Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had my gecko for 1yr and 4months, he has always eaten meal worms about 2 every 2 days. For some reason he hasnt eaten for about 3 weeks. I cant figure out whats wrong with him, I mist his cage twice a day or more with calcium water and give him a water bowl with calcium water. His cage is kept clean and he has plenty of room to run around. He has a heat rock that is kept on all the time and i put a 100 watt uv light on his cage during the day. Also for some reason he hasnt been climbing on the glass or moving around a lot like he usually does, im not sure if this is contributing to that or not. If anyone knows anything about this or has any questions please reply ASAP..

Not sure why he's not eating, but I'd strongly recommend that you not use a hot rock any more. A snake of mine roasted himself on one, and I've heard of several horror stories related to use of hot rocks, despite claims from the manufacturers that they are safe. If you're using sand or calci sand as a substrate, he may have eaten it and gotten impacted - a concern I'm dealing with right now with my fat tail gecko (see posts below). Some of the replies to my post might be helpful to you. Good luck!! Hopefully our little guys will start eating soon.

OK, first off, lose the heat rock, they can burn your gecko really bad. Try using one of the red heat bulbs, they work great.
Second, you don't need to mist with calcium water or give them calcium water to drink. They'll occasionally drink out of the water bowl, but not very often. For the calcium, you need to dust their food with it or mix it in with peach or banana baby food. I'd imagine that spraying water mixed with calcium is making a huge mess!!

Now then, try different food items; crickets, waxworms, super/king worms and also peach or banana baby foods. Geckos are no different then us, they like variety in their diet!! That, and two mealworms every two days doesn't sound like a lot of food!! My pair of goldens eats typically around 2 dozen crickets a week, plus fruits and waxworms or kingworms and they'd eat more if I let them!
Also, what's the temputure of the cage? In a lot of parts of the country, it's getting cooler right now and if they temps in your cage are dropping, it could be causing your lizard to not eat anything.
What size cage is he in? What are the temps/humidity? What substrate and accessories are you using in the cage? Any changes to his or your daily routines or his cage??
Lots of things could be causing this, but try checking the temps and getting some different food items for him to eat!!

~Cro

the only thing about losing the heat rock is im worried it might get too cold during the night because i usually turn his light off when i go to sleep. Ive been told to use a 100 watt uv lamp, is that accurate? The cage temp is typically between 70-80'. I'll try mixing his food up a little and lose the calcium water. One of my theories was because it is getting cold outside is why hes not eating. I live in central united states where its getting to about 40 degrees. Also, what kind of bedding do you recommend? Everywhere I go they dont have a general golden gecko bedding, its usually some kind of jungle or forest bedding on the label. At the moment Im using Reptile Bark Premium reptile bedding. Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it!

Golden Gecko's don't need UV lights, though I do have one on my cage due to live plants, but try getting one of the red nocturnal heat lamps, you can keep it on 24/7, it's not that much of a bother when your sleeping IMO. The heat rocks are bad because the lizards can't tell when they're too hot and they burn themselves on them, rocks in the wild don't normally get hot without the sun beating down on it, and even then, it will cool off eventually. If you really don't want to get a heat lamp, you can always TRY and UTH(under the tank heater)but just make sure to keep an eye on the temps. The temps should typically be between 75-85 degrees.
I live in the Northeastern part of the US and its been getting REALLY cold here(stupid Lake Erie! :-D)but there has been almost no change in mines food intake. As long as you keep the temps in their cage the same, the outdoor temp should affect them that much.
For bedding, one of the coconut husk fiber beddings such as Bed-a-Beast, EcoEarth and I think the other one is call Forest Bed or something along those lines. I'd stay away from the Reptile bark because of risk of impaction.

~Cro

thanks for the help