new gecko: eating YES! hunting NO!

[JasperStreet]

so i brought home my first gecko, Yuuki, on sunday. on monday, i put a cricket in her tank and she ignored it for a few hours so i took it out. i put a few meal worms in a little dish in her tank, and she ignored them all night. then, this morning i put a meal worm on the paper towel right in front of her, and she ate it. they are quite small, so she ate two of those. then, i grabbed a cricket with some tongs and put it in front of her and she ate that too! so, thus far she hasn't been able to find or catch the food herself, but if i put it right under her nose, she eats it. it almost made me wonder if she doesn't have very good vision or something.

has anyone else experienced this? is Yuuki blind, lazy, or just a bad hunter?!

 

[robin]

how old is she? did she come from a breeder or a petstore etc?

 

[JasperStreet]

she's nine months old and i got her at a little pet shop where they breed leos.

 

[robin]

do you know if they hand fed their animals?

also you might need to give them a bit more time before you feed them. let them settle in. leave her mealies in more than a couple hours and feed her in the evening.

 

[JasperStreet]

thanks for the advice.

i don't think they hand feed their animals; i saw crickets running around in one of their tanks. i will leave the meal worms in for a longer period and see if she goes for them.

 

[SassyAbi]

I think you should just try leaving the mealworms in a small dish close to her hide. She may not be hungry when you feed her. So leave them in there overnight when shes active and moving around she may eventually eat them

 

[serialzombie]

Give her more time to do her thing.

Mine don't generally eat roaches left in a dish, sadly. (I think the roaches have realized that Leopard Geckos have T-Rex vision) They will hunt crickets initially, but once the crickets are mildly out of sight forget about them.

Worms in a dish, they'll seek out.

I offer food in the evening, and take out left overs before work.

 

[Haligren]

Hiya, fellow BCer!

I agree with the others. If you only just got her maybe she needs more time to adjust. Either that or she IS lazy and thinks she's got it made with you just giving her the food. lol

 

[JasperStreet]

thanks for the replies, everyone; they're really helpful!

so far, it seems like she isn't aware of the dish. she walks around it but she never looks into it, so she never sees the meal worms in it. she only eats them when i pick them up for her.

well, i'll give her more time to get used to things, but i don't want her to get too hungry because she's not able to find the meal worms!

 

[77gecko]

Might try finding a dish that is clear/opaque. All my girls would not eat out of bowls, then I got small opaque dishes so they could see the worms moving around (mine were small, hard plastic pencil boxes and I cut the lid off)

 

[JasperStreet]

ah, good idea; i don't think she's every going to climb up and look into the bowl. i'm going to look for glass or plastic.

 

[serialzombie]

Might try finding a dish that is clear/opaque. All my girls would not eat out of bowls, then I got small opaque dishes so they could see the worms moving around (mine were small, hard plastic pencil boxes and I cut the lid off)

*cough*

Opaque is an antonym for clear.