Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The past couple weeks I have made a very interesting observation on Leopard Gecko feeding. I read a lot of posts lately about how much how often and figured I would play with this. I usually feed every 4 days and have been doing this for some time with great growth and health results. I changed to feeding as much as they would eat every day and here are my results. Normally they take 6-7 Supper Meal worms every 4 days, Every day they would only take one or 2 of these. If I fed Kirmy a pinkie she would not feed for another 3-4 day after that. The biggest thing I found out is today was weighing day and I found both of them have dropped about .5g since this feeding every day schedule started. I am now putting them back on the every 4 day schedule and my bet is they will gain that weight back.
My Research and Collection

I usually feed them what they wat everyday. Let us know what happens with yours, and if they gain the weight back, maybe I will try it too. What would you recommend for feeding babies??? Mine are about 5 weeks old. Thanks

Babies need to be offered food EVERY DAY until they are at least close to a year old. Most of my adults eat either every day or every other day. If I went 4 days between feedings I think they would attack me !!!
-----
www.StoplightCityLeopardGeckos.com

I have fed both of mine Supper Meal Worms since day one. The weight loss was .5 as in POINT 5g I will report back in a few weeks now that they will be going back on there normal every 4 day schedule
My Research and Collection

is that .5 grams as in "point five" or 5 whole grams that they lost? if its point five thats not much at all and shouldnt be worried about. thats just what i think..

My babies all get fed every day until they're 8 months old.. then they're switched to an every other day feeding schedule. I feed primarily mealworms, superworms and pinkies to all my adults. I have a few that won't take pinkies so they get more superworms. If you keep them correctly at the correct temps they will eat you out of house and home. For 23 leos I go through almost 2000 mealworms a week... a little over half that in superworms... I have females that routinely throw between 9 and 11 clutches every year without losing more than a quarter of their weight and it all comes back within 2-3 weeks. I keep my leos with a belly heat area of between 110 and 115 degrees F... a warm end temp of 92 and a cool end temp of 81. 3 hides for a 1.3 setup... in sterlite 39 gallon enclosures... with ventilation holes on the sides near the top. I also keep them at an overall higher humidity than most people and never have problems with shedding or with dehydration or respiratory problems.. I worked out what worked best for me and what kept them healthiest. This is my regime and thats given me my best results. It might not be something every keeper finds favor with but I'd far rather judge my husbandry by the health of my captives than by someone else's measure no matter their experience. My leo's conditions are better indicators than words on a forum for how my methods work for me.

-----
Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
5.11.Leopard geckos (1.2 Blizzards (Caine, Phoenix, and Mirage), 0.2 Tangerine Albinos (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short, and Casper), 1.0 Tremper Albino (Mycah), 0.3 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, and Aris), 1.1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas), 1.0 Full Stripe Chocolate Tremper Albino (Discord), 0.1 pastel (Raven) and 1.2 Normals)
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros) (R.I.P. November 18, 2005)
13 rats (plus pups)
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Ashe and Hercules)

i hear ya lucien. it really sounds like we have a similar setup, husbandry, and amount of leos. however i do have 8 eggs on the way, wahoo mine seem to eat right arround the same except they get only crickets instead of mealies. i have tried many differnt things and this works best for me too as well. i feel i have some very healthy looking animals other then the ones who came to me with problems, but they are coming arround and starting to eat on their own! this higher heat and humidity works well.

