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new leopard gecko wont eat

indus Aug 15, 2003 01:30 PM

I got a giant albino gecko from ron tremper 9 days ago he seems to not be eating when crickets walk by him he does not even give them an interested glance, he has a dish of mealworms which has not been emptied but its hard to tell if they get out of the dish or what, his is in a 10 gallon tank with all glass sided covered to make him feel secure, the warm side temp has been between 88-92 but he seems to prefer to hide in his humidity box on the cool side I have a black light type reptile light on him and a undertank heater. He is almost 2 months old
in the 9 days i'v had him he has only pooped once and once in the container he arrived in. I have ordered other baby leopard geckos recently and they all ate with vigor the very first night I had them, I am worried, how long can he go without eating? How long should I wait before taking some sort of action, I am afraid of force feeding, what is the first step to take?

Replies (4)

geckoluver101 Aug 15, 2003 02:05 PM

Congrats on your new giant!! OK, back to the subject.... give him some time. As long as he's not losing weight you shouldn't worry. I got a leo that didn't eat for 3 or 4 weeks! She's just now getting on a reg diet. As he gets older i would get him a bigger cage since he's a giant. One more tip the humid hide really needs to be on the warm side. Just wait and he'll eat soon enough. Keep us updated, Katie
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Owner of 1.2 Leopard Geckos, 3.0 Fire Belly Toads, 0.0.3 Treefrogs, 1.1 Bahaman Anoles 1.0 Japanese Fire Belly Newt
and 0.0.1 Turtle "GOT-A-LUV-UM"

indus Aug 17, 2003 01:57 PM

I would like to thank everyone who gave me advice, I was moving the humidity hide to the warm side and collecting a stool sample (I did find more than one poo, earlier i thought he only made one) anyway the poo contained nothing but vermiculite which I used in the humid box, First course of action...Remove vermiculite and replaced with large chunks of reptile bark.
I have used vermiculite in all my babies cages the fat tail baby digs holes the size of her body to curl up in, the baby geckos sleep in it, the adults lay their eggs in it, WHY on earth does this one decide not only to sleep on it but to dine on it as well???? Any comments on this behavior would be appreciated, I think it is rather odd, is he trying to get the moisture out of it or just finds it tasty???

xelda Aug 15, 2003 03:23 PM

I don't know if this is true of all geckos, but this happened with all three of my leos. It seems like there's a relationship between how comfortable a leo is and when it'll start to eat. Either they don't eat, because they haven't finished adjusting (being jostled around during the car ride, new cage, etc.) Or they don't feel secure until they've had their first meal (which makes sense). Once I get mine to eat the first time, they seem a lot more relaxed.

So maybe yours just need some time before he's comfortable coming out to eat.
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Lovin' would be easy if your colors were like my dreams...

Starling Aug 15, 2003 03:26 PM

When I ordered my albinos from ron a couple years ago, they didn't eat for almost two weeks. They finally started eating, but turned out they had worms. Easy to cure w/ panacur, not a big deal, but needs to be taken care of if present. I'd recommend a fecal.

Force feeding is a no no. Don't handle them, and you can try offering mealies w/ your fingers, let em squirm in front of them a little. That's how I got my girl to start eating finally. Ron feeds mealies so they are used to them.

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