forcefeeding

[retreat]

fat-tails are in general more picky about what they eat than leopard geckos. I'm sure most of u had at some point difficulties with feeding an AFT.

I currenlty have a male which stopped feeding but up to now was doing great. He has lost weight is not skinny.

In the meanwhile I tried taking out crickets from his enclosure and reintroducing one after a few days in case he got hungry, increasing/decresing temps and humidity, leaving him alone in case he was stressed and nothing helped. I really wanted to avoide forcefeeding.

I now think that forcefeeding might be my last option. What are your opinions on forcefeeding?

 

[HepCatMoe]

keep his food away from him for a week. try feeding him then, hell go for it.

what are your temps by the way? in general id say increase temps a little bit also.

these little guys are amazingly tough, and no food for a week is not a big deal. unless he is already skinny, i cant quite tell by your post.

 

[icemonstr]

this is happening to me too he eat fine yesterday but today he didnt pay attention to the crickets so i took them out so they wont bother him while sleeping. Im thinking of feeding him more cricket less often

 

[acpart]

Some geckos are going into winter mode where they eat less. If you feel a gecko really needs to eat, I prefer what I would call "assisted feeding". I have an AFT pair and the female laid 2 clutches this summer, neither of which was fertile. When she was gravid with her second clutch, she stopped eating and her weight dropped below 40 grams. I would "encourage" her to eat about 2 crickets a night by holding her gently and teasing her with a cricket around her mouth until she opened her mouth in annoyance to bite the cricket, after which she invariably ate it. She eventually started eating on her own again and is up past 50 grams.

Aliza

 

[hybrid]

Is there a chance he might be about to shed? I know my big guy wont eat when he is about to shed... just a thought

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I do not subscribe to 'force feeding'. Forcing food down an animals throat will only stress them out and make the situation worse.

The first thing to consider when an animal goes off food is if all it's environmental needs are being met, if it's breeding season, or if the animal is sick. Take the gecko to the vet and rule out anything that could cause it not to want to eat.

 

[Lecko my Gecko]

I agree with marcia forcing it to eat is way more stress than it needs! if it was doing good before it may just be going into a cool down. season is changing and fattails pick up on the slightest change, outside light and temps can send a fattie into cool down. that may be whats happening. give it a few days then offer a few crickets. good luck

 

[icemonstr]

Is there a chance he might be about to shed? I know my big guy wont eat when he is about to shed... just a thought

that could be the reason, hes not letting me pick him up either and he normally as no problem with it, how often do they shed cus I think he shed last month but not sure he hides a lot.

 

[Malin2]

Umm then you could definitely say that I have a problem with one of my geckos. It's one of my females Pucca who hasn't eaten since February. I have been force feeding her all this time. She's still not eating by herself. She's got a crooked back from a heatdamage when she was an egg. She also had eggs once at the previous owner who's a herpentologyst. I thought that was a risky thing to do but done is done.

Anyways a few gecko breeders have told me to keep forcefeeding her until the breeding season is over and they said that would be in the autumn. They also said she's not eating because she wasn't mated with this year. So I thought I would just have to wait and see. She's living with 2 other females right now.
And...I think she's having trouble digesting her food. She stays fat for days and slowly get's thinner. The others get's thinner after eating in just two or three days. But with her i have even thought she was having eggs twice because she looked so fat. I don't really know what to do...
I could take her to a vet but their isn't many vets who specialise in reptiles.

And the temperature is fine in the terrarium, she's mostly in the moist box but sometimes in the cave too where the heatmat is. Here's a picture of her

 

[retreat]

as an update, my little guy is not feeding regularly. What I have discovered is the fact that he is being very selective on what he eats. He eats on his own waxworms and 2 kinds of crickets which are not really available to me - gryllus assimillis and acheta domesticus. Those that are widely available, gryllus bimaculatus are of no interest to him!