Force Feed

[mcvancleave]

Well after about 2 weeks of my little tremper not eating and the others already twice his size I did a sort of a force feed. I tried many things I have saw on here to try and get him to eat but no luck. He has gotten so small and so weak all he could do was just lay around and sleep.
Here is how I got him to eat 1 mealie (did not want to push it) I placed him in my hand and made sort of a fist with his head sticking out between my index finger and thumb. Sad part is he did not try to get away. I then grabbed a mealie in tweezers and started pushing it against his mouth over and over. And nothing just set there. I took it to the next level and took my finger and started rubbing his nose and pulling finger down and he opened his mouth stuck the mealie in and dropped it. He got all excited about it so I did the 3 times and as they say 3 times is a charm. He grabbed it and looked so sad as he ate the mealie. But with that I so now have hope for him again.

Is this the best way t oget them to eat if you have to force feed or is there a better way.

 

[Mel&Keith]

Hopefully his appetite will be stimulated and he'll start eating on his own. I've never force fed mealworms to anything but I have dropper fed Slurry. Was this hatchling a preemie or anything? Some babies don't want to start on mealworms and prefer crickets with the hopper legs pulled off.

 

[mcvancleave]

I would say a preemie; the others which hatched a few days apart are twice his size. I tried to get crickets that were small enough but no luck other than waiting 3 days for shipping from a web site. I also have the items now to make the Golden Gate Geckos Slurry. I did do the meal worm but at least I raise them and have 100s of mealworms that are freshly hatched.
How long can the slurry are used safely.

 

[dprince]

Marcia showed me a really cool trick............you hold the gecko and sort of "tickle" their mouth with the bottom end of a mealworm. They will open their mouth (some sooner than others); when they do, stick the mealie partway in. Once the gecko bites down, they generally eat it on their own. Sometimes they spit it out; then you just repeat these steps again.

It's a nice way of feeding them without force. I've had very good luck with it so far, and it has stimulated many little appetites to begin feeding on their own. :main_thumbsup:

 

[mcvancleave]

that is what i basical did. when i ran my finger and got to the lower part of his jaw he opened and stuck the worm in there