Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
We got our first Leopard Gecko about 2 months ago. He started out really small and fraile looking. Now he's big, fat, and aggressive. Well, he's extremely aggressive when feeding. His aggressiveness started exactly 36 hours after we got him. We were concerned for his health and even thought he might not make it during those first 36 hours. He didn't move and he kept his eyes closed all the time. I'm guessing he was only a few weeks old when we got him, so he had little to no fat reserves. He seemed like he was weak or sickly.
Then hour 36 arrived. He did a sort of a barkish squeek thing and bit me. I put some fresh crickets in and he ate them all. He's been eating like a horse ever since. He started out eating 6, 1/4 inch, crickets a day. Then 10... Then we had to up his food size weekly. It seemed like this guy just couldn't get enough to eat. For the past 3 weeks he's been eating all his crickets, 10 large crickets a day or more. He also has been eating pinkie mice. He eats 1 every day or 2. He just can't seem to get enough food. He's doubled his size in the past 2 months. His weight is really good too. Just check out the pictures below. I really love this guy, but I'm a bit concerned about how much food he seems to need. I've never seen him shed, but I've read they eat their sheds. I guess I could have missed it. He's a Blazing Blizzard and it's hard to tell if he's in shed. His cage is set up right. He gets his calicum and humid hide. No sand in his cage. We use slate tiles. He's got an under the tank heater and a 60watt CHE for warmth. He seems to be nice to everyone in the house, except me. He likes to bite or try to bite me all the time. Of course, I'm the main person who feeds him. Maybe he just associates me with feeding time. He seems very happy and healthy, but.....

Is it normal for a young Gecko to eat that much?

I don't know much about the feeding behaviors of geckos, as I am new to this myself, but I had to comment: that's a gorgeous leo!!

Leopard geckos are normally quite... enthusiastic... when hunting. That's normal. I've had several of my geckos accidentally bite me when I offer them food off of tongs, in their excitement.

Growing geckos can eat an astounding amount of food. I've had babies go through upwards of 2-3 dozen crickets and mealworms in a single feeding, and I have one 5 month old gecko that will eat 5 2" superworms and STILL act hungry afterwards! They put all that food straight into growth, so don't limit the amount of food he eats. Just let him eat as much as he can in a 15 minute period. He'll stop when he's full.

Wait a minute you feed 2 pinkies a day?? That is really horrible for a leo. They should be fed 10-20 crix aday. With mealies as a treat. You can also feed wax worms as a fattening up source of treat about 1 a week if that. They are very high in fat as are pinkies and pinkies are only to be fed 1 a month if that. They are extremely high in fat and you will end up with a very sick leo. I would really adjust your feeding asap, before something terrible goes wrong....Here are a few caresheets on feeding leos i think you need to look at. What are your temps? Substrate? Lighting? Heating? Do you have a pure calcuim dish provide at all times? Do you dust the crix with vitamins?
Just read the feeding/ diet section!!

http://www.lihs.org/files/caresheets/sheet12.htm
http://www.anapsid.org/leopardgek.html
http://www.pythons.com/lg-care.html

What size crickets are you using and are you gutloading them? If they are gutloaded and 5/8" to 3/4" mine eat around 10 every other day. I don't use Pinkies except maybe an occassional treat for a female before breeding season. I also do not use waxworms ever. They are faty and sometimes addicting where they may not want other food sources. My favorite food type are mealworms beacause they don't chirp, don't smell up the containers like crickets, and you can store them in the fridge for a few weeks.
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Brian
www.windycitygeckos.com

I think it's a great looking gecko. Looks to be pretty healthy. And to the other poster, he stated what he had for a substrate and the presecence of the calcium dish. Read before you get on the soap box. And as long as he's eating fine and not showing any signs of ill health, keep doing what you're doing. Keep up the good work.

He doesn't get 2 pinkies a day. He gets 1 pinkie every 1 or 2 days. We were running low in crickets and used them as a suppliment until we got more crickets. We can cut back to once a month on the pinkies. He has a calicum dish and slate for substrate. He's got 3 hides and a humid hide. We have read a lot before we set him up. As far as lighting goes.... We don't really use lighting. Just natural light. We don't gut load his crickets, but we do make sure the crickets do have a healthy diet. They get fruits and veggies sprinkled with vitamins and calicum. We also dust the crickets every other day. We offer him food in the morning and again in the evening. He normally eats them all. Sometimes he's still looking for more.

OK,
I just read up on gut loading crickets. Apparently we do gut load them. Gut loading is just providing them with a healthy diet that's high in protein.

Using pinkies as a supplement is still not a healthy or at all good diet. They can get addicted to pinkies as well as they can o waxworms and pinkies are higher in fat then waxworms. You should be feeding mealies or locusts or silkworms in place of crix......Read the caresheets please!!!!

Thanks,
We really like him. He's turning out much nicer that we thought he would.

Yeah, it sounds like your doing everything the way its supposed to be done. Your geckos are going to thrive and live long, healthy, lives it sounds.

-Tony C

for a humid hide, as far as container and material inside?

mike

I just use a regular exo-terra hiding cave with moist sphagnum moss in it.

-Tony C

I make all my own cheaper that way. I save all chinese food containers (plastic with the lids) KFC mash potatoe bowls, olive garden salads to go, bk salads containers and use them all for stuff. Mostly hides which i just have paper towels and spray them throughout the day there is my humid hide. Very simple, very cheap.

Glad to see my leo isnt the only one wrapped up like chinese takeout so to speak...LOL