Just wondering why my leo is eating a lot less than normal

[T2theG]

About your leo: Super Snow
- Sex - Male
- Age & Weight - 10 Months Old
- How long have you owned your leo - 8 Months
- Where was he/she obtained (ex. Pet store, breeder, wild caught, friend) - Breeder (Well-Known)

A) Health/History
- How often do you handle your leo - Maybe twice every two weeks
- Is your leo acting any different today? If so how does he/she normally act which differs from now. - No different, normal activity at night, in a hide during the day.
- Has he/she had any problems in the past, if so please describe. - None
B) Fecals
- Describe (look any different than normal) - Normal fecal with urate and no signs of sand in the fecal matter.
- When was the last time he/she went - Two Days Ago
C) Problem
- Please briefly describe the problem and how long it has been going on - About a month ago my leo started eating only about two mealworms every three days. I leave a mealkworm dish in the cage at all times, but take the mealworms out during the day. He doesn't care much for crickets either, but I try them out from time to time. I am just a little worried, he is not really skinny or anything, but I just find it strange that he all of the sudden went form eating 8 - 10 mealworms every other day to 2 every three days.

Housing:
A) Enclosure
- Size - 20 Long
- Type (ex. glass tank) - Glass
- Type of substrate - Reptile Sand Midnight Black (Not Calci Sand)
- Hides, how many, what kind - 6 Hides, a repti shelter cave with eco earth inside for creating micro climate for better sheds, an exo terra medium reptile cave on the hot side, a small cork round above the cave, a cork flat on the other side of the cave proped up by mopani wood. Another small cork round on the cool side near the repti shelter cave. I also have a pet-tech magnatural small hide cave held by magnets where my leo can get up and get a good areial view of his environment. There are a few peices of mopani wood that I use to create more hides when combined with the cork flat. I also have a flat slate stone in the middle of the tank that I have attached a small dish with rep-cal calcium with no d3 in. Also have a gecko dish with water on the cool side that he can't tip over.
B) Heating
- Heat source - rh-4 UTH Zoo Med
- Cage temps (hot side, cool side) - Hotside - 91 Cool Side 75
- Method of regulating heat source - Zoomed Rheostat
- What are you using to measure your temps - Pro Exotics PE-1 Temp Gun and zoo med temp/humidity gauge for ambient air and humidity.
- Do you have any lights (describe) I have a zoo med 15w day blue bulb and a exo terra 15w night bulb. I use the day bulb to create 12 hour light cycle.
C) Cage mates
- How many (males, females) - None
- Describe health, or previous problems - No previous problems, healthy.

Describe Diet:
A) Typical diet
- What you're feeding (how often, how much) - I put six to eight mealworms in food dish everyother day or 4 -5 crickets. I alternate
- How are you feeding (hand fed, left in dish, ect) left in dish, but I used to hand feed with tongs.
B) Supplements (describe how often)
- What vitamin/minerals are you using (list brands) - rep-cal calcium with d3 and herptivite dusted on all crickets or mealworms every other day, plus rep-cal calcium with no d3 left in cage at all times.
- What are you gut loading food with - Mealworms, old fashioned oats, kale and carrots Crickets - flukers cricket diet and cricket quencher

 

[katie_]

That IS calcium sand, and I've always been told that the black is the WORST for geckos (By the Zoomed rep!).

I would remove it asap.
You arent going to be able to tell if your gecko eats it, if he does, he could become seriously impacted.
Calcium sand is dangerous, and even if it WASNT "calcium" sand, sand itself can pose many problems.

 

[T2theG]

That IS calcium sand, and I've always been told that the black is the WORST for geckos (By the Zoomed rep!).

I would remove it asap.
You arent going to be able to tell if your gecko eats it, if he does, he could become seriously impacted.
Calcium sand is dangerous, and even if it WASNT "calcium" sand, sand itself can pose many problems.

I will be removing the sand right away and replacing it with slate tile. I should have done this in the first place. Thank you for the suggestion! As far as him being impacted he is not showing any of the signs that i researched, thankfully.

 

[katie_]

Good
Hopefully his appetite is smaller do to winter weather.

 

[Indigo]

All of my leopard geckos are also eating much less than normal. It's just because winter's here! Glad to see you're changing over to slate! That's what I use as well.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Your description says he's about 10 months old so he also could have gotten to a point where he's done growing super fast and is leveling out into a more maintenance adult diet. My 90g male eats about 10-15 mealworms 2x a week and maintains his weight.

 

[T2theG]

All of my leopard geckos are also eating much less than normal. It's just because winter's here! Glad to see you're changing over to slate! That's what I use as well.

Good
Hopefully his appetite is smaller do to winter weather.

Your description says he's about 10 months old so he also could have gotten to a point where he's done growing super fast and is leveling out into a more maintenance adult diet. My 90g male eats about 10-15 mealworms 2x a week and maintains his weight.

:banana: I switched my leo over to slate and he is back to his good ol' self. Thank you for all of the advice! He is back to eating 10 - 12 meal-worms every other day now.

 

[kateshane]

I don t know much about geckos but one of my friends really interested in reptiles. So this will be very useful for him. Definitely I got a special gift to share with him.