucial to your gecko’s overall well-being because it aids in effective digestion. Dehydration can cause digestive problems and constipation. Some common signs that your pet is not well-hydrated include the following.
- Little or no poop
- Smaller, dark yellow urate, or the lack of it
- Dwindling energy levels
- Shedding difficulty
- Rough and wrinkled skin
- Tense muscles
Besides providing a constant supply of clean water in a shallow bowl, you can offset the symptoms of dehydration by soaking your pet in warm water. This will also help stimulate the bowels, making excretion easier.
To resolve skin issues, increase the humidity levels in the enclosure temporarily. You can do this by spraying water on absorbent bedding and decorations around the tank, adding a water bowl on
the warm end, or installing features like a waterfall. Most importantly, ensure the substrate in the moist hide has reasonable water retention capacity to help with proper shedding.
> Recommended Reading: Signs of Dehydration in a Leopard Gecko
4. Impaction
Impaction is a serious condition that causes a blockage in the digestive tract. This stops the smooth passage of food, making it difficult or impossible for your leopard gecko to poop. The concern is caused by swallowing something the body cannot digest, such as plant matter or loose substrate.
Impaction is treatable when caught early. Start by giving your pet a warm bath and massaging his tummy to soften fecal matter and aid in smoother evacuation. If this doesn’t work, consult your vet immediately. Impaction can cause paralysis and death if not resolved promptly.
Final Thoughts
Once you’ve become a leopard gecko parent, you are signing up to be your pet’s personal pooper scooper. Dealing with poop may not be your favorite part of pet parenting, but the color and consistency of your Leo’s excretion can tell you much about his overall health.
So, what does leopard gecko poop look like? It’s brown on one end and white on the other. Also, it is cylindrical, solid-textured, and odorless.
Any deviations from the usual color, odor, and texture can be traced back to health, environmental or dietary issues impacting your Leo’s internal system. Consult your vet if you notice more than a single “off” poop.
