vital signs

Question
QUESTION: I'm working on a vet project and can't find what the vital signs are for leopard geckos. Can you tell me what they are?

ANSWER: Hello Vanesa,

Did you need the respiratory rate and the heart rate of leopard geckos, correct?  
I can try to do some research to verify the physiological processes of them.  I have a few reptile medical books.
My email is Drache_613@hotmail.com

You can write me there, if you would like to.


Tracie

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Yes, that is what I need.

Answer
Hello Vanesa,

I have researched this in reptiles, in general before, but there are no definitive answers.

The smaller a reptile, the higher his heartrate & respiration are, for the most part.  The heart rate & respiration rates are dependent on each other as well as the body temperature of the reptile, the metabolic rate at the time, etc.

The heart rate & the respiration rate will change when they reach their optimum temperature & will decrease once they cool down to thermoregulate.

The average rates for bearded dragons for respiration is 6-12 breaths per minutes & the heart rate is normally around 60-80 on average.  Their rates will go up as they become more active.  Since geckos are smaller, I would say that their heart rates would be slighly increased from that of a bearded dragon, as well as the breaths, also.  

I hope this helps out.  Short of doing an EKG & a VO2 type of test on your gecko, it is very difficult to determine exact readings.  


Tracie