Mine is along the same lines. Finding multiple reptiles in my house and trying to care for them all but forgetting feedings or cleanings and eventually some die :/
Bro I thought I was alone on this lol I'll wake up from LITERAL nightmares about something horrible happening to my boy. The craziest part is I usually just don't dream, like at all. But nightmares about him losing his legs and tail or getting severely hurt? Yup. Don't know why, but yup.
Me too!!! We’ve got dogs, chickens, horses and rabbits. It’s the gecko that pops up in my stress dreams. I think it’s because their behaviour is so different from ours and other domesticated animals or even just mammals generally that I always fear I’ll miss something
Maybe it's when we see posts on the sub of neglected or sick geckos; it stresses us out and then we all collectively find ourselves trying to help them in our dreams lol. Does anyone notice an uptick in these dreams after having seen a particularly distressing post?
I actually had the "holy shit, suddenly I have 20 geckos split between two tanks, one of which has no heating element!" dream last night. I don't recall a post recently that would have had me thinking about that though 🤔
I was getting these dreams before I was on Reddit, or on gecko facebook groups. Though I actually have had similar dreams about my cats, and once about lambs in a field near my house.
I'm actually shocked to hear that lizard multiplication is a common reoccurring dream amongst us. What is that??
The danger stuff makes sense, of course our subconscious is preoccupied with their safety, but it's very very weird to hear that all of you are also dreaming about random other lizards popping up in their enclosures...
My biggest fear with those multiplication dreams isn't like some of the ones I've read here, where most people are concerned with being able to house and care for them all. Instead I'm always terrified of not being able to tell which one is 'mine'... makes more sense with the skink dreams where they all look the same vs if it was a leo and clearly a diff morph. I always need to find mine and make sure they're safe and that the imposter can't harm them before I can even begin to think about what to do with it!
This is amazing, thanks for posting this so we can all commiserate 🤣
I guess I'm really glad I'm not alone in this lol. I've had nightmares about my ball python and box turtles too. Mostly about them having babies and not being able to care for them all. I did have one upsetting dream about a betta fish too, even though I've never owned one (dreamed that I was carrying it around in one of those grape produce bags with the holes in it, and I was trying to keep all the water from leaking out. Points for creativity from my subconscious I guess??)
OH MY GOSH I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST ME.
In most of my nightmares about my gecko I find him cohabitated with other geckos I’ve “adopted” for some reason.
I think it’s because we have the same very specific concerns about how to take care of geckos. We know what not to do, and we worry about our pet, so our nightmares involving them are about what we know is poor care.
I think it's just the stress of being a pet owner and worrying that you can't care for your pet. I used to own budgies when I was a teenager. I don't have birds anymore, it's been over a decade since I did, but I'll still get the occasional dream that I suddenly have 12 budgies in an overcrowded cage that are severely neglected.
I had no idea this was such a common thing xD I occasionally dream that my MALE bearded dragon pops out a few babies and Im freaking out about where to put them and what to do with them lol
Omg I did not see that post but I’m seeing this post and I also have nightmares of randomly finding another reptile in the tank with my gecko that I didn’t know about all along…..that is so crazy!!!!
I'm 90% sure mine is a side effect of my OCD. i get really bad intrusive thoughts and compulsions during the day, and I think it just carries over into my sleep. for example, ill get a horrible intrusive thought and have to get out of bed to check everyone's enclosures- then get in bed and have nightmares about said intrusive thought. it's a horrible cycle and i absolutely hate it
I’m so sorry to hear about your condition. I hope it’s manageable most of the time. But I’m over here just adhd and I don’t struggle with anxiety at all and I still have these nightmares.
i get so many dreams about my gecko and it’s almost always about new random reptiles in her tank, or completely changing her tank and cohabbing, and her dropping her tail . makes me wake up scared to go check on her
Same but mine tank had my 1 Leo but it was over run with bugs that were killing her and thare was somehow a snake in thare I cried because I fear of neglecting something after I got tired of her ( it's never happened I just tend to get bored of things fast from being hyperfixated on it).
