How do you do it?

[GoGo]

How do you all do it? Every time I see pictures of Leopard Geckos their tails are so fat I wonder if they have a house in there. We feed our Leo's, thats for sure, always have, and yet they seem to get fat tails, never as fat as everyone else's geckos, and then skinny, and then fat, and then skinny, and fat and skinny and on and on over again. We've tried waxworms, but eventually the gecko's get sick of them. We've tried pinkies, but eventually the gecko's get sick of those too and they can only ever eat one at a time. I would love to try supers again, but last time we did only our 1 male liked them(this was back when we had 3 other females), and now it would be hard to convince my parents to switch back again. Any advice?

 

[acpart]

I have 11 adult geckos. Nine of them have been with me from 1-3 1/2 years. They have different body types and some of them get really fat tails but some don't. They also seem to go in yearly cycles. Three of them get up over 100 grams by October or so (at this point, two are about 105 grams and one is 95 grams). Then they pretty much stop eating for a few months and lose 10-20 grams. I have another who never gets much above 65 grams and doesn't eat very much. They are all healthy. I think each has its own eating cycle and ideal weight. As long as they are active (and I have a great range of "active" among my adults), pooping and peeing to some extent and maintaining a reasonable weight cycle it's probably fine. We're programmed to worry about whether or not we're doing a good enough job if we're concerned caregivers (the people who are doing a poor job don't usually seem to be so concerned) so some worry is natural. There are plenty of geckos out there built on slimmer lines. Maybe yours are like that.

Aliza

 

[GoGo]

Yeah but the 1 male i do have besides the chubby female I purchased today doesnt really ever get even up to 60 grams and sometimes falls pretty low around 30ish.

 

[acpart]

Yeah but the 1 male i do have besides the chubby female I purchased today doesnt really ever get even up to 60 grams and sometimes falls pretty low around 30ish.

30 grams does seem kind of low. How old is he? I have 2 young females who seem to seesaw around 45-50 grams. I assume you are all set with correct temperatures and clear fecals. The only other thing I can think of that I do with one of my smaller females and my babies who aren't growing well is a sort of assisted feeding where I hold the gecko in one hand and press a cricket or mealworm against the side of the mouth. I am not force feeding: I don't force the mouth open or cram the feeder in there. Most of the geckos I try this with are pretty cooperative. I have one gecko that I had to hand feed this way for 2 years until she started hunting on her own. Outside of that I don't know what to suggest.

Aliza

 

[Wezul]

I had trouble getting my guys to start eating supers when I finally tried feeding them. I have 3.11.5 Leo's total. I purchased a few Leo's from a breeder who had been feeding them supers, they were the only ones to eat the supers at first. I had always fed my geckos mealies, not supers, so I think they were "confused" by the size of the supers. I noticed there were a few smaller supers in the box I bought, so I tried only the smaller ones (about the size of the mealies they usually got), and it worked! After they ate the smaller ones I tried some bigger and they ate them too. Now all my geckos will eat the supers.

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

Well, what are you feeding and what routine, what gutload etc.

I always kept a dish of mealies full at all times, with vionate, a little carrot and some cali. With crix a few times a week, dusted win Reptivite after being gutloaded on vionate. I also did fecals a few times a yaer and a panacur every 6 months regardless.

 

[GoGo]

Up untill yesterday we havent had a leo that eats crics. And im being serious, this leo we had before the chubby girl we got yesterday, would seek them out, and smash them, then leave them there. The mealworm dish is always full sprinkled with a bit of calcium and leopard gecko diet every other feeding(were trying to use it up before we start on our huge supply of reptivite). HE also gets a couple of waxworms every once in a while to chubby him up. The other day we gave him a pinkie and he downed it as fast as he could. The problem is, he knows how to hunt, he knows where hsi food is, and he knows what it is, he just doesnt eat enough to keep his weight steady. The male will be about or over 2 years old in september. We also give them panacur every 6 months, and they get fecals 2-3 times a year or whenever we switch to a new food source.

 

[eyelids]

Good heat, good gutload and a good feeding regime...

I have my adult racks at 93 degrees and hatchling racks at 91 degrees 24/7...

I have a constant supply of superworms and mealworms feeding on Cody's Pro Gutload...

I feed everyone (4 large sw per adult/10-15 large mw per hatchling to 40 gram juvies) Monday, Wednesday and Friday... Adults get crickets (6-8 each) on Sunday...

This has worked very well for me and hatchlings are usually 30+ grams by 8-10 weeks; sub-adults at 6 months range from 60-80 grams...

The only exception is a group of 6 geckos I keep on back heat (getting new rack soon)... They grew fast in the hatchling rack, but when I moved them to the 15qt rack w/back heat @ 30 grams their appetites practically vanished... In order to get the correct range of heat (1/3) I had to turn the therm. up to 98-100 degrees and that made me very uncomfortable. So before I moved them to it I got it set to where the rear floor floor temp is an average of 88 degrees... The cool end gets as low as 72 degrees, whereas my bellyheat racks cool end is never bellow 85 degrees...

When it all boils down to it, I think temperature is the most important factor...

 

[GoGo]

Thanks for all the feedback, were trying to switch them back onto supers again.