Reptile & Amphibian Forums

First of all I just want to say that I hardly know anything about leos, so if I saw something stupid, sorry! Ok, my friend got 1 leo. She doesn't know the age when she got it, but she's had it for about 3 1/2 months. She has a 75 watt bulb, it gets about 85-90 degrees in the cage during the day on the warm end. She feeds it mealworms. Recentely she talked to a breeder and he said that light stresses them out, so she got a heat pad instead and took the light off (I know the dangers of heat pads, with many lizards myself, we made sure it couldn't burn itself) she didnt like it so she went back to a 75 watt bulb. But currentely, her leo has barely eaten or pooed, he eats about 2 mealworms a day. She has him on papertowels and she has a good basking spot. She doesn't have a UVB bulb. Does anyone have an ideas? Other than parasites. I'm going over to look at it, is there annything I should look for? Thank you soo much!!!
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Julie

you could try using the blue lights made my exo-terra this will relive the stress caused by the regular buld does she have a humid and adry hidses in its tank? and mealworms shouldnt be a big part of a leos diet even though they contail a high amout of protien they should only be fed if crickets are not availible at that time also there should be a heat pad underneath the humid hide.leos use the humid hidse for shedding egg laying and to relive stress as well. hope this info helps. c ya

As can be seen in multiple cricket vs. mealworm threads on this forum, it's fine to make mealies the staple diet for leos. In fact, I'm never feeding crix again. I have a leo that came to me w/ a bacterial infection & no other problems. We cured her of that, feeding crix the whole time & now she has 3 different types of parasites! Thanks a lot stupid crix!!

Back to the point. Leos need belly heat. Hook up the heat pad again, making sure the floor temp is correct & not too hot.
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1.3.0 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton & Olivia Newton John, Unnamed
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena

Everything that I have read, including the Leopard Gecko Manual, says that a leo can survive just fine on mealworms. I've also seen in many places that the longest living leo was fed solely mealworms. They also do not carry parasites and are far less likely to carry bacteria, unlike crickets. I'm not saying that you are wrong, just wondering where you read/heard that, because I've never heard that before.

np

yep.....
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Josh
My Email

The temperature readings need to be in the upper 80s on the floor of the tank, not the overall air temperature. The leo needs the warmth on his belly to aid with digestion and for appetite stimulation.
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chickabowwow

3.2.2 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)
and 1 more egg a' cookin'

Thanks everyone. Umm..that was kinda rude. "Who should be liking the heatpad--your friend or her leo?" We're not stupid. I thought the air temp had to be higher and it wasn't doin the job..obviously. But I was wrong. Thanks for everyone elses help tho!!
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Julie