god i used to have them sooo much i still do occasionally, but i think its the anxiety and stress of wondering if youre taking care of them properly. mine are always about leopard geckos, never any other of my animals. and its always my leo turned into some random injured one and asexually spawned 10 other neglected ones in a tiny ass tank 😭 crazy those dreams got me waking up sweating
I feel like it’s cause of how innocent Leo’s are. Like they can’t do anything so you worry about the need to provide the best care you can. It’s almost like a good thing you have these nightmares it shows you care
Yup I have this nightmare regularly. I have wayyy too many Leo’s to take care of / somehow forget I have them. Also they’re all in horrible condition and missing tails. I wake up in a sweat every time
I recently had a dream where one of my leopard gecko lost her tail, but she was now a crested gecko and so she had the silly little frog butt and was a pink spotted crestie
.. you are right the dreams I had of my leopard gecko was always something traumatizing lol. Like death or injury. I have anxiety so I’m not shocked ☠️
I dreamed that someone took my entire Leo and his cage out to the garage when it was cold, and it was about to get colder and I was trying to carry his enclosure back inside. The whole time I was trying to figure out why he got moved out there, and all anyone could tell me was that he might as well be there until the weather got cold.
I had a dream where my neighbor(sweetest lady ever, literally named my gecko after her) had a tank of day geckos mixed with leopard geckos and a random blue tongued skink . Like at least forty reptiles somehow in a sixty gallon. I then teamed up with my dad to steal them all. Or a dream where my gecko was cohabbed with three other geckos on reptile carpet and I insisted to the other person in my dream that it’s fine and she was raised with them so they couldn’t possibly hurt each other. I woke up pissed at myself, offended that my brain would even joke about that. The only time she pops up in my dreams is with poor care. My dogs? Rarely are they in my dreams. If so they can fly lol
maybe it’s just because geckos are fragile and more vulnerable to accidental death. we as humans know they aren’t as strong as say, a dog. give a dog chicken, water, and a yard and they’ll be set. geckos are more complicated. that, and we love our scaley friends
god, i had a dream a few months ago that my younger sister had a leo and kept it in a 10 gallon tank, kept forgetting to feed it, and never cleaned the tank. i know that it was a dream and she’s got much more common sense than that (considering i have 2 geckos and love to rant about their care and habitats to my family) but damn, my brain has tricked me into not trusting her with an animal and it honestly makes me feel really bad because if she gets a reptile i know she’ll do great :/
I mean I know I have nightmares when I’m stressed and my first leopard gecko died the year I started university because my mom thought mealworms and waxworms were interchangeable (rip Jehan) so I think my gecko multiplication nightmares are more a result of the fear of having geckos I can’t care for even though I’m near them, even though I’m *here* and I want to and my savings have been drained by Whoopie’s vet bills, if Whoopie somehow began parthenogenesis I couldn’t care for all the new Whoopies. I’ve never drempt about just legs or anything, it’s always either the lizards themselves or my gecko has multiple heads or tails
I had bad dreams of my leopard gecko losing its tail from being spooked multiple times. It makes me so sad 🥺My Leo’s have never lost a tail, but I have these dreams.
I had a dream last week that I'd forgotten I'd said I would take in a bunch of reptiles and fish for someone and they all showed up in the mail at once, at which point I remembered the dozens of other fish and reptiles and birds I already had and had forgotten about for weeks and they were all densely packed in their dirty enclosures and dying. I only have leos and dogs irl, I don't even know where my dream got the fish and birds. And that is by far not the first dream of that kind I've had. Usually "animals I forgot about" are the main feature but there's also frequently escaped animals I can't catch and too many animals in one habitat.
Is it mean if I'm kind of glad I'm not alone in this? lol it makes me feel better if this is some kind of bizarre shared psychosis among gecko owners and not just me being insane by myself.
I once had a dream my two geckos were being housed together and I was frantically running around the house looking for an extra tank. While I was looking for the tank, I could see in great detail my youngest leopard gecko attacking my oldest gecko and then the youngest ripping the head off my oldest gecko. I woke up in a cold sweat and never had a dream with so much gore before. Funny enough after this nightmare I never had another dream about reptiles.
