First Hatchling and Intro

[Spark]

Hey guys,

I thought I might double up this post an intro as well because I've never posted on these forums before, just been doing some reading on the abundance of knowledge here. I'm Sam from the DFW area and I used to be into snakes (had corns, ball python, and a red tail) until I found leopard geckos and realized they were the ultimate pet. Since buying my first one (a proven breeder), I've upgraded my collection to 5, all proven breeders, and have enjoyed having them so much. I attempted breeding them after I felt I had a pretty good knowledge of keeping them and taking care of them. Well, as the saying goes, nothing is as easy as it looks, and sure enough, I completely failed my first 5 clutches of eggs. But, determined, I continued, doing more reading, and changing up my incubation setup and other things. And finally, Monday night, my first baby arrived! Her sister egg died only 2 weeks ago, which was a crushing moment. She was incubated at 82 degrees for 6.5 weeks so I'm assuming she is a female and am yet to find the perfect name for her. I am for sure keeping her forever, being my first creation and all. And very nicely enough, she was kinda like a birthday present, my birthday being the day right before she hatched. Her parents are both from the same parents (a cross of SHTCT and Rainwater Albino, or at least that's what they were sold to me as). Now she's almost a week old and I'm waiting for her first shed and actually need to know how I'm supposed to get her to eat when she's ready. Will she instinctively go after food items or will she need some coaxing? She's being kept on paper towel, has a couple of dry hides, a moist hide, shallow water dish, heat source, and has become less jumpy since she hatched. Definitely the most exciting moment in my leo career. I've also posted some pics of her and her parents.

Sam

http://i31.tinypic.com/1z4adt1.jpg
http://i31.tinypic.com/2v9uqmu.jpg
http://i31.tinypic.com/jjrbld.jpg
http://i31.tinypic.com/ftlf0m.jpg
http://i31.tinypic.com/bgw7f6.jpg

 

[malt_geckos]

Very cool! Welcome to GeckoForums.net!!!!!!!!

 

[wings2fly]

Welcome and Congrats!

Carin

 

[Ccrashca069]

Hi and Welcome to GF. She is aborable. For the first week or 2 I feed hatchlings those mini mealworms and then feed them normal sized mealworms after that.

 

[Kristi23]

Congrats!!!

 

[fallen_angel]

That is so awesome, congrats!!! To answer your question, she should instinctively go after food and you can start feeding her as soon as she eats her first shed (you'll see some poo). Everything sounds great, and she is beautiful

 

[acpart]

Congratulations. I usually start my hatchlings on mealworms in a very shallow bowl after they shed and poop. Once they seem to figure out where the worms are I often gradually increase the size and depth of the bowl. That's because the bigger mealworms get better at climbing out of the shallow bowls.
Aliza

 

[Spark]

Ok so I thought I might throw down a little update. We've actually progressed very little and she was still eating only a cricket or two when I put them to her mouth an has not gained any weight. She was hatched May 26 and still only weighs 3 grams so being pretty concerned I decided to kinda force a mealie in tonight. It didn't really take too much additional effort, I just kinda touched her mouth with my finger so she would open it and then kinda shoved a little bit of the worm in. She was hesitant at first but ended up wolfing it down so I gave her another.

So she's about 3 weeks old now and still weighs 3 grams. I think I can hand feed her mealies without stressing her too much. So how much should she weigh and how much should I feed her to get her up to par?

Thanks!

 

[Spark]

BTW can anyone tell what morph she is just by looking? Both her parents were a cross of SHTCT and Rainwater Albino.

 

[acpart]

I had a hatchling last year that spent the first 4 weeks of its life weighing 4 grams. I did just what you're doing --I held it and pushed mealworms against its mouth until it swallowed them. I tried for about 5 mealworms every day but would do less if it started struggling, and more if it kept snapping them up. She gained weight quickly and the only problem was that she would only take mealworms from me and also decided that my finger was a huge mealworm, so if I held a mealworm up for her she'd grab my finger. I had to spend a week attracting her attention with a mealworm and then dropping it into the bowl at just the right moment (I think there's a thread I started about this last summer). She figured out what to do eventually and got big and fat before I sold her.

Looking at the pictures of your baby as a hatchling, it's too early to tell entirely what she is. It doesn't seem as if she's an albino, unless the black bands lightened to brown fairly quickly. If she's not an albino, she has a 66% chance of being het for albino (statistically 25% of the babies would be visibly albino, 25% would have no albino genes and 50% would be het for albino but visibly indistinguishable from the non-het normal). As she grows, she will be somewhere on the continuum from super hypo to normally spotted, and somewhere between tang and yellow. Only time can tell. I have produced some lovely pastels and high-yellowish babies from Tremper albino x SHTCT.

I hope it goes well.

Aliza

 

[Spark]

Thank you for the quick reply! I will continue to feed her 3-5 minis a day depending on how she takes to it. Is there any specific weight I should be aiming for? I'll try and get an updated picture tomorrow.

 

[Halley]

Congrats, on the little one, and welcome to GF.net.

 

[Kellyr]

Congratulations, thats so exciting!! .. and I bet you are keeping her!! After all that hard work you put into this incubation business... all those weeks of anticipating.. I wish you well and even tho all that dissapointment in the past I am sure she was worth the wait ps. I have a newly bought hatchling that can't catch a cricket for the life of him and mealies turn him off completely.. but he took one waxworm from the tongs the other day (but I hear these are "addictive" b/c they taste so good to them.. and they are expensive so I wouldnt recommend it.. but I felt I had to with him he is skin and bones) good luck.. :main_yes: