Not eating, please help.

[BriTheSoftie]

I got a African Fat-Tailed Gecko on October 4th, he seems happy and comfortable with his enclosure but won't eat any solid foods. The only thing he will eat is a powdered formula that you syringe feed geckos. I got it from Petco.

I have tried hand feeding him, ripping a wax worm in half, and leaving worms and cricket in his enclosure. He will stare at the alive insects and walk away.

Recently I have noticed that whenever he sees the worms or crickets move he runs away in fear. He is absolutely terrified of movement from the small critters, but he's fine with me moving? Today he was chilling out just relaxing and a wax worm came crawling over to him and he ran straight into his hide and watched the worm from a distance looking terrified.

I'm okay with syringe feeding him for the rest of his life as it is good bonding time and he is absolutely adorable, but I just want to know why he isn't eating anything other than what I call his baby formula and the syringe is his baby bottle.

 

[Mr. Leopard gecko]

I got a African Fat-Tailed Gecko on October 4th, he seems happy and comfortable with his enclosure but won't eat any solid foods. The only thing he will eat is a powdered formula that you syringe feed geckos. I got it from Petco.

I have tried hand feeding him, ripping a wax worm in half, and leaving worms and cricket in his enclosure. He will stare at the alive insects and walk away.

Recently I have noticed that whenever he sees the worms or crickets move he runs away in fear. He is absolutely terrified of movement from the small critters, but he's fine with me moving? Today he was chilling out just relaxing and a wax worm came crawling over to him and he ran straight into his hide and watched the worm from a distance looking terrified.

I'm okay with syringe feeding him for the rest of his life as it is good bonding time and he is absolutely adorable, but I just want to know why he isn't eating anything other than what I call his baby formula and the syringe is his baby bottle.

Not an expert or anything but this happened to my gecko once, and he refused to eat. So I bought some tongs and fed him with it, I think using tongs might help? not sure

 

[Deano715]

My Leo stops eating while shedding. 3 days nothng then starts eating again.

 

[BriTheSoftie]

My Leo stops eating while shedding. 3 days nothng then starts eating again.

Does shedding take 16 days?

 

[BriTheSoftie]

Not an expert or anything but this happened to my gecko once, and he refused to eat. So I bought some tongs and fed him with it, I think using tongs might help? not sure

He is scared of the tongs, I've tried it before. The only thing he will eat from in the syringe.

 

[Deano715]

Does shedding take 16 days?

Not unless he is having problems with the shed. Others here might chime in with answers.

 

[acpart]

Will he let you hold him? If so, hold him and push a cricket at his mouth. You could also try dipping the cricket into the stuff you've been feeding him. This is a technique I've used to teach hatchling gargoyles and crested geckos to eat crickets. It may turn out that you'll spend the rest of it's life hand feeding it crickets (I have some leopard geckos I have to do that with) but I think it's healthier than feeding it the other stuff.

Aliza

 

[BriTheSoftie]

Will he let you hold him? If so, hold him and push a cricket at his mouth. You could also try dipping the cricket into the stuff you've been feeding him. This is a technique I've used to teach hatchling gargoyles and crested geckos to eat crickets. It may turn out that you'll spend the rest of it's life hand feeding it crickets (I have some leopard geckos I have to do that with) but I think it's healthier than feeding it the other stuff.

Aliza

I hold him to feed him cause he is more comfortable that way.
I can't push any food into his mouth because he doesn't open his mouth big enough to fit anything in there.
He just licks it then loses interest. The only thing he doesn't lose interest to is the liquid from the syringe.

 

[acpart]

Have you tried dipping the feeder in the stuff that comes out of the syringe? Maybe start with a mealworm because he wouldn't have to open his mouth that much. Otherwise, I guess you're just stuck syringe feeding. If the ingredients don't include some sort of insect, you may need to blend up some feeders to ensure that he's getting what he needs.

Aliza

 

[BriTheSoftie]

Have you tried dipping the feeder in the stuff that comes out of the syringe? Maybe start with a mealworm because he wouldn't have to open his mouth that much. Otherwise, I guess you're just stuck syringe feeding. If the ingredients don't include some sort of insect, you may need to blend up some feeders to ensure that he's getting what he needs.

Aliza

Yes, he licks the worms then loses interest till I give him the liquid again.