Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am new to leopard geckos, have always loved them but never had any, so I purchased two at the last reptile show two weeks ago. The breeder was very helpful and all of his animals appeared in very good health. I decided on two leopard gekcos, the male was full grown and the female was a small adult. Now I bought a 30 g long breeder tank for them and set up everything. I am using a heat lamp, because I hate the heat pads, complete with a hide, shallow water dish, and an egg laying box. The temps are right. The breeder only fed them mealworms so I decided to start them on mealworms and gently move them onto both cricketss and mealworms. I have a feeding dish that the worms can't get out of and I counted fifteen mealworms. So far its been a week and no mealworms are gone. They haven't loss weight but I am worried. Sorry for the long post guys but I need help. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Justin
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0.1.0 ArgentineXColumbian Boa Het. For Albino
0.1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake
0.0.1 Western Longnose Snake
1.1.0 Leopard Geckos M:Tremper Albino F:Hypo Tangerine
1.2.0 Dwarf Dune Geckos
1.1.0 Western Banded Geckos
1.2.0 Tokay Geckos
2.2.0 Whalberg's Velvet Geckos

Number one: Separate them. Don't keep a male and female together until you plan to breed. IF you plan to keep a male in with a female, you need more females so she doesn't get chased around all the time, the female has to be of breeding age and a good weight before they are introduced.
Read the care sheets to be sure you have the temps and humidity right - don't go by what the breeder tells you, check it yourself.
Sand can be dangerous as a substrate, particularly for younger ones. Calci-sand is the worst. Check out the threads on impaction to see what it can do. Belly heat is important for digestions, and under tank heater will help with this.
Give them some crickets, it might be all they have been used to and they might not even recognize the mealies as food.
Be sure to dust the food with pure calcium and leave some in a dish that they can lick, vitamins with d3 should be used to dust the food every one or two weeks.
Also, be sure the have a humid hide to shed properly.

Sorry that I skimmed and missed the part where they only ate mealworms before. I agree with the other poster regarding the light. They really need belly heat and not a bulb, tho some people manage with that.
I hope they perk up for you.
Have they had a fecal exam done? Pinworms are so common and that can make them a bit lethargic. It's an easy fix as long as it's caught early.

leos are nocturnal so haveing a heat light is useless other than stressing your animals out. your geckos need a heat pad. using a light will not allow your geckos to rest easily and cause stress that is probaly why they are not eating. switch to the pad and you will see a remarkable differance.
adam
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hybrid breeders association
0.1. normal corn het hypo,anery
1.0. snow corn het hypo,anery,amel
1.0. amel corn unknown hets(4ft 8inch long)
1.0 sinacorn
1.1 kenyan sand boas
0.1 mbk
0.1 albino nelsons
0.2 normal leo geckos
1.0 blizzard leo gecko
0.0.1 snapping turtles
0.0.1 3 lined mud turtle

Heat lights aren't horrible...they actually can provide a beneficial day/night cycle for the geckos. As long as the animals have a dark place to hide away from the light, they shouldn't get stressed out because of it. I use both a heat pad and a low wattage lamp and my leos actually do better when I give them a day/night cycle.

Infrared or black heat lights are not detectable in leo gecko's light spectrums, thus as long as they're using a red or black bulb stress should not be a factor. As for belly heating, I've always used a red heat bulb and it warms my substrate (reptile carpet) to a pleasant 88 F on the hot side, so I don't see how a UTH could be all that much more effective.

As for your feeding problems, I'd give the little fellers a little more time to get used to their new surroundings. Geckohappy is right, separation would be a good start as the sex drive of the male could be stressing the single female. Rather than getting a whole new tank, I would suggest simply inserting a divider in the middle of your 30 g (make sure you put something non-transparent in so the gecko's are truly isolated), as 15 g per gecko should be plenty of living space. Since this will most likely require the purchase of a new heating source, it wouldn't hurt to try buying a UTH and putting it on one of the gecko's living space to see if that does in fact make a difference. If you are using a simply incandescent bulb (white light), go purchase a red or black bulb immediately - I would suggest red since it allows for convenient viewing during the evening hours. Also I would try picking up a few of the mealworms from the tray and physically placing them in front of your geckos to see if they are truly disinterested in food or simply are too lazy to go retrieve them from the dish.

Good luck,
- Robes

The heat lamp is a infrared bulb. I will still go get an UTH though, just in case. I will seperate them and try some new foods. I looked today and they are starting to lose weight, so we will see how they do. If not I guess I'll go the vet.

Thanks for the replies and help,

Justin
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0.1.0 ArgentineXColumbian Boa Het. For Albino
0.1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake
0.0.1 Western Longnose Snake
1.1.0 Leopard Geckos M:Tremper Albino F:Hypo Tangerine
1.2.0 Dwarf Dune Geckos
1.1.0 Western Banded Geckos
1.2.0 Tokay Geckos
2.2.0 Whalberg's Velvet Geckos