Is it okay to feed my juvenile leopard gecko during the day?

[mandypandyjack]

I like to hand feed (well tweezer feed-I don't like touching the bugs lol) my 2 leopard geckos. My female, who is almost a year old gets fed around 10:00pm when I get home from work and she eats everything I give her, no problem.

My male, who I got about a month ago (I'm not entirely sure how old he is but with his size, I'd say around maybe 5 months) does not eat everything I give him. For example if I were to feed him 10 mealworms (the rule of thumb I go by is 2 insects for every 1 inch of the gecko's length), he'd maybe eat 2 or 3 after much coaxing, dropping them in front of him, making them wiggle around, etc. (same thing with crickets).

So lately instead of "tweezer" feeding, I've been putting the insects inside of a food dish (with a lip so the mealworms can't escape and taking the legs off the crickets so they can't hop away). Still he maybe eats about half of what I give him. He only eats a lot if he hasn't really eaten over a few days, then he will just barely eat everything I give him. His poop is fine and he leaves me a poop surprise everyday. He is gaining weight, not losing it or remaining the same weight (I don't know what he is as far as grams go, but he's bigger than when I got him) and there are no signs of impaction so I've pretty much ruled that out.

Today, just out of curiosity, I fed him 10 mealworms around 3:00pm and he ate all of them. It took little to no coaxing, he just gobbled them right up. I know you're suppose to feed leopard geckos at night but is it okay if I feed him during the day if he seems to eat more during the day rather than at night? If I should stick with trying to feed him at night, what other things can I do to try to get him to eat more?

 

[bohannbj]

They can eat at any time. My guess is you are over-feeding a little. I just toss the worms in and they chow down at their leisure. They're tougher than most people give them credit for. If he's gaining weight and seems normal then you don't have anything to worry about.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

I often feed mine in the middle of the day on weekends so I can have my night free. No side effects yet! I feed about 10 mealworms every other day to my babies and they seem to gain about 2g/week. I don't feed them more because I don't want them to grow any faster than that so their bones and organs can keep pace with their bulk as they grow They're usually at the front of their bins when they're hungry (i.e. they haven't eaten in 8 hours...haha) no matter the time of day

 

[Tongue Flicker]

I feed at anytime or when the need arises (i.e, i'll be on vacation for a few days, i'm sick, what not). I notice that my leo is like a vicious beast when i feed him during the day. He's usually inside his hide then if I drop a huge cricket at the middle of the enclosure, he springs out quickly and pounces the cricket then goes back to his hide to finish his meal. Usually goes for about 2-3 crickets per day session. He probably gets tired from all the springing out and back action as he normally eats about 6 crickets and 5 superworms a night.