My leo isn't eating =/

[rinaann]

I've had my little leo since August, and recently the little "guy" (still unsure of what sex "he" is soo i still call him a he) has started to scare me. It seems like he isn't eating. His tail is very skinny compared to my other leo. The skinny one (we named him "The Stig") barely eats anything. There is always left over meal worms at night when i check on the animals before I go to bed. Is there anything else that I can try feeding him? I usually have crickets but they seem too big for him. I can take pictures of him tomorrow and post and compare them to the pictures from when I first got him. he seems much skinnier. I'm afraid that I am going to check on him one day and he will be dead. I have never had a problem with one of my animals not eating. So I am unsure what to do. please help!

 

[Dog Shrink]

Is this the tangerine leo you posted that you got from pet co? Tell me more about your habitat? Substrait, temps, hides, suppliments, the whole shebang. First things that come to mind for me when I hear not eating is parasites, impaction and temps too cold.

 

[rinaann]

No this is my other leopard gecko. he is a patternless. I use paper towels as substrate. The heating pad is on one side i have a hide on both the hot and the cold side. I feed him meal worms with some reptocal every other day. The temperature on the hot side is just under 95 atm. Is that a good temperature or is it too hot or too cold?

 

[Dog Shrink]

95 sould be a good temp for your leo. Do you have any idea of how old he is? yougot him in August so at least 3 mos old. If this is a juvie he should eat every day, just a little a day maybe 3-5 mealies I would think. Also I thought the reptical calcium and multi vit were suppose to me mixed then dusted on your feeders. Please post pix when you can so we can see the change. I would take a stool sample in since you got a leo from pet co that usually houses them in groups. You could have accidentally cross contaminated the other leo or are they housed together? It could be a parasite but you won't know with out a fecal exam by a herp vet.

 

[rinaann]

i feed him every day. i supplement every other day. should i start every day? my leos are kept seperate they have never come in contact.

here are some pictures


before:




Now



i'm not sure if you can even tell the difference but the tail is very skinny now

 

[roger]

i feed him every day. i supplement every other day. should i start every day? my leos are kept seperate they have never come in contact.

here are some pictures


before:




Now



i'm not sure if you can even tell the difference but the tail is very skinny now

the temps are ok.on a side note are u giving him the pure calcium everyother day ? I give ny leos pure calcium 24/7 in their enclosure, calcium d3 once a month and multivitamins once a week.try to get a fecal done

 

[Miykael81]

Is he kept in the same enclosure as the other one? I recently discovered that I needed to seperate my two(too young to determine sex right now) and once I set up the smaller one in it's own enclosure, it began to eat heartily.

One trick I found that seems to work, is instead of using the dish(which I also have in there), I drop a mealworm right in front of the entrance to their caves(hot hide). The sudden 'thump' them gets their attention and they quickly come to check out the noise. I almost always get a feeding response when I do this.

Another note I have observed is that my smaller one is MUCH more drawn to insect movements than the larger one. Where the larger one would walk up and chomp down, the smaller one ignores anything that doesn't move.

Hope this helps, I know how stressful it can be when your herps don't seem to be eating, I had a very similar problem with some young spotted salamanders once.