Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Help! I got a crested gecko on Monday and he won't eat! (Today is Friday.) We have put babyfood in a small dish (really a plastic lid), put two crickets dusted with calcium in the cage (which he completely ignored), and put CGD in a lid. He hasn't eaten anything! I have a red light bulb on all night on top of the cage along with a heating pad under the cage to keep the warm side of the cage in the 70 - 80 degree range. I have jungle mix substrate and the humidity is around 74-80 percent. I only left the crickets in for an hour or so, since several people told me they might stress the gecko or bite him. The crested is a male, probably 5 years old, and formerly belonged to a family of 3 boys. I can't sleep at night for worrying about him. He really belongs to my 10 year old son, who can't have traditional pets because of allergies, and I really need this one to make it!

sometimes they will take a few days of adjustment before they will start acting normal.
try leaving 2-3 crickets in the cage over night, and leave the babyfood in there so the crickets will munch on that rather than your gecko. if it hasn't eaten anything in more than a weekn, then you may start to worry. does the gecko look healthy otherwise? no tail bone sticking out, ribs showing, eyes sunken in or anything like that? find out exactly what the gecko was eating before and try to use the same food as well.

Thanks for your response. I will try leaving the crickets in overnight tonight. Do you think it is okay to leave the red light on all night? I can probably turn it off and not have the temp go below 65 now, but as we get into winter I only heat my house to 60 at night (I live in CO.)

Thanks for the reassurance! Our crested has eaten some now - a cricket one night and some babyfood the next. I am feeling much more relaxed!

Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about your crested not eating yet. If you just received him, he is probably very stressed right now. It took my two juveniles about a week and a half before they started eating. (Or before I could tell they were eating.)
Also, if this is your first Crested Gecko, keep in mind that even the adults have very small stomaches. It may only take a few licks of babyfood to fill it up. Even now that I have actually seen my two little guys eating, you still wouldn't be able to tell that they ate by looking at their babyfood dish. Also, remember that they only eat at night. Put fresh babyfood and the crickets in the cage before going to bed, then take out any uneaten food the next morning. I honestly leave the crickets in the cage the entire time. They could stress the gecko, but my tank has a suction-cup hanging plant on the side of it. I make sure to put it just high enough so the crickets can't reach it. (That way, the geckos always have crickets available, but they can still sleep peacefully without having crickets crawling all over them.) I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions.

-Nicole-