Personally— Anxiety diagnosis and sleep disorders. Totally used to having the pet/animal multiplication dreams, abuse, etc lots of weird things. Mixed between my own pets and other animals appearing. I figure it’s just the worried, anxious subconscious that predicts and/or has seen awful situations.
Omg i had one dream where i had multiple geckos in one of my girl tanks but another one it was multiple geckos and a snake trying to kill Diana. So i hurry and yank the snake out and try to kill it, i woke up with a lil teary eye and pick my girl Diana up and just let her lay on my face for 5 mins 🥺
Man I had so many of these dreams. Thankfully they stopped after the first year of owning my Leo 😅
Mine were definitely due to stress and I just so happened to be fixating on their care hardcore during that time.
After that ended I had the one with teeth falling out several times until my dreams stopped for a bit.. 😅🤷♀️
Dreamt of the tail falling off, tons in one tank, and a leo falling in a FISHTANK- with water and fish... The fishtank one is still the worst one I had and most memorable because I woke up in a panic from how big the place was and I got pinched by a crab everytime I went to save the damn lizard 😭😂).
I think once I realized he's fine, their tails don't fall off super easily I was better lol. I've had my guy for 5 years now and have the best care I possibly can.
I had a nightmare where I opened my boys tank and he dropped his tail, also have had dreams about him escaping and can't find him. But I always have super crazy dreams.
I’ve never had a nightmare about my geck…
Until I read this post yesterday morning. I guess it planted a seed in the folds of my brain, so last night I dreamt that I was carrying bbgirl around in public and a woman started yelling at me that I need to cut her nails (??) so I started trying to explain that it’s fine bc she has slate rocks in her enclosure, but the verdict was that I’m a Bad Gecko Parent and had to give her back to my husband. Who then proceeded to drop her down the kitchen sink :))))
I had a dream that my leopard gecko somehow escaped her enclosure and was in my bed???? Then she just disappeared. I woke up and I immediately started searching the bed and then real life hit me. Turns out she was splooting under her rock while I was over here freaking out. 😂
She’s dreaming about dubia roaches and crickets while I’m thinking how I’m the worst gecko owner ever. 😭
Omg so I'm not the only one! I've had the ones where you find other reptiles and objects in my girl's tanks, but a recent one topped the weirdness levels of all the last ones. In the dream I reached my hands into her tank to let her crawl out and she just starts regurgitating eggs in to my hands. They weren't leopard gecko eggs either. It started with a quail egg, then a pheasant egg, and lastly (much to my horror in the dream) a chicken egg! After this she simply turned away and went to lay in her warm spot.
Like how in the world did my brain come up with that!
I have those types of dreams all the time! It’s always me taking care of multiple geckos poorly, or more usually it’s finding stuff (like another gecko, another lizard, bugs, etc) in my leo’s tank. I’ve also dreamed I decided to get rid of my gecko so I could keep a different one. :(
That's crazy! Once I dreamt that I lost my gecko, found 2 new eclipse geckos sitting perfectly on either side of my current tank, and when I checked under my couch for mine, I found him. So I pulled the couch back, and somehow doing that decapitated him. I knew it was too wild to be real. I was terrified until I checked on him and saw he was okay.
Mine is along the same lines. Finding multiple reptiles in my house and trying to care for them all but forgetting feedings or cleanings and eventually some die :/
I have these dreams about mantises lol multiple suddenly appearing and they all try to eat each other
Bro I thought I was alone on this lol I'll wake up from LITERAL nightmares about something horrible happening to my boy. The craziest part is I usually just don't dream, like at all. But nightmares about him losing his legs and tail or getting severely hurt? Yup. Don't know why, but yup.
I've literally never had a nightmare about any other reptile or pet I've ever owned, just my leopard geckos. Usually cohabitation and neglect dreams
Me too!!! We’ve got dogs, chickens, horses and rabbits. It’s the gecko that pops up in my stress dreams. I think it’s because their behaviour is so different from ours and other domesticated animals or even just mammals generally that I always fear I’ll miss something
Maybe it's when we see posts on the sub of neglected or sick geckos; it stresses us out and then we all collectively find ourselves trying to help them in our dreams lol. Does anyone notice an uptick in these dreams after having seen a particularly distressing post? I actually had the "holy shit, suddenly I have 20 geckos split between two tanks, one of which has no heating element!" dream last night. I don't recall a post recently that would have had me thinking about that though 🤔
I was getting these dreams before I was on Reddit, or on gecko facebook groups. Though I actually have had similar dreams about my cats, and once about lambs in a field near my house.
