adopted a new gecko and having feeding issues. Advice please!

[Juno]

Hi everyone!
Bear with me, this is little long and contains a few questions. But you all have been more helpful to me than a vet, so any advice is greatly appreciated (and thank you for the advice on adopting a new gecko, which I posted last month).

Well we found another gecko to adopt. Her name is Lilfoot and she is a little older than our resident gecko Juno. We bought her tank too, so currently she is living in her own habitat. We've had her for about 4 weeks. The first week or so that we had her, she was eating. But about 1-2 weeks ago, she stopped eating. At first I wasn't really concerned b/c when we adopted her, she was overweight (79 grams). Now she is down to 74 grams and I'm starting to get concerned, not so much about the weight b/c I think she could stand to lose a little more, but I'm concerned about her disinterest in food. So let me give you the lowdown on what we've been doing since we adopted her and hopefully you can let me know where I am making errors.

1) first I was concerned about her temps. Her warm side runs around 81-82 during the day and gets down to 76-77 at night. her previous owner did not use an UTH. Our resident gecko Juno has an UTH that I keep at 86-89 degrees and her warm side runs around 85-88. So I thought that perhaps Lilfoot's tank was too cold. But when I added more heat, she definitely seemed not to like it. She would come in and out of her hide and seemed to struggled to find a good spot to sleep during the day. I emailed her previous owner and she thought it was too warm too. So I went back to the original temps. I considered an UTH, but I'm not sure if making more changes will stress her out more.

2) She loves to explore and she is very tame. So after a few days of owning her, we took her out because she was basically asking to get out. We take her out every other night and she seems quite content and active. I am wondering if we should not have let her out so soon. Perhaps she needed more time to adjust. not sure. She is very active at night and asks to come out every night.

3) the other thing that I changed was the size of her mealworms. Her previous owner was feeding her very large mealworms (with a harder shell). I thought that they were way too big and perhaps contributing to her obesity. So i gave her the small ones that we feed Juno. Then I switched to larger mealworms. Maybe I should go back to the giant ones? She also ate crickets with the previous owner, but she is just as disinterested in those too.

Any thoughts or suggestions? i really don't know what else to do. Also, I have given her a few doses of Carnivore Care vitamin via a syringe because I was concerned about her lack of eating.


thank you very much!

 

[warhawk]

1)My suggestion would be to add the UTH again and see about getting her warm spot up to 88-90 degrees. That will allow her to digest the food if she doesn't have that warmth she can't digest it very well and that will cause lots of issues. If you have the heat adjustable maybe you could slowly warm it up, something like 1 degree a day. That should keep the stress down. Is she still pooping? If she is then that is a good sign and means her system is working.


2)As for handling her it is hard to say if it causing her stress or not with out being there. I have heard where people say if they are trying to get out of the tank something is wrong in the tank. But I have some geckos that like to be held and will crawl into my hand every time. As long as she isn't out long enough to get cold it shouldn't be a issue, I have held them in my hand while I watch tv and they just hunker down and share my body heat never been a issue.


3) Some people feel you can't feed only meal worms and that you can't feed adult worms but again never had a issue. I have a male that was rescued and he won't eat crickets or super worms only meal worms and has been that way for over 2 years. As far as the size worms if she is 74 grams she can eat the largest meal worms no problem. I have a adult male (68 grams) that will destroy super worms that 1cm thick and 5-6cm long (way bigger then most meal worms).


I would suggest making sure the meal worms are gut loaded very well and go with the large meal worms. After a week or so with them gut loaded she should eat fewer of them. I have found that Meal worms can fatty if they aren't gut loaded which can be her problem in the first place of getting bigger.

 

[Juno]

Thank you! I was also just reading that if you feed geckos a lot of super worms, then they can get picky and only eat them. And super worms are fatty, which is why she is probably chunky. I am wondering if that is the issue. I'll run out and buy some super worms today and see how it goes. I'll alternate with crickets too. I think I will also try the UTH and slowly increase the temp as you suggested.

as for handling, she will crawl right into my hand. I think she really enjoys being out. Sometimes she'll lay on my skin, but other times she crawls around. Her previous owner said the same thing. She is quite docile and sweet.

 

[Ruvik]

How old is she? If she is about 1 to 1 and a half years old, she may be ovulating as well.

 

[chipyluna]

I was going to say she maybe ovulating, when I first got mine she wouldn't eat for a couple of weeks and I was worried, she also didn't seem to be to interested in her hot hide and just sat in the cool side. Then I found a couple of dud eggs in her moist hide box, since then she has been eating like no tomorrow. I would certainly raise her temps in her hot side.

 

[indyana]

I'd also lay off the carnivore care. She needs to work up an appetite and eat in her own; syringe feeding her will only delay that response. Any sort of syringe feeding should be used only for sick geckos that can't eat on their own.

 

[warhawk]

I didn't think about ovulating, that could be the issue.

On the super worms try a small tub I think they come in 25, that would give you enough to try them but not a huge waste if she doesn't eat them. I have a gecko that ate them on and off for about a year now he won't touch them. I have seen him go hungry rather than eat them, every few weeks I will offer him one but he won't eat.

 

[Juno]

oh, perhaps she is ovulating! She has been digging on and off. She is probably 1 1/2 years old based on her previous owners estimation. How long will that take? Will she definitely lay eggs? Does her belly get big and will I be able to tell?

BTW: I did try superworms but she was not interested.

I will not do anymore carnivore care, as suggested.

How long without eating is too long? How much weight can she lose before I get concerned?

thank you SOOOO much!

 

[chipyluna]

I think it is about 4-6 weeks after mating, but I didn't see anywhere in your original post that she had been mated?? I'm assuming that dud eggs are about the same, I did read that it is about 2-4 weeks between each clutch too so pass on the time frames, so much contradicting info out there on the web, also mine has only laid once and that was a week and a half after I got her so I don't know how long personally.
You should notice her tum get bigger and closer to the time of laying you should be able to see two white ovals in her lower tum, just make sure she has somewhere to lay them, mine has a moist hide that has sphagnum moss in it she digs and lays in there.

If her tail starts to get thin maybe there could be cause for concern as that is where they store their fat reserves.
When/if she lays maybe get her some wax worms just to put that fat back on her and some crickets, however don't use wax worms in a daily diet as they are like chocolate to them and should only be used every so often.
Mine just gets meal worms the odd wax worm every so often and crickets to give her food to catch, using calcium D3 and a vitamin supplement sprinkled on her food every other feeding and a bowl of calcium (without D3) in her tank which she licks at when she needs it.

Keep us posted

Charlotte