Reptile & Amphibian Forums

HI again....I took the advice of others and purchased an under tank heater to suppliment the 50 red bulb on the top. The taped on thermometer on the front of the tank says 84F with both heat sources, so I would imagine around 86F in the middle of the tank where the heaters are. That said, there is still no crickets being eaten. I held the gecko and offered a cricket to it but nothing. I went to one pet store and the too suggested adding a heat source and possibly force feeding this baby. Is this a normal safe thing to do?? I then took the gecko back to the store where it was purchased and they said all looks fine. That it appears to look the same as the same group of hatchlings it came from, which interesting enough, none have fat tails at all. Anyway I'm pretty confused as to what to actually do from here...force feed, be patient and hope it eats before its too late....again I'm asking for any suggestions. Thanks, Tim

First off, unless you have a reostat or thermostat controlling the temps for the undertank heater and light the temps are probablly over 100. Those little sticky thermometers really don't work well at all. You need to get a digital temometer that has a little probe so you can measure the temp on the ground on the hot side of the tank right over the UTH. If the temp is too high you need a reostat or thermotat to ajust it.
Sometimes you just need to leave the leo alone till it calms down. You can try tapeing cardboard or posterboard on the sides of the tank to make him feel more secure. I wouldn't try forcefeeding yet you will probably stress it out even more unless he gets really thin. Do try to offer different food items like mealies if you are feeding criketts. Just drop them right in front of him. Also I would leave him alone exept when trying to feed him and I wouldn't do that more then 2 times a day. He may just be really stressed and taking him back to the pet store to have them look at him probably made him worse.

I have had a few that didn't eat the first 2 weeks I got them untill they ajusted to there suroundings.
Good luck.