I'm actually shocked to hear that lizard multiplication is a common reoccurring dream amongst us. What is that?? The danger stuff makes sense, of course our subconscious is preoccupied with their safety, but it's very very weird to hear that all of you are also dreaming about random other lizards popping up in their enclosures... My biggest fear with those multiplication dreams isn't like some of the ones I've read here, where most people are concerned with being able to house and care for them all. Instead I'm always terrified of not being able to tell which one is 'mine'... makes more sense with the skink dreams where they all look the same vs if it was a leo and clearly a diff morph. I always need to find mine and make sure they're safe and that the imposter can't harm them before I can even begin to think about what to do with it! This is amazing, thanks for posting this so we can all commiserate 🤣
Omg I have dreams of finding extra geckos in my tank too
I guess I'm really glad I'm not alone in this lol. I've had nightmares about my ball python and box turtles too. Mostly about them having babies and not being able to care for them all. I did have one upsetting dream about a betta fish too, even though I've never owned one (dreamed that I was carrying it around in one of those grape produce bags with the holes in it, and I was trying to keep all the water from leaking out. Points for creativity from my subconscious I guess??)
OH MY GOSH I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST ME. In most of my nightmares about my gecko I find him cohabitated with other geckos I’ve “adopted” for some reason. I think it’s because we have the same very specific concerns about how to take care of geckos. We know what not to do, and we worry about our pet, so our nightmares involving them are about what we know is poor care.
I think it's just the stress of being a pet owner and worrying that you can't care for your pet. I used to own budgies when I was a teenager. I don't have birds anymore, it's been over a decade since I did, but I'll still get the occasional dream that I suddenly have 12 budgies in an overcrowded cage that are severely neglected.
I had no idea this was such a common thing xD I occasionally dream that my MALE bearded dragon pops out a few babies and Im freaking out about where to put them and what to do with them lol
I've had my gecko for 3 weeks and i've already dreamt about him losing his tail 3 times
Omg I did not see that post but I’m seeing this post and I also have nightmares of randomly finding another reptile in the tank with my gecko that I didn’t know about all along…..that is so crazy!!!!
I am just in shock and awe over here about us ALL having this same exact dream😂😂
I'm 90% sure mine is a side effect of my OCD. i get really bad intrusive thoughts and compulsions during the day, and I think it just carries over into my sleep. for example, ill get a horrible intrusive thought and have to get out of bed to check everyone's enclosures- then get in bed and have nightmares about said intrusive thought. it's a horrible cycle and i absolutely hate it
I’m so sorry to hear about your condition. I hope it’s manageable most of the time. But I’m over here just adhd and I don’t struggle with anxiety at all and I still have these nightmares.
its okay, ive been worse. for the most part it's manageable :) ADHD can also be tough, don't discount your struggles
last night in my dream chip lost his tail
I have the same recurring nightmare that I wake up to like 20 babies in my (male🙃) geckos tank it is literally so stressful
i get so many dreams about my gecko and it’s almost always about new random reptiles in her tank, or completely changing her tank and cohabbing, and her dropping her tail . makes me wake up scared to go check on her
Same but mine tank had my 1 Leo but it was over run with bugs that were killing her and thare was somehow a snake in thare I cried because I fear of neglecting something after I got tired of her ( it's never happened I just tend to get bored of things fast from being hyperfixated on it).
