AFT Gecko concerns

[Dangermike]

Hello all,
So we got our first AFT in the beginning of the month,
And I just have a few concerns,
He very rarely comes out of his hide, I know they are nocturnal. And I’m not watching it all night but I have only seen him 3 or 4 times out of his hide on his own accord, I mean there are poos some mornings so much be coming out.
But when it comes to feeding we generally lift the hide off him so and then put food in, sometimes he will eat one or two like that, other times we have to coax him into eating,
He will sometimes got 4/5 days and in that time only eat one, and then he will have a day where he eats 16!
Is this all normal?

he has a warm and cool side of enclosure. Deep heat bulb set to 32degrews during day and 22 at night,
I spray water in enclosure every evening to give some humidity,
He has a hide on each end with spag moss
A uvb lamp which is on during day.

 

[acpart]

I've kept AFT's and they are often more reclusive than some leopard geckos. It's not unusual for them to go for a few days without eating and to eat differing amounts from day to day. They are much more hardy than we give them credit for!

Aliza

 

[Herpin Man]

I would like to share a few comments. To answer your first question, yes it is normal for fat tails to hide most of the time. This is a very secretive species.
To answer your second question- for a fat tail to go without eating for several days and then gorge itself- that is unusual, but not necessarily detrimental. Your question invites more questions than it does answers:
- Are you offering food every day?
- What are you feeding it?
- What is the actual temperature inside the warm hide? The temp that the heating device is “set to” is secondary.

A few other random comments:
- Sand is not an ideal substrate
- Sphagnum moss is less than ideal for use in a hide
- Does your “deep heat bulb” emit light?
- If you feel that you are having to mist the enclosure daily, there are likely other issues with your setup.

 

[Yvonne G]

Just so you know, since there's not a huge amount of traffic here, if you post this once whoever's going to look will see it. I responded to your other post.

Aliza

(or a moderator will come along behind you and combine the two posts!)