Feeding Question

[Jusselin]

As most of you have seen from my previous thread I am very new to this and have many questions....Also my new geckos are very under weight right now....

1. What is the best thing for me to feed them to help put weight on?

I was planning on putting them on a wax worm/cricket diet....do i need to add meal worms too?

2. What is this dusting i hear about? Do i dust crickets too? what do i dust with, calcium and vitamins....the reason I ask is because i hear about the calcium - D3 and all this stuff, is there something i should NOT give them?

3. How often should i feed?

I have 3 geckos currently in a 40 breeder and was planning on picking up 2 or 3 more females at repticon.

 

[grboxa]

*edit* okay i just read that yours is very underweight....can you post pictures?. Do you know for sure its not healthy? If it severely is underweight then waxworms could be advised...get your hands on silkworms aswell they help with weight gain without the extra 'fat'.

I am no expert but ill share some light from what ive learned on this forum

1. If your gecko is healthy and you just want it to gain weight then waxworms are not adivsed. Waxworms are a last resort if your gecko is sick,underweight or denies other feeders for a long period of time. If you simply just want your gecko to gain weight you can try silkworms. Many people have positive results with silkworms. Mealworms is a staple and advised from alot of people so yes you could add mealworms. It's best to give variety if you are able to. Crickets/mealworms/roaches/. Crickets are the best staple I guess you could say due to there low fat content..but they are a pain so some people use mealworms as a staple nothing wrong with that just try to add variety if you can.

2. Dusting is advised with every feeding. I personally use Repashy Calcium Plus aswell as others and it has many positive reviews because it has a light balance of D3 mixed in to safely dust at every feeding....the calcium with d3 and w/o is widely debated to much I heard is not beneficial.. From what I learned dusting with a multivitamin is advised atleast once a week...but again if you have a variety of feeders you wont need to be so concerned about a multivitamin dust.

3. Commonly if your geckos are young (baby-juvie) you should feed everyday but do not overfeed. Some geckos can eat alot its your job to monitor. Some geckos eat every other day aswell so dont be concerned if that has happened. As for adults I usually hear they accept every other even after 2 days. I guess it depends.

correct me if im wrong !

 

[lilmike]

grboxa got most of it i just wanted to add that i would buy some hornworms or silkworms before i even thought about waxworms. waxworms may be high in fat but thats about it and if feed ur geckos too many waxworms they will get addicted and ur gecko will go from underweight to overweight. and since your new to geckos I would advise that you dont get any more leos until you solved your current problem.
Good luck

 

[grboxa]

grboxa got most of it i just wanted to add that i would buy some hornworms or silkworms before i even thought about waxworms. waxworms may be high in fat but thats about it and if feed ur geckos too many waxworms they will get addicted and ur gecko will go from underweight to overweight. and since your new to geckos I would advise that you dont get any more leos until you solved your current problem.
Good luck

+1. hes right try silkworms before. If there underweight but still accept any feeder your golden its just going to time.

 

[Jusselin]

pictures here

http://geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=80816

 

[Jusselin]

how much time until i see an improvement in weight?

 

[grboxa]

how much time until i see an improvement in weight?

i couldnt tell you an exact time....I mean yes your geckos do look like theyve been through alot but I have seen much worse around the forums and you can undo alot! quick....if you can get silkworms and hornworms like suggested you will see a dramatic increase thats for sure!. Just make sure you have correct temperatures so they can digest properly.

 

[Pinky81]

Please read through these caresheets. Your asking again what dusting is..yet in the thread you posted above you hear many times people telling you what to dust with and how.

Also am I reading this correctly that you have a male in with females?? If one of those females is gravid then you are in for a rough ride! You NEED to seperate that male...preferably seperate them all FIRST AND FOREMOST!

Secondly go to target or walmart and purchase a kitchen GRAM scale, using a scale is the ONLY accurate way to determine weight gain or loss.


Again please read these care sheets, and do yourself a favor and DO NOT get any further Leo's until you have 3 healthy Leos and you have some understanding of simple terms like gutloading, dusting, husbandry.

http://geckoforums.net/articles.php?c=115

 

[grboxa]

Please read through these caresheets. Your asking again what dusting is..yet in the thread you posted above you hear many times people telling you what to dust with and how.

Also am I reading this correctly that you have a male in with females?? If one of those females is gravid then you are in for a rough ride! You NEED to seperate that male...preferably seperate them all FIRST AND FOREMOST!

Secondly go to target or walmart and purchase a kitchen GRAM scale, using a scale is the ONLY accurate way to determine weight gain or loss.


Again please read these care sheets, and do yourself a favor and DO NOT get any further Leo's until you have 3 healthy Leos and you have some understanding of simple terms like gutloading, dusting, husbandry.

http://geckoforums.net/articles.php?c=115

+1. dont know why i didnt mention anyting about the male mix in there....shes right seperate you can read plenty threads about horror stories on that topic.

