My leo

[myles8908]

Alright heres the summary. I'm on my 3rd gecko in about 4 months, none have died I've given the other two back to the stores, because they stopped eating and I cant figure out why. Now they all follow this pattern. About 3 days straight they will eat like champs, 3-5 crickets and are very active. They use the restroom regularly and they act fine. I have a warm side about 90 degrees and a room temp side about 76-78 degrees. Warm and cool hides , and a humid hide as well. Then around day 4 or 5 they stop eating. They see the food and just stop eating it. I put the calcium on the crickets which is what i feed them, and i get the crickets from the same store that my friends do (who have 2 leo's and the same exact set up that i do, and their leo's are great!) they have had the same one's for four months straight. Anyways, my new one is dramatically slowing down eating, he's ate one cricket in two days. Should I worry? The others did this and eventually quit eating all together. This one's tail is already getting slightly smaller, and it is not near as active as it was a week ago! I'm just scared I'm doing something wrong... I mean the only thing it could be is me I think, but I do exactly what my friends do and their geckos are great, I just can't figure it out. My tank is 10 gal, and the bottom is a thin tile and I use an underneath heatign pad on the bottom of the tank. Any help would be great :main_no:

 

[ajveachster]

How old are the animals you are getting? I see you said "stores" when you talked about returning animals, so I'm guessing they are all from different stock meaning it wouldn't be something from their environment they are bringing with them. Did you sterilize everything in the tank between animals? I'm just wondering if the first animal had something that is getting passed down to the other animals. If you are seeing dramatic weight loss you can try feeding some worms instead of crickets. They take less energy to catch and have a higher fat content. I don't know if your leo will eat them, but it's worth a try. You can always offer multiple feeders to see what interests your leo the most. I would give it a couple weeks. Waxworms are the fattiest, so you can try a couple of those. If your leo becomes interested in food again you will want to cut those down to treats only though.

 

[myles8908]

I'm not quite sure you might be right, I cleaned out the cage, but I just used really hot water to clean off the inside of tank and the rocks and hides, i didn't use the 1 to 10 bleach or w/e.... i prob should have... u think if it is sick, and I got a new 10 gallon tank and new rocks and hides he would get better?

 

[ajveachster]

I would clean everything with the bleach mixture for now. Also try using bottled water for drinking. There might be something in your water affecting the animals. We use filtered water. Not quite as pure as bottles, but way less expensive. With as little water as a single leo drinks you could probably buy one gallon of bottled water for a buck and have it last a couple months. Try these little steps before doing anything drastic like buying all new housing.

 

[Theinfidel]

Alright so you said you had 2 gecko's before and you returned them right? Im guessing the return policy is 7 days from purchase, that's sometimes very little time for a leo to accustom in it's environment and feel comfortable to do whatever it pleases at anytime it wants to. Just leave him be for a couple of days then leave worms in a little bowl and he'll eat em when he doesn't see you then after 2-4 weeks he'll start eating as soon as you put food in there. Oh yes and as veach said try other feeders because sometimes leo's will get tired of some feeders and wont eat until you give him something different so it's sometimes whatever they want not what you want.

 

[ajveachster]

Oh yes and as veach said try other feeders because sometimes leo's will get tired of some feeders and wont eat until you give him something different so it's sometimes whatever they want not what you want.

Know this one from experience. Soooo frustrating sometimes.