I have just acquired a pair of leopard geckos who have been tagged with the monicors Mr. Dude and Miz Liz. I had them housed together in a large retile tank 36"L 18"W 17.5"D with vents tooled into the glass and the whole tamale. I have the Claci-sand on the warm end and moist peat moss on the cool end. At first they did great then the male seemed to become impacted and quit eating. I researched on the net and learned that a 15 min warm water soak followed by a 10 min belly rub will help this problem. He was moved into a smaller 10 gal size incloser with paper towel only. After repeating for 3 consecutive days we had a successful and highly aromatic BM. I had a hide box in there for him on the warm end with moist peat moss. He never came out so I took it away and replaced it with a half coconut shell. After these changes he began eating again but will not eat in front of anyone. I check carefully under the papertowel to make sure the crickets and meal worms are actually gone and not just hiding. He had 1 small BM on his own, then nothing for 3 days after which I again soaked and rubbed this time with immediate success. The warmth on the tanks are both around 78 on the cool end. I read that overfeeding can be a cause of impaction so am going to cut back to feeding on Mon, Wed, and Fri. instead of every day. I really am getting attached to Mr. Dude due to all our special one on one time but doubt it is good for him to have to have his belly massaged for every BM. Any suggestions on getting him to "go" on his own?


