Please help

[elenisutton]

Hello,
I got a leopard gecko back in June and from the beginning he has been a very picky eater, as forewarned. He was a big boy back then but has recently dropped a lot of weight. I keep dubias as feeders and have tried mealies as well though I always keep a dish of dubias in the tank in hopes that he will eat some. The person who had him beforehand kept mealies in with him and fed him dubias at night, which I have tried to no avail though he rarely took any from the dish for me. I have tried not to handle him too much because I was also warned that he is very skittish and so I wanted to wait for him to acclimate himself to me though I feel he is at least comfortable with my presence in the fact that he does not hide from me and he does occasionally climb onto me himself when I put my hand in the terrarium. So, husbandry wise, I keep three hides: a cool one; a humid one; and a warm one. The temperature on the warm side is 91 F and the cool side is 84 F. The tank is well ventilated as it has a mesh top. I have a UVB light that stays on from 8 am to 8 pm on a timer as well as an additional heat bulb and a night light bulb that's on from 8 pm to 12 am. I clean the tank every week with one part vinegar and three parts water. I provide the feeders with potatoes and flukers brand water gel and I dust them four times a week with Calcium with D3 and leave a dish with regular unsupplemented Calcium in the terrarium at all times. He has recently liked to stay in either the humid or the cool hide, splitting the time between them roughly 50% of the time and very rarely goes into the warm one. When I first got him, he was adventurous and often came out and eventually took two to three roaches a night off of tongs (starting four months ago) and maintained his weight but two months ago he started refusing food altogether and has scarcely been taking one or two if we are lucky off of the tongs though I have been letting some run around directly in front of him to catch his attention. Sometimes he will catch interest and hunt though most of the time he will give up and refuse it even after I take it up in the tongs again and it's visibly struggling. It's been about a week since he has taken anything again and I am really starting to worry about my poor baby. The only thing I can really think of that would do this besides the changing seasons is stress from a recent move that we had almost a month ago though I do not believe that either supposition would cause this much of an impact. Here are before and after pictures:

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks beforehand!



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[JessJohnson87]

He still looks healthy and his tail is fat enough that he could be fine for a while on just his fat stores. It has been common with Leo's going off food here lately, with the wonky weather and all. I see you live in VA Beach, have you gone to Pet Paradise to pick up hornworms and try those? Mine really loves the hornworms. IMO I would take out the dish with calcium, adults don't need a dish readily available with calcium, too much is not always a good thing. Leopards don't need a UVB light, the calcium we give them has the D3 that they need to absorb the calcium, do you have any sort of under the tank heating like a pad or heat cable? How have the poops been?

Potatoes are a good snack to feed the roaches but they need a more staple diet, try some Repashy bug burger or adult bearded dragon pellets, I also feed mine the pellets and give them a collard leaf or carrots once a week. I've heard the roaches like oranges to, if you feed them a good diet, you won't have to dust with the calcium supplement very often.

 

[Neon Aurora]

I agree on taking the UV light off. They often cause stress and even damage to leopard geckos. A UTH is a must.

IMO, the weight that he is now looks way better than the weight that he was. Leopard geckos can be obese too, and it's not a good thing.

If you desire having a calcium dish in there, than it's not a problem as long as their is no D3 in it.

Potatoes are fine, but I personally like using other things. I don't think you need to buy anything commercial. I bought a 50 lb bag of wheat bran for like 10 dollars and feed my feeder colonies that along with various fruits and veggies (often carrots).

Yes, a move and weather can cause an impact. Keeping a weight log is a good idea. If he loses more than 10% of his weight in a short time, than there could be a problem. If not, then don't stress too much at this time of year.

 

[acpart]

Welcome to GF

I agree that it's not unusual in winter for geckos to eat a lot less and sometimes even lose weight. I have a male that's 10 years old and rarely eats at all between Jan-May. He usually drops about 20 grams (he's at about 80 grams now) during the winter.
I assume your 91/84 degrees are floor, not air temps. If they're air temps, they're way too hot. If they're floor temps, I also think that the cool side is too hot. There is some evidence that high air temps (and if the floor is 84, the air is probably pretty hot) can dehydrate the gecko. I'd also recommend switching from overhead lights to under tank heater, specifically the zoo-med heat cable.

Aliza