TL;DR- This is Darla, she is a rescue along with her previous cage mate Plantain. They came from terrible conditions and because of a few complications have a long way to go, but I'm feeling optimistic and hoping for the best!

First of all, I'm so overwhelmed by how much love my new lil' bean is getting. And to the kind stranger who gave me gold, thank you so much! I never thought this many people would be as stoked as I am on this gal. The unfortunate thing about "beginner" pets that are sold as such, especially reptiles, is that they're often mistreated and thrown away. So please really think about every pet you get before you get them! Anyways, I'll talk about this cutie now. This is Darla. Her name was originally "Bonnie", and I rescued her with the other leopard gecko she lived with in a 10 gallon tank. His name was "Clyde", but is now Plantain (his tail is regenerated, therefore looks like a Plantain). Her and Plantain were forced to live together in very close quarters with one hide, a plant, and a water dish on what looks like some gravel from the backyard for the last two years. For those of you who may not know, that is not a good situation for leopard geckos and doesn't even have the bare minimum of what only one would need. Loose substrate like sand and dirt is really bad for leopard geckos (and pretty much all reptiles generally) and that's when it's made for them, so backyard gravel is -10/10. The two of them only got fed 20-25 crickets every two weeks. They would gobble them all up immediately and then have to wait another two weeks for food. They had no heat source or calcium, which is ALSO really terrible for them and can cause a variety of health issues. They were placed on a mini fridge to keep warm, but that's not enough. They lived like this for the last couple of years with the exception being having no calcium, as they've had none for only about six months now. Which is still WAY too long to go without. I'm suspicious it's been longer, but that's what I was told. I got them home and immediately put them on heat and in separate quarantine bins which is why she has a super cool and super disposable cardboard house. I won't get too technical but when you bring a new rescue reptile in it's pretty standard procedure to quarantine them in sterile conditions with mostly disposable and easy to clean items until a vet clears them and they show signs of improvement. It makes it easier to monitor movement, their poop, how much they're eating, etc. But the good news is they're already perking up! I believe they both have metabolic bone disease thanks to the lack of heat and calcium, so they have limited strength at the moment. Darla is also pooping a lot of sand because of ingesting so much of it in her previous enclosure, but I have both of them on something that really helps to clear the system out. It's hard to tell, but they have no signs of any parasites or infectious anything. I've seen my share of geckos with conditions like that, and they almost always die fairly soon after catching it and show signs that you can spot from a mile away. So their lack of those signs is excellent, excellent news. The little dudes are both eating, drinking, pooping, and exploring. The energy and alertness they both have is amazing, they just don't have the strength to back it up. They're still being treated as if they could have a parasite though, because you can never be too safe until you're certain. The sad fact is that their previous owner didn't know much (or care much) about them, so on top of everything else our sweet Darla may be expecting. She's had clutches before apparently but never successfully, so I'm just hoping that she comes out of it okay. But on the bright side they're both showing so much improvement already! Two weeks until I can get them in and tested for other potentially nasty things they may have going on, but as of right now I'm confident in their recovery.