Sniffing or Sneezing

[little_dragon_]

I've mentioned this before a while back. I have an adult male that sneezes while other cresteds are around. Has anyone else seen this behaviour?

[crestedgecko]

Hmm, thats interesting. I think I recall seeing my male do that before but I am not sure about the cause. Sorry

Thank you

Matthew Geddes

[labomb2]

I've seen them sneeze, but not because of other cresteds around. usually it's when food or water gets up their nose. maybe your male gets so excited around other cresties that he takes in air too fast and snorts and sneezes.

[DragnDrop]

I've never seen the sneezing bit, that's a new one for me. They do make noises once in a while, could he have been vocalizing instead? Sometimes the noise does sound like a whistle crossed with a squeak.

[little_dragon_]

He looks similar to a human when sneezing. He closes his eyes and everything. He only does it when he's around his mate.

[Denise101]

LOL Mabey hes allergic to her .. ? ;)

[HerpAddict]

Mine do it, but it looks like an inward sneeze, like what dogs do. Once in a while I hear it from the 'gecko wall', but that's only about once a month. The only time I had a lot of sneezing was when I did a complete cage change, or when I had to travel with them. I attributed it to dust in the air from the cocofibre change, but I could be wrong.

[little_dragon_]

my room is pretty clean I don't think it would be from dust and this male lives in a screen enclosure so I haven't been using coco fiber. It's almost like a territorial sneeze. I haven't seen him do it in a while perhaps he hs finally accepted his mate. They are a very close pair.

[Brock]

I think my female has something lodged in her nose as she makes little whistling noises as well, I had a male leopard gecko who did the same thing as soon as I brought him home, and I had him for 4 years before I sold him to a friend and he never had any problems so I'm not too worried about it.

But on a related note, is it the male or female who makes the squawking noises at night? I always thought it was my male coaxing the female to come breed with him as he chased her, but last night I was checking their calcium sacs (and for a question within a question, females are supposed to have more intense ones than males....right?) and as I was tapping on her nose she started twitching her tail and doing the squawking noise. So, do both sexes squawk, or is it just females?

-Brock

[HerpAddict]

Both definitely vocalize, although I'm pretty sure males do it more frequently. The males do it to try to attract the females, and I'm pretty sure the females do it when they are trying to tell the male to "bugger off!". My female breeder Tango makes a sound like "meh!" when she's fending off Trogdor.

I do think females should have a more intense calcium sac, because they are having to store it for when they produce eggs, whose shells are hugely made of calcium. Males definitely should have calcium there, but in general I believe females have more (providing that they've been supplemented properly).

[newticus]

how do you check their calcium sacs?
One of mine makes this weird whistling noise when she breaths but onyl sometimes. There's no mucus or anything so it's not a respitory infection, it actually sounds really cute

[Brock]

Yeah the whistling noise doesn't seem to bother her, it's like a booger is stuck in her nose but she can obviously breathe fine. It's really cute when I put some fruit mix by her nose and she is sniffing it and I can hear the whistles, I'm surprised how much they sniff, it was just like a dog.

To check calcium sacs, you grab the gecko firmly, but not strongly, and you tap the top or corners of its mouth, of course not too hard, and then what I do is stick my finger in the mouth so they can't close it (they don't like this, but you only have to check the females when they are breeding only once in a while, and males just a few times a year) and then look inside, it will be obvious where they are, there is one directly on each side of the back of the mouth.

-Brock