New Juvie Leos Not Eating

[mira_kaylee]

Alright, so I bought my two Leopard Geckos on Wednesday December 26th. One is a Mack Snow and one is a Blazing Blizzard. They are just shy of being as long as my index finger so they're still pretty young. Within 24 hours of being in their new enclosure they both had eaten at least 3 crickets apiece but wouldn't/ won't touch mealworms or waxworms. I have put crickets in their enclosure both yesterday and today but they won't touch them (I removed the crickets after about an hour of watching the geckos scurry away anytime one got near). I thought that maybe they were having trouble finding the escaping crickets so I took most of their large furniture out of the pen but they still didn't show any interest in the crickets other than to run away when the crickets came near (said furniture is now replaced btw). The crickets are mini's, very tiny, so I honestly don't think that the crickets are too big. Their warm side temperatures go between 88F and 95F, they have a water dish, mealworm dish, one hide on the warm end, one on the cool end and a moist hide in between, and several flat rocks to sit and bask on. They have a zoo med heat mat that is on a thermostat and a 75w night time bulb that doesn't come on very often but is there just in case. At the pet store they were in not even a 5gal tank with at least 10 other geckos so to keep them from stressing too much I put them in a 10gal tank and plan on buying a 20gal long to upgrade them to when they get a bit larger and get used to not sharing with a dozen other geckos so that they have ample space. They are on reptile carpet, and while the mack snow tends to stay on or in the warm hide most of the time the blazing blizzard has kind of claimed the rock above the heating pad in the corner for himself lol (again when I say him it is just to make things simpler, as they are too young to sex yet). I was prepared to wait a few days to see them eat but after they ate within 24 hours and now have stopped so I don't know what to think....should I be worried? My first tortoise took about a week to eat much of anything and now is a little piglet, but the geckos seem much more fragile than a tortoise so I am a bit concerned....they were both fairly skinny when I got them, based on adult proportions that I have seen pictures of on here. I hope that I gave enough information as to their origins and enclosure and that maybe someone can shed a little light on this for me, preemptive thank yous!

 

[Star1]

I wouldn't worry yet since they're still settling into their new home.

 

[mira_kaylee]

Thank you for the advice, I'm not too awful worried yet but thought it best to get an outside opinion

 

[Caleb C]

The blizzard doesn't use a hide?
They should all use hides, especially if they're new. A few days of not eating is fine, especially in this time of the year, and being stressed out in a new environment.

 

[mira_kaylee]

The blizzard occasionally does, yes, but it seems more focused on just exploring and on that rock lol. If the blizzard thinks that no one looks at the enclosure for a few hours then it will just walk around like it owns the place all to itself lol. The mack snow, Tartarus, ate 4 crickets today (thank goodness) but when the blizzard (atlantis) tried to eat anything it just kept missing...she will stalk the cricket, follow it around, vibrate her tail then lunge at it. At which point she misses and then starts over. She couldn't catch anything today and she won't eat from my hand :/ still not horribly worried, but I honestly do think that Atlantis missing when she lunges so often is due to a problem with her sight. She missed %100 of the time today, but total I would say that she misses %70 of every time that she lunges (because sometimes she does catch the cricket or she will catch a leg and then the cricket gets away) and usually when she catches something it's because she is smart about it. She will continuously feint lunge at the cricket until it's in a corner and then when it's in the corner she can catch it. Tartarus never misses, even though she is a little bit smaller.

 

[Caleb C]

It's best not to hand feed anyway, they end up thinking that your hand means food. Use forceps and mealworms with the one that can't aim. Mealworms dont move much, and you can hold the mealworm with the forceps.
Most reptile keepers don't like crickets because they jump, smell, and make noise when they grow up.

 

[mira_kaylee]

Neither of the leos seem to understand that the mealworms are even edible though....they just walk off whenever they're there.

 

[Caleb C]

They were probably raised on a diet of crickets then. They will probably eat roaches, roaches are easier to take care of, dont smell, and dont jump!
They're around the same price, if not a little more expensive, but they can be shipped, and you can easily keep over a hundred at a time without them dying off like crickets tend to do.

 

[mira_kaylee]

I looked into that honestly, but my boyfriend says that he would really rather not have roaches of any kind in our apartment, and I respect that.

 

[Caleb C]

Yeah, I understand. My mom hated the thought of roaches being in the house until they arrived. She doesn't mind now, and she'd rather let me buy roaches than crickets.

 

[mira_kaylee]

I'm told that even if they get away that they can't survive outside of the pen....that seems a little hard to believe.

 

[Caleb C]

They can survive for a month or two probably, but they'll just hide, and i'm talking about babies, so they're not nasty. Babies look like isopods, and will die off within a month or two of not eating. Adults will also die in a month or two, possibly more, but the thing is that they can't breed outside of their container, so it's impossible for them to infest your house.

 

[mira_kaylee]

Why can't they breed outside of the container?

 

[Caleb C]

They need both heat and humidity to breed.
Mine only breed during summer, when temps get to around 80-90 in the garage, it's now cold in the garage, and i haven't had baby roaches showing up in months.

 

[mira_kaylee]

Ahhhh I see....thank you