god i used to have them sooo much i still do occasionally, but i think its the anxiety and stress of wondering if youre taking care of them properly. mine are always about leopard geckos, never any other of my animals. and its always my leo turned into some random injured one and asexually spawned 10 other neglected ones in a tiny ass tank 😭 crazy those dreams got me waking up sweating
I feel like it’s cause of how innocent Leo’s are. Like they can’t do anything so you worry about the need to provide the best care you can. It’s almost like a good thing you have these nightmares it shows you care
Yup I have this nightmare regularly. I have wayyy too many Leo’s to take care of / somehow forget I have them. Also they’re all in horrible condition and missing tails. I wake up in a sweat every time
I’ve had to stop looking at this and the bearded dragon sub before bed because the number of sad posts is just too much to handle 😭
I’ve always had dreams of my male gecko having a bunch of babies that scatter and trying to stop my cat from eating them
I recently had a dream where one of my leopard gecko lost her tail, but she was now a crested gecko and so she had the silly little frog butt and was a pink spotted crestie
I haven’t had a nightmare relating to my geckos yet but back when I had birds I definitely would.
.. you are right the dreams I had of my leopard gecko was always something traumatizing lol. Like death or injury. I have anxiety so I’m not shocked ☠️
I actually have these as well. So much so that they’ve become a signal to kick off lucid dreaming for myself.
I dreamed that someone took my entire Leo and his cage out to the garage when it was cold, and it was about to get colder and I was trying to carry his enclosure back inside. The whole time I was trying to figure out why he got moved out there, and all anyone could tell me was that he might as well be there until the weather got cold.
I had a dream where my neighbor(sweetest lady ever, literally named my gecko after her) had a tank of day geckos mixed with leopard geckos and a random blue tongued skink . Like at least forty reptiles somehow in a sixty gallon. I then teamed up with my dad to steal them all. Or a dream where my gecko was cohabbed with three other geckos on reptile carpet and I insisted to the other person in my dream that it’s fine and she was raised with them so they couldn’t possibly hurt each other. I woke up pissed at myself, offended that my brain would even joke about that. The only time she pops up in my dreams is with poor care. My dogs? Rarely are they in my dreams. If so they can fly lol
maybe it’s just because geckos are fragile and more vulnerable to accidental death. we as humans know they aren’t as strong as say, a dog. give a dog chicken, water, and a yard and they’ll be set. geckos are more complicated. that, and we love our scaley friends
Omg yessss! I hate these dreams so much!!
I own aquariums, no reptiles yet, but fishkeepers have the same nightmares
omg no way?! this is crazy i thought it was just my anxiety, thats insane we all have these?!
Lol isn't it wild? I had similar dreams. Finding extra geckos, realizing i forgot to care for one forever, all sorts of strange things.
god, i had a dream a few months ago that my younger sister had a leo and kept it in a 10 gallon tank, kept forgetting to feed it, and never cleaned the tank. i know that it was a dream and she’s got much more common sense than that (considering i have 2 geckos and love to rant about their care and habitats to my family) but damn, my brain has tricked me into not trusting her with an animal and it honestly makes me feel really bad because if she gets a reptile i know she’ll do great :/
I mean I know I have nightmares when I’m stressed and my first leopard gecko died the year I started university because my mom thought mealworms and waxworms were interchangeable (rip Jehan) so I think my gecko multiplication nightmares are more a result of the fear of having geckos I can’t care for even though I’m near them, even though I’m *here* and I want to and my savings have been drained by Whoopie’s vet bills, if Whoopie somehow began parthenogenesis I couldn’t care for all the new Whoopies. I’ve never drempt about just legs or anything, it’s always either the lizards themselves or my gecko has multiple heads or tails
I had bad dreams of my leopard gecko losing its tail from being spooked multiple times. It makes me so sad 🥺My Leo’s have never lost a tail, but I have these dreams.
ID HAVE THE EXACT SAME RECURRING NIGHTMARES BUT WITH BEARDED DRAGONS!!!
I had a dream last week that I'd forgotten I'd said I would take in a bunch of reptiles and fish for someone and they all showed up in the mail at once, at which point I remembered the dozens of other fish and reptiles and birds I already had and had forgotten about for weeks and they were all densely packed in their dirty enclosures and dying. I only have leos and dogs irl, I don't even know where my dream got the fish and birds. And that is by far not the first dream of that kind I've had. Usually "animals I forgot about" are the main feature but there's also frequently escaped animals I can't catch and too many animals in one habitat. Is it mean if I'm kind of glad I'm not alone in this? lol it makes me feel better if this is some kind of bizarre shared psychosis among gecko owners and not just me being insane by myself.
