Behaviour Change + Not feeding

[flashguns]

I've had my gecko for around 5 weeks now, I was told he was about 4 months old when I got him.

He settled down ok, always fed at night, so I've never seen him hunting, but the crickets would dissapear overnight and I would put two and two together.

Over the last week he has been off his food, He's probably had a total of 3/4 crickets in the last week, if that. He has also changed his behaviour, usually he would spend all day, asleep, either in the moist hide or hiding behind it on the warm side of his tank. Over the last week or so I have not seen him outside of the hide on the cold side of the tank (I have hardly seen him). I decided to let him be and not handle him too much.

Today when I cleaned him out, he was like a different gecko, I've never seen him move so fast to get away from me...


Do Leopard Gecko's brumate? Is it that the room temperature may have dropped a bit coming into winter?

 

[flashguns]

To add,

I bought some mealworms to feed him on aswell as the crickets, though Im unsure how to go about this exactly?

I tried putting them in a dish (which they just wormed out of and crawled around the tank), tried sorta waving them infront of his face but he's not interested. Is it that he doesn't know it's food?

Just not interested...

 

[ks7777]

Mine hasn't ate in about 1 week and as of today she had 1 mealworm I would think that it's from impaction so I if I was you I would do what I did with my lizard, I gave her drops of olive oil every4-6 hours, warm baths 2 times a day, and repeat this process if it doesn't clear up in a few days maybe consider taking your gecko to the vet.

 

[reptilekeeper]

mine is acting the same way i got her about 8 months ago when she was just under a month old. she always ate and everything but now she wont even look at the mealworms anyone suggest anything send me a message please.

 

[adam&nikki]

its the time in the season for them to slow down im sure ints not impaction as the temp drops they want to sleep abit more i really wouldnt worry right now but if you are worried bump the temps up in your tanks a degree or 2 can make a huge diffrence try that and see what happens

 

[flashguns]

I don't think it's impaction, I have changed him over to paper towel substrate, but that was a while ago.

He was very active for the hour or so after I cleaned him out earlier - just still no eating.

I won't worry just yet, and will try bumping up a degree or two. Thanks guys.


Oh, and any tips on mealworms? will he eventually just decide to try them? Or do I need to force feed him one so he realises it's food?

 

[Stomlin35]

Do NOT force feed... it's not needed. He'll eat the mealworms when/if he wants to. Just make them available. If the temperature in your house dropped, you need to make sure he has supplemental heat sources.

If his temperature on the hot side isn't at around 93F (floor temp) you need to bump it up.

 

[ks7777]

Yeah, don't force feed I refused to force feed mine and she started eating when she felt like it.

 

[Gregg M]

Raise your temps... They should have a hot spot in the mid 90's and the ambient air temps should be low to mid 80's...

Leos do brumate in the wild in most of their range but in a normal captive situation, the temps in their cages will not go down low enough to brumate properly... They will remain active and continue to metabolize but will go off feed... This is not good... It will lead to weight loss and an unhealthy gecko... In captivity there is no reason to brumate leopard geckos...

 

[flashguns]

Just to add a photo for reference. He is supposedly about 5 months old now... Is he looking ok size wise for that age - His tail looks pretty thin to me ?

 

[Angel]

my guy at 5 months was a lot fatter than that but im new to leos so dont know if genetics, different lines , diff leos can grow at different rates. If he isnt gaining at all but eating good maybe a fecal is needed could be a parasite or worms which is easily treated.

 

[flashguns]

To be honest, I'm not sure if I really trust the pet shop where I got hom from with regards to his age - I wouldn't be suprised if he's younger - and sort of hope that's why he's smaller than I would think...

 

[flashguns]

Having trouble boosting the hot side to get above 90...

Do I need a more powerful heat mat or something?

He has eaten one cricket in the last 3 days, and a tiny bit of excrement in his usual spot this morning.

 

[flashguns]

Doing a bit of research - Could I purchase a dimmer such as:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Skytronic-Dimmer-switch/dp/B000LAU04K

and plug my UTH into that?

I don't want to get a lamp at the moment as he is in a plastic tank - don't fancy risking it melting.

 

[flashguns]

Bought a higher wattage mat, temps boosted, and I woke up this morning to find that he had eaten both crickets that I had left in there last night, and a dead one that I had accidentally squashed but hadn't taken out yet has also mysteriously vanished