Ambient/Air Temp? Source of eating issues? Who has heat lamps?

[Snuffles379]

Hello again all,

I've posted quite a few times here as I've had a lot of issues in the last few years with my adult male Leo. At this point I'm thinking (and vet has said) most issues are just being caused by his older age, he's around 14 now, but I can't help but worry over them and try and get some solutions.

Right now my largest concern is eating, he vary rarely eats, he wasn't doing too badly during the summer. Still eating a lot less then most geckos I hear about but maybe five meal/wax/crickets every two weeks. However, now that it's getting colder he has rarely eaten, I can only definitely say he's eaten one or two worms in the past three weeks. He does not seem to be visibly losing weight, he's always had a pretty good sized tail but it still makes me nervous having him not eat. Every night he comes to the door of his cave to look at the food I offer but after a few minutes of trying various food (cricket, wax worm, super worm, giants and regular mealies) he goes back into his cave.

I know his enclosure is quality as I've spoken with many of you and my vet many times, however, I'm starting to wonder if maybe the air temp or ambient temp isn't high enough for him. I'm so afraid to add a heat lamp as I had a problem with him burning his feet and tail on a faulty UTH (maybe, it was never confirmed, I just bought new of everything just in case) and I don't want to over heat him.

So I'm wondering how everyone feels about heat lamps along with the UTH? Should I try it and see if there's a change? Does anyone know the risks or what light I should purchase to try it out? I have no idea about the bulb temps so help there would be great.

Also should I be worried about his (clay/porcelain like cave) warm hide becoming oven like? I've realized his floor reads warmer when his hide is there which seems logical but I'm so worried about him burning it's made me question everything.

just in case anyone's wondering he has three hides, one on the cold side, one on the hot side, one moist in the middle. I use a laser temp gun to get his floor temps and his warm hide is at around 95 in the hottest area and it goes down to 60 on his cool side. His flooring is carpet on his warm side and vinyl tile on his cool. I try and keep his humidity at at least 60 (he always has shed problems no matter what it's at).

As always, thanks for everyone's help and advice. I look forward to hearing what your opinions are on this.

 

[sausage]

As far as heat lamps go it would depend on the height of your viv. I have one in my large exo terra but the tank its self is 2 foot high so there is no chance of the geckos getting burnt or overheating. if he is in a wooden viv i would say a defo no.
I have a hide over some of the UTH in one of my vivs and my male never comes out he loves it. if you fear your gecko will get burnt again then i would recommend thickening some of the substrate that covers that area for example my males UTH is sandwiched between two ceramic tiles and he has paper tiles. he also has a 'blanket' well its just a square of felt. he loves too lay on it, don't know if thats because its soft? lol. the fabric just reduces the temperature in that area.

is he loosing weight? because if hes not eating but not loosing weight i wouldn't worry too much. I have a female that hasn't eaten in 3 weeks and hasnt lost anything

 

[Snuffles379]

As far as heat lamps go it would depend on the height of your viv. I have one in my large exo terra but the tank its self is 2 foot high so there is no chance of the geckos getting burnt or overheating. if he is in a wooden viv i would say a defo no.
I have a hide over some of the UTH in one of my vivs and my male never comes out he loves it. if you fear your gecko will get burnt again then i would recommend thickening some of the substrate that covers that area for example my males UTH is sandwiched between two ceramic tiles and he has paper tiles. he also has a 'blanket' well its just a square of felt. he loves too lay on it, don't know if thats because its soft? lol. the fabric just reduces the temperature in that area.

is he loosing weight? because if hes not eating but not loosing weight i wouldn't worry too much. I have a female that hasn't eaten in 3 weeks and hasnt lost anything

Thank you for the reply! My tank is not that high, however, I suspend his light more then two feet above his tank so maybe that isn't a problem? It's not wooden, it's all glass (a 30 gallon long I believe?) with sliding doors on the front. It's good to know your male likes his hide as much as mine. I often worry about that, he stays in it 24/7 legs out laying on the floor. I'm sure he sneaks out to use the restroom and drink but I very very rarely catch him at it. I've never understood when people talk about their leos wandering around their tank, the most mine does is pokes his head out of his cave door hole to watch me.

I don't worry about him burning from the UTH at this point, I moved to a thicker (also felt like) rug for him and it seems to keep the temp in a good area, I just worry about him overheating from the air temp or creating a mini oven with a heat lamp and clay cave.

He is not visibly loosing weight but I have not weighed him, I'm not even sure how accurate my scale would be and if I hold him he will absolutely refuse to eat that day so I don't like to risk holding him more often then I need to in hopes he'll eat.

Thanks again for the reply, still unsure if I should try for the heat lamp or not. I haven't heard of many people having a lot of success from them or a lot of problems, hm.

 

[sausage]

a lot of people have problems with heat lamps because they are using them incorrectly or alone. as you already know the UTH is vital for metabolic processes and correct digestion so as long as you have that all should be ok. if your tank is large enough to supply a good temp gradient then there shouldn't be any chance of him over heating, he should be able to wander around and thermoregulate him self. I can always tell when mine are too hot because i find them laying along the front of the glass or up on the top ledge of their vivs (normally in the summer). if you see him doing that then turn off the lamp.
my lamp rarely goes on at all, only when it gets really really cold.

you can get scales like these from ebay. you can put a tupperware or bug box ontop and place the gecko in to weigh him. they are really sensitive so give a accurate weight. 833105C Electronic Digital Pocket Gold Jewellery Weighing Weight Scale 1kg 0.1g | eBay

 

[acpart]

You could consider a ceramic heat emitter which would dispense with the light. Before you do that, it would be useful to see exactly what the ambient temperature is. I would guess that if it's in the low 70's there should not be a problem for him. If it's in the mid to upper 60's I would think that would be OK for most leopard geckos (who could stay in their warm hides if they're too cold) but maybe yours would need it a bit higher. If you try one, keep taking the temperature, both air and surface, of the areas he frequents and see if it's getting too hot. Good luck with him.

Aliza

 

[lisa127]

The only very old lizard I have in my house is a blue tongued skink lizard. So I don't know if it would be the same. But I will tell you that in his younger years he ate a good meal twice a week. He now eats one small meal once a week. I'm told by a longtime hobbyist/breeder of BTS that this is normal for older blue tongues. Maybe since your leo isn't losing weight then he is just doing what's coming natural?

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Adult leopard gecko males just don't eat that much and many leos start to go off food at this time of year because of the shorter days and cooler air temps. This isn't necessarily bad for them; it's just the natural ebb and flow of their metabolism with the seasons. I have a 10 year old male that's about 95g that I've been trying to get down in weight for almost 6 months now. I feed him about 10-15 mealworms or 1-2 dubia roaches per week (yes only once per week!) and he's maintaining his bulk just fine. If your gecko looks healthy and acts alert I don't think I would change a thing. I would just weigh him once every week or two and if you see him dropping weight (like more than 10-20% depending on how chunky he is) then I would start to worry and switch things up or have him checked by a vet.

 

[lisa127]

That's very true. I have an adult male that is quite young....only 1.5 years old. He eats twice a week, about ten mealworms each time. So about 20 per week. He is 122 grams in weight, and holds steady right about there, within a couple of grams. IMO, that's not a lot of food.