Might not be feeding enough...

[ssantac]

hi everyone,
I posted in the new member section, but didnt get any responses yet. I'm a little concerned I'm not feeding my daughters new friend enough. Here is all the info I think might be relevant from my prev. post. Sorry its a long read, but I think the info I can give, the better.

We were told it was from a petshop, and is approx 8mo. old. It came with a 10gal, sand substrate, light and bowls. We bought a rock structure for the 'hot' side, along with a heating pad. The 'cool side' has just a small wood hide. We have the light on a 12hr. timer, and keep fresh water in the tank.

We left it alone for about a week, fed it about 3 days after getting it. It ate 2 mealworms, and we have been feeding about every other day. 3 days ago I was able to reach in and hold it, although its pretty untamed. My daughter was even able to hold it for a while. I sexed it has a female. Today I tried to pick her up again and when I had her in my hand, she bit me!

I'm wondering if I'm not feeding her enough. I think she is too wild to weigh, but does look kind of skinny compared to some pics I've seen here.So my question is...does everyone think I'm feeding enough. I just read about gut loading mealworms, so I think I'm going to try that...maybe some crickets too.

My other question is: Is the only way to tame them just to hold them until they get used to you?

 

[Pinned27]

You should in fact gutload your feeders prior to feeding them to your leo.
And the leo biting is just a defense thing, i wouldnt worry to much. Just wait a while before putting your hand back into the tank.
Also a picture of your leo could help too, a bunch of informative people on here could determine what morph it is and if it indeed looks healthy.
Also try to keep a regular feeding schedule, and mix up the feeder to provide variety.

 

[ssantac]

thanks...I'll try that. I'll try to get pics up soon

 

[RampantReptiles]

2 mealworms every other day? Definitely not enough...

Try more like 20 mealworms every other day. If she eats them all then increase that amount to 25, etc.

 

[RampantReptiles]

unless your talking about superworms, that's different. Two of those every other day is what I feed my leos.

 

[animeavatar]

The sand can caues impaction( try slate tiles) and you dont need the light. The warm side should be about 90f.

 

[katie_]

You can zero out your scale with a tubberware container on it.
Just place her in the container to weigh her if she wont sit still on the scale.

 

[Dimidiata]

Agreed with the above, but for supers, i feed 3-5 every other day no issue. Sand is a bad thing my friend, deffinetly work on getting that switched out. Do you have all the proper suppliments for her food?

 

[ssantac]

Ok...I'll look at getting tile this weekend.
I've been trying to give her 3 mealworms every other day cuz thats what I was told is how she ate.
No, I dont think they are supers..I just went to petsmart and asked for mealworms. They have supers also, but I didnt get any because I heard they can bite and hurt the gecko.
The only suppliment I have is the calcium dust.
I'm also going to get another thermometer so I can see what both sides of the tank temps are, and since I'm being told I dont need a heat lamp, I'll prob. switch it out to something else...maybe a daylight CFL or something.

Also, here is a pic:

 

[Dimidiata]

Oh, shes a tiny thing but she looks fat lol. Supers are fine, but shes a tad small right now. Id still give her a bowl full of mealies and let her go to town. You NEED 3 suppliments.
Calcium
Calcium with D3
Vitamins

Heating needs to be Undertank heating pad. UTH. Zoomed makes a good brand, zilla should be avoided imo.

 

[ssantac]

Well, fats good...for now...until I get this feeding thing down anyway. I have a zoo med heater, and IIRC reptocal suppliment. From the pic...its hard to orient, but the food and water bowls are on the cool side, and the bottom right corner where you can see a structure, the heating pad is under that structure.
I just started reading the suppliment forum, so do I need vitamins and all if I do like some others seem to be doing by giving the mealies dog/fish food to eat, or still dust them with something? Is that sufficient for gut loading?

On a side note, just out of curiosity, can anyone tell from the pic what morph she is?

Thanks for the help so far!

 

[ssantac]

whoops, double post

 

[Dimidiata]

Ok so you do have the heating pad imo, she sorta looks like Hypo tang.

 

[animeavatar]

Worm substrate can be oats and you can gutload with veggies and fruits. Have you switched out from sand yet? Lighting is unnessary because they are nocturnal. If you listen to petstores, mostly they try to sell things to you( sme people are honest but others just want money so I would just google 'leopard gecko care'.