 

[Jusselin]

all petco had were wax worms, where can i order silkworms at? They devoured the wax worms

 

[gmaier19]

http://www.mulberryfarms.com/ is my favorite place to order hornworms and silkworms from.

Just a suggestion... if you're ordering hornworms, order the baby hornworms. They come in the mail really small but then they grow to enormous sizes in just a couple weeks. I'm not kidding... you will notice the difference in size when you look at them daily. so... order the baby hornworms and start feeding them to the geckos. save some of them though and let them get a little bigger. make sure you feed them all off within a couple weeks or else the hornworms will get way too big for your geckos to eat.

heres a youtube video of my huge leopard gecko eating a huge hornworm:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FW3yoyigyA

and they get even bigger than this!!!

one more suggestion, if you havent already... go to home depot and get a couple pieces of tile cut for the bottom of the tank so you can replace the sand. otherwise people are going to complain about the sand every time you post pictures of your geckos, not to mention the health hazards associated with it.

im not trying to give you a hard time about the sand, just thought i would give you some friendly advise

 

[grboxa]

all petco had were wax worms, where can i order silkworms at? They devoured the wax worms

I heard people buying from ladysilkworm.com and silkwormshop.com but try and look in the banner for partnered companys first that sell feeders mabye they have some to!. not to many geckos can resist waxworms i see.

*edit* +1 on the mulberryfarm company

 

[ReptileWorld]

I feed my leopard geckos Dubia roaches and Super worms. I buy my superworms off a guy on ebay and store them and use as needed. the dubia i have a colony of which many people produce them selves. since switching from crickets to dubia my geckos have put on lots of weight.

 

[nnoossss]

Jusselin i am no expert yet at this at all but the people here are, you should get rid off the sand especially the calci sand because from my understanding if they are already lacking nutrition you dont want them too ingest the sand in high quantities or at all,most off the people here love these creatures and will only tell you the best for them regardless off personal preference, but only whats good for them, you said you had low budget due too recently getting them set up, home depot, or loes have simple slate tiles for dirt cheap.

 

[Jusselin]

ok ok ok....so i am convinced that sand is not the way to go (even though I have yet to have any problems with it) how do i properly get my tank fitted with tile? What kind of tile exactly do i ask for at home depot...and how often or easy is it to clean?


Back to the feeding questions....they are devouring the wax worms just as fast as i put them in there....i am dusting with calcium too...but they leave the meal worms in the bowl and wont touch them, whats this about?

 

[Jusselin]

....

 

[Jusselin]

http://www.mulberryfarms.com/ is my favorite place to order hornworms and silkworms from.

Just a suggestion... if you're ordering hornworms, order the baby hornworms. They come in the mail really small but then they grow to enormous sizes in just a couple weeks. I'm not kidding... you will notice the difference in size when you look at them daily. so... order the baby hornworms and start feeding them to the geckos. save some of them though and let them get a little bigger. make sure you feed them all off within a couple weeks or else the hornworms will get way too big for your geckos to eat.

heres a youtube video of my huge leopard gecko eating a huge hornworm:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FW3yoyigyA

and they get even bigger than this!!!

one more suggestion, if you havent already... go to home depot and get a couple pieces of tile cut for the bottom of the tank so you can replace the sand. otherwise people are going to complain about the sand every time you post pictures of your geckos, not to mention the health hazards associated with it.

im not trying to give you a hard time about the sand, just thought i would give you some friendly advise

bad to the ass =] thanks

 

[lilmike]

Back to the feeding questions....they are devouring the wax worms just as fast as i put them in there....i am dusting with calcium too...but they leave the meal worms in the bowl and wont touch them, whats this about?

Your geckos are probablyl getting addicted to the waxworms how many hace you been feeding? I highly recomend you stop feeding waxworms and use something else. think about how an underweight human would gain weight. they would do it wiith a proper well balanced diet and exersise not by eating as much mcdonalds as they want, you should treat leos the same way.
http://www.coastalsilkworms.com/store/ This is a good place to order silkworms, horworms and othe feeders. until you can buy some i wud get off waxworms and go to melworms & supers. i wud stay away from crickets because some weird things have been going on the the cricket world lately.

 

[nnoossss]

what did is i bought a pack off the tile they had there preferebly a rough tile so the gecko doesnt slide everywere and fitted a masonry wheel onto my grinder and started cutting away, i was recomended too use paper towel under the tiles this just helps spread heat i assume and makes sure the tile doesnt get too hot, and then just put a paper towel at their poop corner and change it after they did their buisness on it.

I have gotten rid off my crickets and have started loading the mealies with calcium and other goodys, my leo wont touch the crickets anymore.

 

[Jusselin]

cool cool, i am going to look into that =]