If I may recommend, do some reading on the monitor forum and you'll never wonder again why a fossorial animal does better with higher heat and humidity. Most monitors not of the odatriad (Tree monitor) family are quite fossorial. Spending more time underground in appropriately heated and humidified areas. Leos are no different save for the fact they're nocturnal for the most part. They're insectivorous like many small monitors and will even take advantage of mammals and lizards that are small enough for them to swallow. I wouldn't put it past wild leos to also eat small snakes...There is far more to keeping them than just throwing them in a box.. with a set heat and light schedule and food schedule. Especially if you want healthy animals. You have to know what conditions would actually be like where they live...not just the country but the actual regions, individual rock piles, etc. Temperature readings are readily available as are humidity readings. 4 inches below any level of sand, loose or hard packed, the ground is about 20-30 degrees cooler than the top of it. It would be the same with rock piles only they would collect more moisture and evaporate it even slower when it got into the cracks. Humidity does not equal wetness. Wetness is just bad all around and can cause problems but true air born humidity can't be beaten for rehydrating a dehydrated leo. I've gotten many rescues in.. both petshop and private owners. I've lost one out of 13 and she had some genetic condition that prevented her from absorbing calcium correctly so she had MBD something fierce. I tried everything for close to 3 months before I was forced to euthanize her because she would have died on her own anyway. She was 4 years old and the size of a 5 month old hatchling. I even saved one poor guy that came in nearly frozen to death... he was completely stiff... He's the one named Lazarus in the 3rd picture above... and he's quickly become a favorite. He gets to live out his life with me now... I think he deserves it after surviving being frozen nearly to death. I think I've saved many leos where others wouldn't be able to and all because I don't take a set approach to anything. I don't read the husbandry books.. many of them are very outdated and very wrong. I watch my captives and go by what they tell me they need. I learned this with my monitor. And it applies to all my animals...

One of my mystery babies from this year... from a breeding of now known triple hets (blizzard x albino x patternless)... I have 7 hatchlings and at least 7 more on the way.. plus one female just beginning her laying cycle.. which means at least 16 more eggs...

-----
Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
5.11.Leopard geckos (1.2 Blizzards (Caine, Phoenix, and Mirage), 0.2 Tangerine Albinos (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short, and Casper), 1.0 Tremper Albino (Mycah), 0.3 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, and Aris), 1.1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas), 1.0 Full Stripe Chocolate Tremper Albino (Discord), 0.1 pastel (Raven) and 1.2 Normals)
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros) (R.I.P. November 18, 2005)
13 rats (plus pups)
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Ashe and Hercules)

I read that crickets have good calcium/phosphorous ratio of 1:1. I don't know if you guys know this, or if this is even true? I tend to think so...judging from the result of feeding them to my herps. They all are pretty healthy!

Actually crickets have a phosphorous to calcium ration of 2:1 unless gutloaded and well dusted... The Calcium should be double the phosphorous... *nods* This is also part of the reason my leos get pinkies often...they're a whole food...that include all the vitains and minerals needed in one go... without any supplementing at all.. Gutloaded mealworms can actually have a higher calcium to phosphorous ratio than crickets without supplementing as long as they're well gutloaded... Superworms are even more so plus have a higher fat content and moisture content.. this is usually to the good for an animal that stores fat naturally and mobilizes it in times of stressful events during their lives.. droughs, famines, etc etc.

-----
Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
5.11.Leopard geckos (1.2 Blizzards (Caine, Phoenix, and Mirage), 0.2 Tangerine Albinos (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short, and Casper), 1.0 Tremper Albino (Mycah), 0.3 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, and Aris), 1.1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas), 1.0 Full Stripe Chocolate Tremper Albino (Discord), 0.1 pastel (Raven) and 1.2 Normals)
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros) (R.I.P. November 18, 2005)
13 rats (plus pups)
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Ashe and Hercules)

I would agree with you on this. I think if you feed them enough food...their are less health problem becasue they are getting enough nutrients, which means they have healthy immune system. I've fed all my herps well, and they have never had any problems for me to worry about. Except for my big female White's tree frog, which was bitten by an ant, and develop blister around the area just behind the left lobe. I though she was going to die, but she bounce back quite pretty quickly. And I though frogs have sensitive skin. I've just a baby leopard gecko, which I feed everyday, and I've never had shedding problem. All my herps are happy and healthy...they are pretty alert and seem to go about do natural behavior. I haave my male White's croak for all the time...and my firbellied toads, also.