 

[TokayKeeper]

A sand substrate is perfectly fine (in my opinion) if you properly supplement your gecko's food items with both a calcium and multivitamin supplement. You never want to combine the 2 supplements as some of the minerals and vitamins present in the multivitamin can bind to calcium, rendering it useless to the body for uptake. I like to use Rep-cal and Herptivite as my supplements. Some will suggest vionate, but it has high levels of vitamin A, which can be toxic. Improper supplementation, though I only hypothesize this, is what I feel is the result of sand impactions. In the wild many species of animals will from time to time ingest various substrata to obtain missing nutrients and minerals.

Going back to the sand, it is a perfectly fine substrate if you are observant in the gecko's foraging behaviors and/or opt to feed the gecko such that it can't ingest sand while hunting prey. The mealworm dish is a starter for such. I feed my geckos within their hide boxes where they typically don't poop and also keep the crickets confined so that they don't roam the gecko cage getting the opportunity to eat gecko poop. My initial leopard gecko cages started out as ten gallon tanks with 60 watt bulbs for heating (I also used heat pads placed under the basking site) and sterilized arroyo sand. That was in 1996. My geckos not housed in racks are still heated with light bulbs (I use 40 watt bulbs now as my herp room is fairly warm). All geckos, except hatchlings, are housed on play sand substrate roughly 2 inches deep. My geckos seem to appreciate the ability to dig and "landscape" their cages, I've NEVER had any impactions in 16 years of keeping various species on sand. My few geckos in tanks with light bulb heating are typically seen basking in the early morning and late afternoon, whether just sticking their heads out their hides ot full on "sunbathing" on their rock hides.

I'm not a fan of slate flooring at all and lighting will not stress out the gecko. Their habitat is fairly similar to the southwestern US and their behavioral nature is similar to that of their southwest desert cousins the banded geckos. They occupy a wide range of habitat from rocky hillsides down to arroyos (dry desert stream beds), much the same as their North American banded gecko cousins.

Find your most comfortable shoes and wear them for weeks or months straight spending 8 hrs a day or more walking on nothing but concrete. With my lowly little bachelors of science in biology degree, that's exactly what I do every day since resigning as a Museum Naturalist and only being able to land a job with a large chain petstore. My feet and calves burn by the end of the day and my lower back has a mild pain sometimes. To me, that's what it would probably feel like being a leopard gecko forced to walk on slate 24 hrs a day.

 

[Dimidiata]

Of course, so um out of general curiosity, what is Rephashys proven to work Calcium+ 3 in one suppliment? You havnt had any impactions, more power to you but you CANNOT say they dont happen. They do, the most reputable members of this forum have stated that sand substrate is a no. So yes, its worked for you, until it doesnt.

 

[TokayKeeper]

Of course, so um out of general curiosity, what is Rephashys proven to work Calcium+ 3 in one suppliment? You havnt had any impactions, more power to you but you CANNOT say they dont happen.

I didn't say they don't happen, I said I've never had them happen. Improper husbandry, coupled with improper nutrition is tpyically what I see when I've encountered impacted herps.

They do, the most reputable members of this forum have stated that sand substrate is a no.

I'll let you in on a little secret...I'm one of those such members, I just haven't posted 1275 times in 6 months or less, and I say it [sand] works. :main_thumbsup:

Here...let me help you with a funny link...

http://geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=76883

 

[Dimidiata]

I take marcias word over yours, no offence intended. Still on the supplimentation. Isnt Cal+ a mix of vitamins and calcium. Ive used it no issue, others have used it no issue and i havnt seen any valid negitive reviews on the product. So how is it sidestepping the binding aspect.

You are a highly experinced keeper, you know what your doing with sand. This is relitively new leo keeper, they arnt experinced. I wouldnt tell them to use sand or to keep sand in the tank. Not until they can fully understand the responcibility that is required with its use.

 

[TokayKeeper]

I take marcias word over yours, no offence intended. Still on the supplimentation. Isnt Cal+ a mix of vitamins and calcium. Ive used it no issue, others have used it no issue and i havnt seen any valid negitive reviews on the product. So how is it sidestepping the binding aspect.

I've not used any of Allen's products other than CGD, nor have I followed his various products though I do know they are mostly well received. I'm no chemist either, rather a biologist, but Allen may have some sort of formulation that allows for such to exist versus that of rep-cal and herptivite.

 

[animeavatar]

IMO Calci-sand is bad and there is a risk with any type of sand and I don't like to take risks. IMO if you are careful with sand then it is okay.