Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Gex is still hanging in there. We have been feeding her chicken babyfood mixed with vitamins or calcium powder at least once a day. She is having regular droppings now with no yellow snad in them for a few days. We are putting her in a separate container with a worm and a few crickets daily but she refuses to eat. We put a bowl full of mealworms and wax worms in her cage but she doesn't eat them. Some feedings we sneak a dead cricket or a worm into her mouth. Today she had two healthy sized droppings and that brings me to my question. Could it be time to stop daily feedings now and see if she will eat on her own in a few days? She is about 4.5 - 5 inches long.

Her blackened toes seem to be getting better but her tailtip is all dried out and very black. It seems to be drying up more everyday. I assume this means it is getting ready to drop? I don't think she has any feeling in it now, at least she doesn't seem to (just the blackened tip she does have feeling everywhere else.)

Can you think of anything I can do to get this girl to eat on her own now?

Temps 85-90 daytime
Night 70-75

We did buy a UV light as the vet recommended but I don't think it has done anything for her but help her hide more while its on.

Can Leopard Geckos use only overhead heating?

You can use a UTH (under the tank heater) as well. Most people actually perfer them. The one thing you need to be aware of is that the UTH is only good for heating the substrate. It will not do too much to heat the air. I recommend that you have a heat gun to get accurate substrate temps. It's very easy for the UTH to overheat, so you'll need a way to monitor temps, and also a dimmer or thermastat to get to the optimal temps.

As for the feeding, I would attempt to feed crickets or freshly shed mealies. Because she hasn't eaten on her own for awhile, you don't want to upset her tummy with anything too hard to digest. The crickets (live) could be good to trigger the hunting responce because they move so much. You can try one waxworm to see if she'll eat something, but she needs to eat other things that have more then just fat in them. If she is still showing no intrest in food, you should continue with the baby food until she does. I don't know is she could actually get spoiled to the point she prefers the baby food...I've never heard of it happening.

The good poops are encouraging...I hope she gets better!