Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i know because i have a baby that even the possible thought of feeding pinky mice will be a long time away, but i was wondering:

since most lizards are attracted to movement as a feeding trigger, wont it be kind of hard to get a leo to eat a frozen/thawed pink mouse?

and if you were to have to get it live, isnt there a huge chance that they will die during shipping, being babies?

that being said how do you guys acquire them?

this was just a curious question

Ask for them at the pet store. Many sell them live.

They also have those little vibrating dishes, to make dead food wiggle for leopard geckos. I suppose, if you're set on offering pinks and can only get frozen/thawed, there's that option.

It seems like a lot of trouble for no real reason though. Dusted live bugs offer them all the nutrition they need.

I just feed a f/t pink off tongs, and wiggle it that way.

LOL! Yes, there's always that.

Mine will take food out of my hand too and a little twist between your fingers can produce a lot of wiggle.

I've bought them frozen at the pet store and thawed it when mine was a year old. She nibbled on the tail for 5 seconds and then never ate it. I wiggled and jiggled, squeaked for effect but nothing. I haven't tried it since.

ya this was just a thought, what else can be offered to them? (thinking outside ofthe box) live frogs/lizards, etc?? fish?

p.s. jannie: what is that substrate under mojave?

The only other treats/meals I've tried are the commercial foods from t-rex which she hates and Waxworms which she LOVES.

The substrate in that pic is a combination of sand and tile. I've found that if I put sand down and then a layer of the cut tiles, from Zilla I believe, it works ok but is hard to clean. If I take the tile out she eats the sand. I've also tried Desert Snow bedding by Zilla but that's too dusty. Tried the Jungle bedding by T-Rex, the compact "add water" bedding, carpet, millet, walnut shell, Excavator Clay (that was an awful mess). Honestly I've tried about every bedding there is but nothing that's favorable. We're on paper towels this week but they're dirty after 2 days so that's a no.

What she really loves are the foam bases with hides carved into them but after a day she gets too lazy and doesn't come out to eat, just waits for the crickets to come to her. I'm glad she's that comfortable but her muscles get weak and she gets fatter even after a week.

For now my own search continues for the perfect bedding.

A varied diet could include waxworms, mealworm/superworms, crickets, pinkie mice, small scorpions, roaches, and grasshoppers. Some of these are hard to come by while others are meant for certain occassions. A lot of people use a staple diet of mealworms/superworms and swear by it, but others say that this can lead to long term health issues because chitin(what the exoskeltons are composed of) is indigestible. Properly dusted crickets seem to be able to take care most if not all of the nutrients a leopard gecko requires concerning a food source. Pinkies and waxworms are usually methods fattening up a female after or before breeding. Scorpions are part of the natural diet, but good luck finding any "feeder scorpions". Roaches are becomeing more popular, but I'm pretty sure they have large amounts of chitin when compared to other invertebrates.