moorish/crocodile gecko

Question
hey, i found little lizard last year on the main road thought it was a baby beardie but it was identical to my mothers one it was very skinny and covered in red mites i looked into this and apperently they do no harm it was treated nether theless and has since been fine it put on weight and was fine but upon cleaning the tank today it was hardly able to move our original one was hard to catch as usual but the one in question seems almost as if it has a spinal problem it tried to run but just is not moving forwards hardly we have had difficulty with heating and is only being heated via the light bulb heat coming from the snake tank underneath it.i noticed it occationaly runs dry of water as mother cannot do this.I have remedied this today with a funnel connected to pipe so could you have an answer and hopfully cure.the other lizard is absolutly fine.

Answer
Hi Gary, Partial paralysis can have a number of causes but one of the most common ones for captive reptiles is calcium deficiency in the diet. It does not affect older animals as quickly as younger ones who are still growing and have a higher need for calcium. It causes the bones of the limbs and spine to grow soft resulting in difficulty climbing or even walking.
A commercial powdered calcium supplement with vitamin D3 that is dusted onto the insects before feeding is the usual method of providing additional calcium. An alternate choice, though not as effective, is scraping some cuttlebone which is sold for pet birds, into  a bag and dusting the insects. It sounds like you may have to hand feed this little gecko if he is not mobile enough to catch prey on his own. At least part of the enclosure should be in the mid 80'sF or 30C for his metabolism to function fully and aid in absorption. If you can't increase the heat supply then try reducing the substrate in the gecko tank so more heat penetrates from below or try covering part of the gecko tank to retain more heat.