New to Leo's, Eating habits??

[Salt4Sam]

Hey all,

So I'm new to Leo's and i dont quite know about their eating habits. I have two females in the same 55g and the one i got first doesnt eat much at all. Maybe 1 or 2 crickets since we got her. But we got the new female the day before yesterday, and she is eating like a fat kid in a cookie store. I think she already ate 4 or 5 superworms, and she chases the crickets around the tank. Could there be something wrong with my first female? Or maybe she just isnt hungry. :main_huh:

One more question, I feed my crickets that gut loading stuff, and their water gel stuff has calcium in it. Should i still dust my crickets with calcium and vitamins?? Thanks everyone for taking your time to help me!!

 

[acpart]

Some geckos eat less than others. If the one who isn't eating much is not losing weight (tail not getting thinner), remains alert, then in general it may not be a problem. When you say it has eaten only 1 or 2 crickets since you got her, how long have you had her? If it's less than 2 weeks, she may be still settling in. If it's more than 2 weeks and you're sure she's not eating feeders that you don't know about, there actually may be a problem, despite what I wrote above.

Unfortunately, it's counterproductive to add a gecko when the one you have may not be eating well because now it will be very difficult to determine who is eating what and who pooped. In addition, unless you got your new gecko less than 2 weeks or so after the original one and got it from the same place, it is really best to quarantine them from each other for at least a month to make sure no one is sick (if there is a problem with the original one and it's contagious, the other one may have it now --not that I'm saying that there's definitely a problem). I recommend that if possible you put them in separate enclosures, or at least divide the tank (you can do this with plexiglass and put the UTH in the middle so each one has half the UTH) and separate them that way. Then let us know more about the one that's not eating and we may have suggestions, or it may require a vet visit.

ALiza

 

[Jordan]

yup, pretty much agree with whats been said.

might not have settled in, might just be because of a recent change ie the intro of a new female.

and the two females should be seperated for quarantine if from seperate places.

 

[Salt4Sam]

they were togethre before i got the first female, I just couldnt afford both at the same time. I bought all the things to setup my tank, so i couldnt get both. But they had been tankmates for awhile. The wierdest part to me now is that, the first female doesnt want to be touched anymore. If i try to touch her she runs off. I don want to stress her, so i dont mess with her hardly anymore. But she used to walk right into my hand and chill. I dunno whats up. Maybe its like you guys said, she has to get re-aquainted with the other female.

 

[Ambiguous_Geckos]

Eating habits vary between geckos. I currently have 12 breeding geckos all living individually in their own containers. This way I'm better able to monitor their eating habits and in doing so maintain a daily log of how many mealworms are consumed each night by each individual gecko. What I'm getting at is that if you have the geckos living together this may be hard to maintain records as well when living together geckos tend to maintain a eating order and the weaker gecko or smallest, most of the time will eat the least amount similar to a runt in a litter who is last to eat. But as well some just don't eat as much. I recommend to keep a daily log that way you can make a better decision on eating habits. Lastly gut loading helps but I would as well dust with calcium, just monitor the calcium sacs that are location just behind the front legs of the geckos to determine just how much calcium the gecko is getting. But it's always good to give breeding females more calcium due to the amount the eggs will consume.

 

[Jordan]

calcium sacs? never knew this? an actual visual way to see how much clacium theyre getting? that's handy lol