Reptile & Amphibian Forums

at the store where i work we have two sick geckos. they were checked by the vet and we found out they had parasites. so we started hand feeding them crickets because they were to weak to chase food. but now that theyre getting better, they wont hunt. they will only eat from your hand. one will attempt to catch a cricket or two but lazily. the other just refuses to hunt at all.

how can we get them back to hunting? we cant hand feed them for the rest of their lives.

and just to give an idea of what size they are, the fatter one weighs 1.2 oz and the skinny one weighs a mere .8 oz.

thanks for any advice!

>>at the store where i work we have two sick geckos. they were checked by the vet and we found out they had parasites. so we started hand feeding them crickets because they were to weak to chase food. but now that theyre getting better, they wont hunt. they will only eat from your hand. one will attempt to catch a cricket or two but lazily. the other just refuses to hunt at all.
>>
>>how can we get them back to hunting? we cant hand feed them for the rest of their lives.
>>
>>and just to give an idea of what size they are, the fatter one weighs 1.2 oz and the skinny one weighs a mere .8 oz.
>>
>>thanks for any advice!

For the future, we're used to seeing gecko weights in grams - 1.2 oz = 34 grams, .8 oz = 22.67 grams. Those are obviously very light for adults, but depending on age, could be ok for juveniles. Are their tales skinny, fat, or somewhere in between?

Regardless of the answer to the above question, they won't starve themselves forever. If you stop hand feeding them, they'll eventually stop being lazy and start chasing the crickets. That being said "chase" can be a relative term with leos; I've known several of them to be rather lazy ambush hunters. Mine is pretty sure at this point that the crickets are dumb enough to walk in front of her, so she usually waits for them to come to her, often sitting at the entrance to her hide and just poking out a little farther to strike.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

im hoping this is the case. that we can just stop hand feeding them crickets and theyll eat...

they are adults, however. so they are extremely skinny. i worry that the smaller one is too weak to chase food(?). we recently started feeding them in a smaller container to ease the transition back to hunting but it doesnt seem to be helping much. they dont even seem to be interested in food until you pick one up and hold out a cricket for it.

if we fed them something else, like baby food, by hand - would it help them adjust back to "hunting" since we're not just handing them the live feeders? they were very active eaters before they became sick.

Well, if the smaller one has lost that much weight, it may at this point be more important to make sure it's getting calories at this point, so you may want to continue hand feeding at least that one until you feel that it's stronger.

I would think you'd have a hard time getting them to eat baby food, given that insects are what their instincts tell them to eat.

I'm not a vet, but that seems to at least make logical sense to me.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

>>Well, if the smaller one has lost that much weight, it may at this point be more important to make sure it's getting calories at this point, so you may want to continue hand feeding at least that one until you feel that it's stronger.
>>
>>I would think you'd have a hard time getting them to eat baby food, given that insects are what their instincts tell them to eat.
>>
>>I'm not a vet, but that seems to at least make logical sense to me.
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>>0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
>>0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

Gah, sorry about that first sentence, normally I'm more awake when I post. Can't believe I wrote it that way. Should only have one "at this point." Beginning or end, pick one, either way it makes more sense than both. *sigh*
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear