Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I received a baby gargoyle gecko through shipping almost a month ago. He still will not eat by himself. He is kept in a reptarium with a nice ficus plant to climb on. The temp in the room stays in the high 70s to low 80s throughout the day. At first I just thought he needed to get acclimated to his new surroundings but after two weeks of no eating I started to hand feed him baby foods from a syringe. He has gotten so used to it that now as soon as a pick him up he opens his mouth ready to eat. He even took a couple of small crickets from a pair of tongs but he won't eat on his own, any suggestions or ideas as to why? I'd hate to have to hand feed him his whole life. Thanks for any help.

first off how big is it? if its a young gargoyle you should have it in a small tank maybe a ten gallon. stop feeding baby food also, gargoyles have a tendencey to get overweight by just baby food and its not good for them. you need to switch to crested gecko diet or gargoyle diet. its a complete food it has everything you need right in it including their supplements. I would go basic. I keep my babies in ten gallon tanks, paper towel substrate, some fake leaves for hidding and also a humid hide for them to help prevent dehydration and it also helps with shedding issues that can occur. with these guys its best to go very simple with them when they are young, it just makes things a lot easier to monitor esp their health. you also want to stop handfeeding them, I do with my babies that are very young just to make sure they are eating ok, but they can as you've seen get use to it and become stubburn when it comes to eating on their own. any more questions feel free to contact me.

D