ate paper towel!

[myelodiya]

Stupid gecko thought a wad of paper towel (from his humid hide, about 1 cm long/wide) was a mealie alien (occasionaly feed those to him lol) and ATE it! will it cause impaction? what should i do now? will he be okay?

 

[malt_geckos]

lol, we had a male that did that too...but he was just eating the paper towels for the heck of it! So, it didn't bother him in any way. He was just pooping floral print paper towels for a day. lol.

 

[myelodiya]

Thanks for the response, don't feel so bad anymore.

Lol I think he has a serious mealie addiction. He won't eat ANYTHING else. He LOVES his mealies and an occasional alien. Does it hurt them to eat the aliens? (such a weird sentece haha) Is there any nutritional value to them?

Well, he just did a big poop and is lying around on the warm side, I hope that means he'll be okay.

 

[roaches42993]

Whats a a mealie alien ? lol

Yeah he should be ok . I would change the paper towel in his moist hide to something else tho.....

 

[Stitch]

Whats a a mealie alien ? lol

Yeah he should be ok . I would change the paper towel in his moist hide to something else tho.....

The mealie alien is the stage where the meal worm is morphing into a beetle.

I would use a larger wad paper towel in the moist hide. Something big enough that he can't eat it. He may still be able to rip a piece off, but there's not much more you can do at that point. I used to use moss but lost a baby to impaction when it accidently ate some. So I use folded paper towels in my moist hides with no problems.

 

[myelodiya]

yep, a mealie alien is the pupae stage of the mealworm. it's much cooler to say mealie alien though lol

I use full sheets of paper towels in the moist hide, but sometimes after he's been in there, the paper towels get ripped wads of it get dragged out, I've since changed the paper towels to full sheets again though.

 

[roaches42993]

lol ive always called them pupae

I always thought they looked like aliens . Never knew anyone called them that tho.....lol

 

[Bling_my_leo]

He'll be fine. I'v never heard of mealie aliens before. But I have know. Cool word! LOL.

 

[gothra]

I had a juvi female ate a large piece of paper towel while she was shedding, maybe she mistaken it as a piece of her own shed. She was basically fine, but had a hard time pooping out the paper towel a few days later...she even screamed while trying to push out the paper towel; in the end, I had to help her a bit by slowing pulling out that thing...

 

[geckoluv2187]

They'll still eat mealies after they turn into pupae? I thought they wouldn't eat them...

 

[fallen_angel]

They'll still eat mealies after they turn into pupae? I thought they wouldn't eat them...

I thought the same, so I always throw them away!

 

[Stitch]

They won't eat them because they don't move....unless you touch them. If you poke the pupae it will wiggle. Do this infront of the leo and he/she will probably eat it. Just as nutritious as a mealy.

 

[malt_geckos]

We have a female that loves aliens. Lol. She is fine after eating them. I have even fed the beetles right as they turn into beetles. They are still soft when they just turn and the geckos like them.