Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am asking for advice about a leopard gecko that is not eating. I adopted her at the begining of May this year. She weights about 46-48 grams. She appears to be at a good weight, her tail is plump. When I first got her she had sand in her gut, but it has been cleared out. I was tube feeding her orgininally, but I have not been handeling her anymore except to weigh her and give a Calcium supplement once weekly. She seems to have no prey drive at all. She is housed in a 10 gal aquarium with a reptile carpet lining. She has a cave with moistened perlite to hide in, plus a log to hide under. The temperature ranges from about 90 down to about 80 degrees. I have offered her crickets, mealworms, and waxworms via tongs and free choice. When I got her she was eating mealworms free choice, but no crickets. She actually ate 1 cricket 2 weeks ago (I almost jumped for joy) but none since. If anyone can help me out I would really appriciate it. I have 3 other geckos that are doing great in the same conditions, so I am at a lose for what to do. I have also taken her into my local exotic vet, but the vet did not have anymore suggestions for me.
Thanks for your help in this matter.

It could be a number of differant things...
When you told us your temp, did you mean that the whole tank was that temp? If so, you should only have a heat source on one side of the tank... If the temps are to high in the whole tank the gecko will tend to not eat until it cools down.

If you are using a heat lamp that could also be a problem, heat lamps put heat on the leo's back and not on the stomach, they need heat on their stomach to digest food easily, so you should use an under tank heater on the warm side of the tank, I use a back heating pad for people and it works fine for all of my leos.

It also may be that your leo is sick of the same old food, give it some variety and get a few differant kinds of worms.

Make sure that food and water is always available.

I hope this helps, sorry for the long post!
Good luck with this one!

Sorry about the confusion; the warm end of the tank is 90 and the coller end is 80. There is a under tank heater at the warm end. What other food would you suggest? I have tried mealworms and waxworms.
Thanks for the help

Hmmm,
superworms, waxworms, mealworms, roaches, silkworms, butterworms, or pretty much any other kind of worm at your local pet store, I hope that your gecko starts to eat soon, your tank is a little on the warm side... Honestly I am not really sure how you cool down one side but my temps are 92 on the hot side and 70-ish on the cool side... Hope this helps.

I know you've had this animal for awhile now, but maybe it's just stressed out? There was a dscussion on here not long ago about something very similar. I can't remember who said it, but they said to cover the sides of the tank with paper so it's darker, and remove one side at a time. Might have been fattiesandleos. Anyways, just a thought. Either that, or it just likes being handfed. Good luck.
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0.2 Leopard Geckos (Fire and Mello)

Thanks for the idea about covering the cage, I will try it. I don't believe that she likes being tube fed as she wiggles and shakes her head alot. By the way, any sugesstions on how long she can go without eating? She has weighed 48 grams, but has lost 2 grams this far. I don't want to stress her by feeding her, but I don't want her to starve or get hypocalcimic?

Probably in about a week or two if she is still not eating, take her to the vet, is it possible that she can't find her food? Or do you put the worms in a food dish? Usually if they are not eating they will start again in a few days, one of mine has gone 4 days and then pigged out! I wouldn't worry yet, but I forgot if you said what your substrate is in your past posts... If it is sand TAKE IT TO THE VET ASAP! It will cause impactions if the leo eats any sand and they do stop eating and eventually starve to death. It is very hard to treat if you wait to long. I hope this is not the case, but good luck!

okay yeah the paper thing is a very good idea! i would cover about 3 sides of the cage and about half the top. this will make your leo feel more secure and hidden. so instead of worrying about trying to hide all the time it can feel like its hidden and start worrying about eating instead. i say your temps are fine either way 92-70ish, or 90-80. by the way when you hand feed your leo you shouldnt be forcing stuff in its mouth and making it squirm that is extremely stressful! if that happened to you, you probably wouldnt want to eat either, instead you would be thinking, "OMG, wtf just happened?! i better hide!" thats what your gecko is probably thinking. anyhow to make things a lot easier all you need to do is get an eye dropper, get some vanilla ensure(the old ppl smoothie) and drip a drop on its nose and wait for it to lick it off. repeat this until you feel it has had enough. ensure has vitamins and calcium in it so you dont need to worry about what ever your doing with that suppliment you have, just dust your food pray. try this for like a week. also try to hand feed your gecko like around 6pmish and then give it food around 8, leave it in all night, then remove it during the day. good luck.

wow fattiesnleos, I love your gecko! what morph is that? I have never seen one similar. Also can anyone answer my 2 questions I posted earlier? Thanks!

the little girl in my picture is a arizona tuscon banded gecko, she is a wild gecko. very cute geckos and good pets however not good for handling because they are less tame then a baby leo. however i have only delt with WC ones maybe the CB ones are nicer. 3leo, they are hard to sell, specially if you are breeding normals! also if your baby drops its tail just make sure it has a clean environment and feed it as much as it will eat, because it is growing and also has to grow a new tail. i suggest keeping your geckos for at least a year b4 you decide to breed.

I would breed albino/tangerine and albino/high yellow, how much would you price them at? Would they sell quicker than just normals? I understand that they couldn't sell as fast or for as much as the newest morphs that everyone is so hyped up about but they can't be THAT hard to sell, can they?? Thanks a lot!

i dont know, i havent tried selling that much myself but i have been watching some of the top TOP breeders trying to sell some of their animals for like a year or more! also what you would be producing is just normal geckos het for albino. only if some one is working with an albino project then they may buy them, if for no other reason besides a pet. you probably wont get much more then $30-50. and nobody really wants to pay that then pay another $50+ dollars for shipping. thats just my point of view. this is one of my giant tangerine albino X giant SHCTs. he is about 112grams now but this pic is when he was smaller. sold the sibling for only like $8....it was heart breaking.

my bad, hes 117grams

That is one beautiful little gecko.