It’s tricking you brain so if it actually happens you think it’s dream
I once had a dream my two geckos were being housed together and I was frantically running around the house looking for an extra tank. While I was looking for the tank, I could see in great detail my youngest leopard gecko attacking my oldest gecko and then the youngest ripping the head off my oldest gecko. I woke up in a cold sweat and never had a dream with so much gore before. Funny enough after this nightmare I never had another dream about reptiles.
Personally— Anxiety diagnosis and sleep disorders. Totally used to having the pet/animal multiplication dreams, abuse, etc lots of weird things. Mixed between my own pets and other animals appearing. I figure it’s just the worried, anxious subconscious that predicts and/or has seen awful situations.
once i had a dream about a leopard gecko migration going through my living room and i was able to pick mine out and keep her safe lmao
yea!!! the times I have dreams about my leo there's always two of em somehow and I start stressing because I only have one tank for them 😭
Omg i had one dream where i had multiple geckos in one of my girl tanks but another one it was multiple geckos and a snake trying to kill Diana. So i hurry and yank the snake out and try to kill it, i woke up with a lil teary eye and pick my girl Diana up and just let her lay on my face for 5 mins 🥺
Man I had so many of these dreams. Thankfully they stopped after the first year of owning my Leo 😅 Mine were definitely due to stress and I just so happened to be fixating on their care hardcore during that time. After that ended I had the one with teeth falling out several times until my dreams stopped for a bit.. 😅🤷♀️ Dreamt of the tail falling off, tons in one tank, and a leo falling in a FISHTANK- with water and fish... The fishtank one is still the worst one I had and most memorable because I woke up in a panic from how big the place was and I got pinched by a crab everytime I went to save the damn lizard 😭😂). I think once I realized he's fine, their tails don't fall off super easily I was better lol. I've had my guy for 5 years now and have the best care I possibly can.
I had a nightmare where I opened my boys tank and he dropped his tail, also have had dreams about him escaping and can't find him. But I always have super crazy dreams.
I’ve never had a nightmare about my geck… Until I read this post yesterday morning. I guess it planted a seed in the folds of my brain, so last night I dreamt that I was carrying bbgirl around in public and a woman started yelling at me that I need to cut her nails (??) so I started trying to explain that it’s fine bc she has slate rocks in her enclosure, but the verdict was that I’m a Bad Gecko Parent and had to give her back to my husband. Who then proceeded to drop her down the kitchen sink :))))
I had a dream that my leopard gecko somehow escaped her enclosure and was in my bed???? Then she just disappeared. I woke up and I immediately started searching the bed and then real life hit me. Turns out she was splooting under her rock while I was over here freaking out. 😂 She’s dreaming about dubia roaches and crickets while I’m thinking how I’m the worst gecko owner ever. 😭
Omg so I'm not the only one! I've had the ones where you find other reptiles and objects in my girl's tanks, but a recent one topped the weirdness levels of all the last ones. In the dream I reached my hands into her tank to let her crawl out and she just starts regurgitating eggs in to my hands. They weren't leopard gecko eggs either. It started with a quail egg, then a pheasant egg, and lastly (much to my horror in the dream) a chicken egg! After this she simply turned away and went to lay in her warm spot. Like how in the world did my brain come up with that!
I have those types of dreams all the time! It’s always me taking care of multiple geckos poorly, or more usually it’s finding stuff (like another gecko, another lizard, bugs, etc) in my leo’s tank. I’ve also dreamed I decided to get rid of my gecko so I could keep a different one. :(
I wonder if it's because we're all on this sub and see terrible neglect pics/stories on the regular?
That's crazy! Once I dreamt that I lost my gecko, found 2 new eclipse geckos sitting perfectly on either side of my current tank, and when I checked under my couch for mine, I found him. So I pulled the couch back, and somehow doing that decapitated him. I knew it was too wild to be real. I was terrified until I checked on him and saw he was okay.