new leo owner - help re: crickets and temp

[marsters]

Hiya everyone, new to the site and new leo owner (well my daughter is!!) and struggling a little with crickets. we got the leo on christmas eve (named him / her phoenix) and he seems to have settled in well, he has shed once with no problems and seems to be getting quite tame. We have a cricket pen, the type with pull out tubes to pop the crickets straight into the cage. he has figured out the black tube means food and is quite happy to come partially out of his cage to feed at the sight of the tube, the problem we are having is that any crickets he doesn't seem to catch straight away are all living on the roof of his cage (we only discovered this today as we had a 'wall' on the back of the cage they were hiding behind). I know he is hungry as we didn't see him catch very many crickets last night and we have found 11 hiding in his cage. we have caught a few and removed them but the rest out of ours and the leos reach. Other than pulling their legs off (which I can't bring myself to do) has anyone any ideas how to stop them hiding on the roof? We keep knocking them off but they climb up again before he has a chance to catch them.

He has 3 caves, warm, cool and a moist one and the temp on the warm side is about 32c and on the cool side about 22c although does drop a little at night. Are these temps warm enough for him (seen many mixed comments and always in fahrenheit which I then have to convert) or should it be a little warmer? - He seems a little lazy so wondering if this is maybe why he is not able to catch the crickets before they all hide.

Thanx in advance for any advice

 

[cowana]

The cool side of your cage is a bit low and should be closer to 25-27C. The warm side is at a good temperature, though. (Edit: Are you measuring floor temps or air temps? To get floor temps you will need to use an infrared temp gun or prove thermometer.)

Is your cage one of the Exo-Terra cages with the styrofoam backgrounds? I solved this problem with my Bearded Dragon by removing the background, if so. It is easily removable as it is only "wedged" in there. At the very least remove it so you can collect the crickets you can't reach. You don't want to leave leftover crickets in the tank because they will pick on the Leo, as well as eat his feces spreading parasites. [emoji20]

When feeding crickets I would only drop 4-5 in at a time. If he still acts hungry, then you can add another 4-5. Normally, 8-12 dusted crickets is a good meal for a juvenile Leo. You can also try feeding him the crickets with feeding tongs.

You could switch him to mealworms altogether and avoid the cricket issue. No need to mess with the back drop (watch your Leo though some may try to climb and aren't very graceful... Don't want any falls!), really easy to gut load, they aren't noisy and don't have the cricket smell. Most Leos will eat them from a dish, or you can tong feed him or drop them in front of the little guy individually to hunt until he's full. Make sure you remove any uneaten mealworms running loose.

I hope this helps!

Amy

 

[marsters]

Thanx

Thanx Amy,

We have taken the styrofoam backdrop out but the crickets seem to still climb up the wall and hang around in the corners, although they do all seem to be gone by the morning so they must be coming down during the night. he has been eating about 5-6 that we have witnessed and so if he is catching the other overnight that should be okay.

Will try and get the cool side up a little, I have a digital thermometer with two sensors which I have positioned on the floor of his warm and cool caves for measuring the temps so i may invest in a heat gun.

We have tried hand feeding him the mealworm and whilst he is getting tamer and coming out he only licks at them and when we leave them on the floor or in a dish in front of his cave he ignores them.

I'm sure we will get there eventually with him, as long as he is eating something, I'm just glad we have the warm side right as I was worried he was too cold.

 

[cowana]

You're welcome! Glad that taking out the background helped and he can finally get all of his crickets! If you leave them overnight just be careful they aren't picking on him. If you notice injuries then be sure to remove them.

I have probe thermometers in mine but I also use a temp gun just to make sure I am getting accurate readings from the thermometers or if the batteries die. Not really necessary but I have enough herps I'm overly prepared. Ha

The warm side is good which is important for digestion. What size terrarium do you have? Depending on size putting a mini/small UTH on the other end may be an idea to boost the temp just a bit.

Getting him to switch to mealworms may take some effort. Crickets are more fun as they are more active. I would go a few days without feeding him (as long as he has a fat tail it won't hurt him), so he is nice and hungry. Hold the mealworm between two fingers or tongs so that it is nice and squirmy. And present it to him. The action of the mealworm will draw his interest without him having to make too much contact with you since your still building trust. If the worm stops squirming just touch it too something and it should start again. Once I got mine to take them, eventually I was able to drop it in front of them and they would hunt them. You can then try luring him to a dish of them. (Still working on that with one of mine. She'd rather me feed her, so I am waiting her out and a week or so of not eating won't hurt her. She has a FAT tail! Saw her investigating the bowl last night and looks like she took a few.

Right now, as long as he is eating and you are gut loading his food to make it nutritious that is what is most important!

Amy