Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey. I have not posted in years but I have two adult leos (Crazy Eight and Henry)and I just bought a baby gecko from Petco. I know Petco is very bad at taking care of these guys and that is one reason why I got him. It has been two weeks and he has not ate any of the small mealworms I have in his cage. Every two days I change out the mealworms so they are more fresh and so the mealworms can eat. Tonight I got five or six mealworms and smashed them and added a little water to it, then I got a syringe and put little drops of that on his nose so he can lick it up. Just wondering if anyone else has done this and if it will work. Thanks

I have not done this personally but I have heard of others that force feed with a syring. I feed my leos crickets so when one of my hatchlings is not eating I will hold the baby in my hand and tap its jaw until it opens it then I stick a cricket in its mouth and they just continue to eat it, I will ussually have to do this several times before I see them catch a cricket and eat on their own. Sometimes you have to squish the head of the cricket to kill it so the gecko will eat it. I have had to do this with most of my hatchling albinos. By the way these 2 pictured below are my original 2 that I rescued from a Petco myself and I had to hand feed them too.

I also had this same problem with my male Leo. First off, if its a baby i would suggest putting it in a moch smaller enclosure than its used to , put acouple of very small crickets and/or mealworms in with it, put a towel over the enclosure and leave it overnight. And for a larger gecko do the same thing but with like mid-sized crickets and/or mealworms. Hope this helped!!!
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1.1 Leopard Geckos
0.1 Striped Fattail Gecko
0.1 Yellow Lab
0.1 Cocker Spaniel

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