baby gecko not eating

[emadee]

Hi, I just created this account to ask a question about my baby leopard gecko. I've had her for about six weeks now, and I simply cannot get her to eat. I had a different leopard gecko a while back that was healthy, and I've caged and handled the new gecko in the same ways.

She first started eating mealworms after about three days in the new cage, which seemed like a normal time to get adjusted and everything. She ate pretty sparingly, though, and usually only every couple of days. Now it has been more than a week since she last ate, and she has gone that long before without eating. Her tail is very thin. I keep a couple wax worms and mealworms in a food dish at all times and replace them as they die, but she just isn't interested in them. She rarely comes out of the hide on the hot side. When I do see her out of her hide, I don't handle her since I don't want to scare her away if she is planning to eat. I'm worried about putting crickets in with her, since I don't want them to nibble on her if she doesn't eat them right away. I last gave them to her about three weeks ago, and if I remember right she ate one but a couple others died. I'm not the best at handling crickets, so I don't think I would be able to get the back legs off, as I've seen suggested on other threads. I'm very worried that she's not going to make it. Does anyone have suggestions for me? Thank you!

 

[leonewbie]

What are your temps? They may be too low for her to digest food. You can easily remove the back legs if you put them in a plastic bag (just the ones you are going to feed) close the bag, and you can hold the back legs through the plastic bag and separate them pretty easily-that's how i do it if i need to

 

[emadee]

I have an undertank heater on one end, but it does not have a temperature gauge so I'm unsure of the exact temp right on the ground on the hot end. I doubt it is too cold, though, because my apartment does not have AC and the whole place is HOT. I've noticed my gecko spending a lot more time in her hide on the cool end the last couple days. I do have a thermometer stuck to the back of the tank in the middle, and it was reading at about 86 degrees yesterday. I have stopped using my overhead light for the summer as I believe it makes the whole tank too hot, and there is plenty of indirect natural light in the room.

I did buy a couple crickets yesterday in hopes she would eat those, and I saw her eat one right away. It just happened to crawl right in front of her, and she reached right out for it and snatched it on the first try. It made me very happy. I did not see her eat the others, but this morning I didn't see the other three crickets so either they are hiding really well or she ate them. There was a huge, dry poop in the cage this morning as well; I'm not sure if that's good or bad but I'm hoping it mean she's not having digestive problems. Maybe she just doesn't like the worms? Or maybe I need to be dangling them right in front of her? I've never tried hand feeding and am worried I might get a little jumpy and injure her, but maybe I could use tweezers or something? I don't know. But I'm feeling much better since seeing her eat something.

 

[CSMGecko]

You can use tweezers to hand feed them. i have a couple times just to make sure I know all of mine are eating, when I first got them anyway. As for your temps I would get a digital therm with probe, they cost about $7. I actually sell them on my site and run the probe down on the ground on the hot side to make sure it isn't too hot. That could be a problem. It should be 88-90 on the hot side. I keep my ambient temp around 80 but my hot side is around 90 with a cool side just around 80. They need the temp gradient to thermoregulate their body temps. She could just be heat exhausted.