forcefeed

[Bman]

Hi all. I have a baby leopard gecko, I bought it about a month ago or a little longer. It was eating like a champ for the first 2 or 3 weeks, but it hasn't eaten anything for about one week. I just moved it from an aquarium with reptile (not sure of the brand name) substrate, and put it in an aquarium with paper towel on bottom so theres no risk of impaction. How long should I wait, or should I forcefeed it? Thanks.


Mike

 

[mango+cola]

I don't think you should forcefeed him, it is tricky and you can just cause more damage than good, and it just causes unnecessary stress on your gecko. One week is not a long time to go without food, my gecko has gone alot longer than that. He will eat when he wants to, just keep offering it.

 

[grboxa]

Force feeding can stress your gecko out. I agree with the statement above, just keep offering until he eats. I also want to point out that yes some geckos do hold off on eating for longer than a week, but I imagine since the OP has a baby, a week without food at that stage is not good at all, it does file for concern. When was your geckos last bowel movement, and how did it look like, runny?, solid?. What were you feeding and how much?, and also when you say reptile substrate, what do you exactly mean?. Temp's and everything are correct?.

 

[Bman]

He had a bowell movement 2 days ago, it was solid. I was feeding small crickets and meal worms, feeding about twice a day. The substrate came in a "block" and I had to break it apart and it is in small chunks basically. I moved him to a smaller tank with paper towel on the bottom. Temps are fine.

 

[Bman]

I got the baby gecko to eat this morning. I isolated him in a small reptile box and put a small cricket in there with him and after about 5 minutes he attacked and ate it. So hes at least eating again.

 

[Dimidiata]

I would get him to a vet and have him looked over, particularly for impaction. Loose substrate is bad for leos. The block, was it Coco fiber?

 

[Bman]

no it wasn't coco fiber. But I have my adult leos in an aquarium with sand as the substrate. It says its safe for reptiles. Is that ok for them to be in?

 

[ZombiGecko]

Sand cant be digeated. Id get them off the sand if i where you.. but thats myopinion. All my leos are kept on paper towels

-Amber

 

[Dimidiata]

no it wasn't coco fiber. But I have my adult leos in an aquarium with sand as the substrate. It says its safe for reptiles. Is that ok for them to be in?

Unfortunetly NO. Calci-sand, Repti-sand, Vita-sand, its all a gimmick. Sure its made of calcium, in some form, but its not digestable bottom line. So it will cause impaction. The problem with calci and such is that it tastes better then regular sand.

 

[lillith]

Sometimes putting them in a smaller container with the prey items will do the trick. That's actually a good way to go, and eventually they'll get the idea of what prey is for. The trick is, you need to figure a way to eventually get them to eat in their own enclosure if you don't want to have to always put them in a box to eat. For now, since it's a baby, by all means, if a box works, do it! As it gets older you can place the box inside the enclosure when you feed, and hopefully the association will eventually cross over to your gecko's "home".

While I may be criticized for this, I don't see any reason to take the baby to the vet. Bring in a fecal sample, sure. But it just went through a substrate change, which may very well have been the stressor precipitating its not eating. Taking it out to the vet at such a young age may only stress it further, and prevent it from resuming eating. Leos do need acclimation time to changes in their environment, especially younger ones. I would only take it to a vet if a)it has a visibly distended belly from the previous substrate, or b) if it loses too much weight or stops eating even in the little box setup.

Right now it's eating. Let it eat. Get a fresh fecal sample to a vet (less than 24 hours old, but ASAP after "discharge" is better). Good luck!

 

[Bman]

Im sure a little bit of sand won't hurt. I mean don't tell me that leopard geckos don't accidentally ingest crap in the wild along with their insects.

 

[Dimidiata]

No because they dont live on sand.

 

[Bman]

I didn't say they did. I said they accidentally ingest crap, by crap meaning an assortment of things (stones being an example)

 

[Dimidiata]

I highly doubt they will eat a stone. If they do its up to them to either pass it(which can kill them depending on its size) or die from it impacting.

 

[Bman]

lol, i'm sure they wouldn't want to eat a stone, but i'm also sure it happens in the wild. What other substrate do you recommend besides paper towel, which doesn't look natural at all?

 

[Dimidiata]

Slate tile(choice of many, very very nice). Pappertowel, newspapper. To be left out of course is any sand, dirt, grasses, real or fake. In the humid hide you can use loose substrate like cocofiber, moss, vermiculite and the such to maintain humidity. A gecko that bites a rock will most likely spit it out, unless its a tiny tiny little fragment in which case it will pass safley.Eating something like sand or dirt would be like swallowing liquid cement, not a pretty end. And if the gecko does swallow a rock or copious amount of substrate(which for them is actually clay it would seem) then they will have complications. Either way there is no justification. Besides, whats natural about living in a tank? The animals(leos) we have arnt natural, never were(they are a hybrid of a few wild breeds).

 

[lillith]

What they find in the wild is absolutely nothing like the synthetic crap we come up with for them. That is precisely why it is so dangerous and to be avoided at all costs.

Stop arguing. We're trying to help.

There's repticarpet, which snags claws and teeth but looks natural. But compared to paper towels? a pain in the arse to get clean and sanitized. There's also tile that looks natural, you can even get slate stone. Look into the DIY and Housing sections here.

How's the little one eating lately?

 

[Bman]

ok, sorry about being a pain in the ass. Is it ok to use soil for a humid hide and for egg laying? Little one isn't eating like it should. I'm just leaving cricketts in its enclosure and a few mealies, it may be eating, but i like to watch him eat to make sure.

 

[Dakota314]

What kind of soil do you mean? I wouldn't use soil in the moist hide. Most use moist moss or moist paper towels.

 

[lillith]

Are you still doing the feed-in-box thing? I would for at least a few weeks...and cocofiber is the closest thing to soil I would use...they also call it Eco-Earth sometimes.