Thread: The WORST season in Golden Gate Geckos' history!

ok ok everyone settle down!!! i know you have all been waiting for my 2 cents!! joking.... but any way, i didnt read this entire thread, (ive been busting my butt on a report) but i did read quite a bit of it. after a long discusion with someone special tonight, ive decided to let you guys know whats going on here in my world. this is also my worse season, all together i breed leos for about 7 years, and this is also my worse season ever. so far ive had over 120 eggs, and a little over 20 eggs just die on me. something had happened ive never seen. the only way i can describe it is they would grow a "slime" coat over the entire egg and with in 2 days it would completely collapse. ive also had females on there 3 year breeding and only giving me 3 fertile clutches, even though the've given 4-5 fertile clutches their first years. im now feeding my adults super worms and have been for the past 2 weeks, and my babies are being fed baby crickets. before i had spoke with anyone i had my own theory that it might be them mealies, but im not making any accusations. so yeah, thats whats been going on at moyer's monsters. im sorry to hear about evey one else going through the same thing, and im sure this year will probably go in the history books. GOOD LUCK FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR!!

For those of you having problem getting the leos to eat superworms, if you have not tried offering them with feeding tongs you should. That's how I got all of mine eating them several years ago. I fed my adults strictly supers for several years and it was only a couple of years ago I switched them over to mealies.

Originally Posted by Golden Gate Geckos

I still have a few limp and lifeless mealworms left over... maybe I should check in to having a lab analyze them???

I'd say yeah.... I don't think it would hurt.

I can, if needed, get some mealies and other feeders from a local pet store... they are still getting a steady supply of all sorts of feeders from a 'big chain feeder breeder' ... this pet store has never been out of stock.

We too haven't had the multitude of deformities as others have had; but we have had a few, along with many infertile eggs, some eggs going bad mid-term, etc. We've had a nice number of babies for our first year, as we didn't want to produce too many straight off the bat, but our hatchrate thus far has been 50%. Our one female that produced the most infertile eggs was also a three-year-old proven breeder, and the one female to produce the most fertile eggs (7/8) was a first-year breeder!

Originally Posted by KelliH

For those of you having problem getting the leos to eat superworms, if you have not tried offering them with feeding tongs you should. That's how I got all of mine eating them several years ago. I fed my adults strictly supers for several years and it was only a couple of years ago I switched them over to mealies.

I have also found that alot of my leos will only eat supers if I use feeding tongs. I tried leaving them in a bowl, but the leos were not interested at all.

Yeah i have a couple that wont eat out of the dish either, its starting to sound like im not a complete leo idiot

It took awhile for ALL my breeders to start feeding on Supers. With my girls, I started feeding them (like Kelli suggested) with tongs until they would eat from a bowl. I didn't want to starve the females, but it wasn't until they were good and hungry that they would eat supers from a bowl. Now, 95% of my adult geckos are on superworms. I have a few stubborn ones that will only eat crickets, and I have found that feeding the small superworms for the ones that expect mealies is working out very nicely.

OK, I made an anonymous POLL:

http://www.geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=24077

So once the mealies are back do you recommend to switch back to mealies or to keep feeding them on supers? Thanks for any help

I have heard a little talk about water supply and I think that should be considered in addition to worm health. I know because of my fish tanks a lot of water companies shock thier water supply with ammonia (NH3) and that wreaks havoc on small animals. On another note I would say that you should seriously investigate whether or not these worms contain pesticides. If they are contaminated and have lead to a loss of monitary profits (obviously they have) then all of you affected may have a claim against them in the form of a Class Action Law Suit. I was looking at the individuals who post thier location and the ones with problems seem to be from TX to the west coast. Myself and others are in the southeast region and have not had any problems. I order from Armstrong's GA center and love them, so maybe that is something to consider. Good Luck with the rest of your seasons.
Brent Bohannon