Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm new to this forum, so hi, I'm Brett
I got a baby leopard gecko 2 weeks ago. He doesn't seem to eat much at all. I filled a small dish with freeze dried meal worms, but at first he didnt seem to eat them at all, so i got him 12 little tophat crickets a week ago. Now, I can count 7 crickets left, and most of them that are left are the biggest of the crickets that i got, but still smaller than my gecko's head. And he just seems to be really skinny. Shed 2 nights ago, and that went fine.

My main question is, is it normal for a baby gecko to be skinny? (His body's width is smaller than the width of his head). And is it normal for a baby to not eat much? As far as i can tell, he didnt eat much or any of the freezedried mealworms, and at most, 5 crickets in 2 weeks.

My setup:
5.5 gallon tank, green t-rex bone-aid calci-sand
25 watt fluker's heat bulb.
small fakerock food dish and water dish.
tiny bottletop filled with calium and mineral supplement.
a coconut house!(he loves his coconut home)
plastic leaves.
the average temperature is about 82 degrees in his tank

Well, a few things. Generally speaking babies are "skinnier" than adults, but its hard to say wether your leo is underweight without seeing a picture at least. First of all, I would take a fecal sample to the vet. If he has parasites they can get rid of them for you. good news on this is that its not all that expensive, I just got done having a fecal sample done and de-wormer administered, and it only came to 27$. Not bad at all. Taking a fecal to the vet is good practice for all new animals anyway.

If you have had your lizard for two weeks and he really has only eaten 5 crickets i would definately take a fecal to the vet asap. sounds like parasites to me.

A couple other things, generally leo's will not eat anything that isn't alive, so i would ditch the freeze dried worms. Live crickets (sm) mealworms (sm and occasionally) make a good staple. And you can throw in wax worms (occasionally) butter worms, or silk worms for variety.

Also, ditch the calci-sand immeditaely. That stuff is really bad for your leo, it claims to be digestable but trust us, it isn't. Just look at it when it gets wet, the clumps dry rock hard. And baby leos can be clumsy hunters, sometimes swallowing whole mouthfulls of sand, this can kill your leo. For now, house him on paper towels, newspaper, or reptile carpet, nothing he can swallow. this also makes the feces easier to see.

Keep an eye on the temps, with a tank that small it may be very easy to over heat, you are going to have to move him to a bigger tank as soon as he starts growing anyway, but until then, make sure he doesnt get cooked.

Good luck and keep us posted!
-----
0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican kingsnake
1.0.2 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0 BTS
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

Hey, welcome
I just had a quick question..have you kept the crix in the enclosure for the week? I ask because without a food source the crix have an empty gut, therefore they aren't providing any sort of nutrition for your new little guy. Crix aren't necessarily the food source so much as what is inside of them, and they only hold onto their food for a VERY short period of time. So if they've been in there this long without any food (have you read up on gutloading?) then they are "empty" and the leo's basically starving.

i feed the crickets apples and grapes, but they seem to like to munch on the freezedried mealworms too. one of the crickets even shed today cuz it was getting big.

the thing is, Frank (my leo) has had bowel movements, though not big ones. and im not sure if he ate any freezedried stuff or not. i recently refreshed his freezedried dish with just a few new freezedried mealworms so i can tell if he eats one.

another question, should i keep his coconut house on the cool side of the tank, or the warmer side?its on the cooler side now. i also have a roommate that stays up late in the room where Frank is, with the lights on, and im worried that's messing up frank's sense of time and day.

he seems to be fairly tame, he lets me pick himup without much struggle. i think i might just be worrying too much though. i just wanna be a good gecko dad. heh.

get a fecal done. lights will not mess with him too much. If he's really young and letting you pick him up, and really chill about it, he's probably sick. Is he dehydrated? A good way to tell if he's underweight is to look at his tail, not his body. Is there fat on his tail, or is it all skin and bones? Are you on yahoo? IM me so I can help get you setup with your new baby!
-----

1.0 Blizzard Bill
1.0 Hypo stripe 100% het Rainwater from JL (BJ)
1.0 HypoTang from Crested (Apricot)
1.0 Tremper Albino Hypo (Cloud)
0.3 Normal/Hi-Yellow Leopard gecko (Beatrice, Goldie (now w/SD), Freckles, Pepper)
0.1 SHCT Leopard Gecko (Brite)
0.1 Tangy Mutt Leopard Gecko (Rainbow)
0.1 Tremper Albino (Leucy)
RIP Peaches, Ghost

frist let me say this, my leo is afraid of crickets, i dont know where you got yours but if they were offering crickets too large this is likely the cause of your leo not eating crickets. I know many people will freak out at this but i would recomend that you switch over to offering live mealworms if you can obtain them. My leo would not eat crickets at all when she was small because the store i got her from had crickets way too big for her in the cage. Also if you are really worried about your leos weight get a few waxworms. Although i would not recomend them for a staple diet they will get your gecko some what sounds like much need energy that will hopefully jump start it into being more active and hunting more consistently.

Just so you know i feed mine a staple diet of mealworms and she is doing well. i would recomend trying live mealworms, they seems to work better for the less agressive leos.