Leopard Gecko will not eat please help.

[Connor7559]

I know that stuff like this is posted often but the sticky did not really help me so... Hi, I am new to leopard geckos and I did tons of research and 2 weeks ago on Tuesday I got 2 of them from Rampant Reptiles. They have not eaten the mealworms that I have been feeding them. 1 took a bite at a superworm but then didn't try again. I really do not want to have to try the slurry. They still have been pooping even if they don't eat the mealworms. I have tried many many things. If anyone has any suggestions please post them. I am really scared they have not had much weight loss at all in fact they look the same as when I got them. I believe I have about the right temperatures, 76-84 on the cool side and 85-94 on the warm side. I also have 1 cool hide on cool side and one dry hide on warm side. I have one male and one female housed in separate cages. I use a strip thermometer. The male also shed yesterday. The male is a Bold Reverse Stripe Eclipse poss het Tremper and the female is Eclipse poss het Tremper. I also house them in a 10 gallon tank with a heating pad and paper towels. I also let them settle in for 1 week and a half before handling them a lot. I have 2 dishes 1 for water and 1 for food/calcium with d3 and a vitamin mixture. Help is much appreciated.

 

[Connor7559]

They are also both juvenile. The female was born 5/10/12 and the male was born 5/22/12. Throughout the day i will try tong feeding and that doesn't work either.

 

[Taesolieroy]

Have you tried anything aside from just the mealworms and superworms (ex-crickets, waxworms, phoenix worms, butterworms, dubias -depending on how big the geckos are)? Did you also contact Rampant Reptiles to see what they suggest?

Getting a gecko to open its mouth to feed the slury is real tricky if they're not accustomed to being handled as such.

 

[Connor7559]

I have talked with Michelle from Rampant Reptiles but nothing she has suggested has worked. I was thinking about trying to feed phoenix worms and maybe dubia roaches eventually once i get get them to eat. I do not like crickets so I don't know if I want to use them. Every time I get waxworms (I get them from petsmart/petco) they are always dead. They both say that they are asleep but i waited 3 hours and nothing moved.

 

[Taesolieroy]

Yeah I wouldn't get the waxworms from petsmart/petco - try ordering them online where you can get them cheaper and definitely alive.

I don't personally care for crickets either, but I have them to give the geckos a varied diet - forcing them on one bug-type is like us eating nothing but pasta all our lives with no pasta sauce or meatballs or cheese. A better analogy is basically a chicken soup without the other ingredients, so all you have is chicken in water. Geckos naturally eat crickets like most other lizards and geckos, not just mealies.

I would try feeding the phoenix worms as soon as you get them, not when the geckos are eating, because if a mealie won't work or a waxworm, your higher chances rest in the crickets and phoenix worms. Considering it's been two weeks since they've last eaten, I would get them the crickets now to at least give them something new (if they don't work you can just dump the crickets outside). You don't have to directly handle them either (I use a dixie cup when scooping them and dusting them).

 

[DrCarrotTail]

How have you been feeding them? On the ground or in a bowl? Only when you're watching or leaving them alone? Not sure if this is something you've tried or will help but one of mine was super nervous when I got her and wouldn't eat when I was around. You might try not dusting them (just in case its the dust they're objecting to) and putting exactly 10 mealworms in a bowl overnight when you're not watching them. Check the cage and count them the next day and you'll know if they ate. I was too worried mine wasn't looking in the bowl and so I tried the clear top of one of the containers the gecko was shipped in to make sure she could see the worms. Once they eat a time or two go back to dusting.

Is there a chance they could have eaten something without you knowing? Not exactly sure how fast things go through their systems but 2 weeks seems like a long time to still have something left to poop out without eating...

Sorry you're having such a tough time :/ Keep us posted!

 

[Connor7559]

I feed them in a bowl. I leave them alone. I do put exactly 10 in at night and all remain next day. I will try not dusting. They have not eaten any of the mealworms I have given them and unless they are eating calcium powder then I think it is weird that they are still pooping. I will also try ordering a few roaches, phoenix worms, and wax worms and I might as well get some more mealworms.

 

[mudskipper]

I would advise against feeding wax worms on new leopard geckos that aren't already eating well. You don't want them hooked on wax worms and get picky with everything else.

You need to make the mealworms more appealing. They need to be active and juicy. Here's how. Instead of putting in 10 mealworms, try putting in 30 juicy looking ones. Not the dried up ones that come in a Petco tub. They'll wiggle more when there are more of them. To make them juicy, you need to gutload and hydrate them first. I give my mealworms a combination of oatmeal, Repashy Superload, and Fluker's High Calcium Cricket Diet for at least 24 hours prior to going into the mealworm dish. For hydration, I give them baby carrots. After 24 hours, they will look a lot more active and almost double in length. Then I put these gutloaded and hydrated mealworms in the mealworm bowls with half a teaspoon of Repashy Gutload (Fluker's Cricket Diet would be fine, too) and a small piece of Fluker's Cricket Quencher. I have found that once they are in the mealworm dish, they don't care as much for carrot but LOVE Fluker's Cricket Quencher for moisture.

Associate yourself with food. I leave the mealworms in their dishes, which they do eat on their own. However, they enjoy them more when I use tongs to drop mealworms in front of them. I recommend the tongs with rubber tips from Exo Terra. I tab their tanks with the tongs before I hand feed every time. It didn't take them very long to learn that tapping means "come out". 2 of my 3 come out any time of the day now when I tap their tank. My albino is still pretty shy and has a hard time seeing things. When I feed her dubias, I tap her tank and show her the dubias at the entrance of her cave. She does not always see the dubias right away even though it's right in front of her, but she does poke her head out.

If you want to feed with crickets, don't let them jump around. They are very good at escaping. If you crush them a little bit with the tongs, they can't run. Or just hand feed with tongs. Get the rubber tipped ones because the leos sometimes bite the tongs by accident. Mine didn't like it when they did that and would just walk away instead of continuing to eat.

If you want to feed with dubias, get the medium size. My leos who range from 27g to 55g prefer dubias that are between 0.5" to 1" in size. Anything smaller is hard for you to hand feed with tongs. They also don't touch smaller ones I put in the mealworm bowls. Any bigger would be too big for them.

For your thermometer, you need to get a digital thermometer. Put its sensor in the warm hide. Pretty much tape it to the floor. You also need an infrared temperature gun because it's the most accurate.

2 out of 3 of my leos didn't like phoenix worms. And I personally think their stench is repulsive. But that could also be because I tried to feed them. They are used for composting. They turned their oatmeal into mush with this awful sour musty smell... I can still taste the smell in my mouth!

 

[cherishedtiger]

My thoughts, is to try some crickets too. They might need more of the movement in order to spur the hunting/hunger response.

 

[LeoGirl1999]

They are also both juvenile. The female was born 5/10/12 and the male was born 5/22/12. Throughout the day i will try tong feeding and that doesn't work either.

:shocked: The female has the same birthday as me

Anyways, when I first go my leo, he wouldn't eat mealies straight out of his bowl. Sammy was really stubborn about how I fed him. I had to hand feed him until about two weeks later. They could just be stressed.

 

[mudskipper]

Wow.. That was really long. Slow day at work. LOL

Forgot to ask you to post the pictures of the 2 leos and also their tanks.

 

[Connor7559]

I got the female to eat! I used tongs and poked a mealworm that I squished with the tongs and put the juice on her nose then she ate the mealworm from the tongs after i poked it in front of her face. She ate about 10 mealworms. Last night for them both I put in like 25 mealworms and the female didn't touch them but the male has about 20 missing so now I am super happy because they both are eating!