Question.....

[Reptis]

Hi i recently joined and need some help with my gecko so here goes...
i bought a gecko at petco and he has been eating a LOT and i know they practically starve them but i am worried about him getting a buildup of stuff to be digested. he is in reptile carpet with a half log with some papertowels and that acts as his humid hide and a buch of other stuff and has been poping steadly but his food has almost tripled since i got him (note his sex is currently unknown) and is about 3,4 months old and as fat as a butterball turkey. he has a diet of crickets mainly, with mealworms in a dish and eats like,16 crickets and 8 mealworms a day without throwing up. the temps are like 85-90 in the morning and 85-82 at night. i have had him for 4 days now and his food went from 1-3 bugs (petco) 4-6 (1st day) 6-9 (2nd day) 9-16 (3rd) and 10-12 (yesterday) so help would be appriciated. he is verry active and has all the signs of a healthy gecko and i don't think he is constipated even though he was on sand at the petstore. i will get pics up soon as i yeild my camera into submition.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

Is he pooping?

 

[ajveachster]

If you believe your gecko may be over indulging in his/her bugs you can limit the amount it gets in one day by only allowing it 15 minutes to 30 minutes to eat. Once that time is up you can remove the leftovers. The other thing you can do is change to feeding every other day. Their bodies are designed to store a lot of what they eat, so the little one won't starve if not fed every single day. I only mention this because you said it was starting to look roly-poly which I'm guessing means the weight is all in the body, not in the tail. If you do change to feeding every other day do not be alarmed if it starts going potty only every other day. It's all a matter of timing between what goes in and what comes out.

 

[Pinky81]

your temps seem alittle low. you Hot side should be above 90. Mine is more like 93degrees with my cool side being room temp. How are you measuring the temps? and what is your substrate currently?

I remember when I first got my leo's they ate like PIGS! A growing leo can eat alot! You should also be sure to have a dish of Calcium powder in the Viv at all times while your little one grows!!

 

[LeopardShade]

You seem to have gotten lucky with a gecko at Petco. I generally do not approve of how Petco raises geckos (sand, etc.), but with what you've described, yours seems pretty healthy. A good appetite is a great sign.
If I were you, my main concern would be that the gecko is not impacted. If she is defecating on a regular basis, I would say that she is okay.
I, like the member above me recommended, would cut the feeing down to every other day to prevent obesity.

 

[Reptis]

yeah i was lucky. i went there yesterday and i am glad i got the one i did when i did. as 4 my temps, they are arround 92 at the highest. i am having issues with the crickets as he usually eats them up in seconds but the crickets i got are like tiny as in pinheads and the larges were like the size of his head. i am going to buy all my crickets online soon cuz he eats so many and hopefully i could get some mediums that would work. it is so cute whenever i drop a big one in there he snaps 2 attention and it lasts no more than 5 seconds. the tiny ones are a real problem cuz they slip under the carpet and hide and are so flippin fast! he can't get to them unless i half crush them and they are still fast. i think ill heat things up a little so they can get big quick.(wish my fish were bigger.)

 

[Reptis]

my temps are measured by a didgital thermomiter.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

Welcome to GF. Glad you're having good luck with your gecko

I see that you're in Jax, are you a member of the Jax Herp Society? If not, I would like to invite you and your family to attend a meeting, it's the first Sunday of every month at the MOSH downtown. 3-5pm. There's others your age that even bring their pets to show off. Here's our website: http://jaxherp.com/

 

[Reptis]

thanks! it will really depend in the time as we go to church on sun.

 

[Dog Shrink]

Have you tried any other feeders for your leo aside of crix? Maybe something like superworms?

 

[LeopardShade]

I do not feed crickets, as I find them stressful and irritating to geckos. They are often very hard to catch. It's also a pain keeping them with all their noise and smell. But that is strictly my opinion, many breeders raise their geckos on a staple of crickets and they do incredible, but I just prefer mealworms. They're easier to maintain and feed.

 

[Theinfidel]

Amen to that.

 

[smsararas2]

I find that some of my leos seem to enjoy "the hunt of crickets, but some of th others do not like the crickets around them at all. I just feed crickets tot he ones that like the hunt and the others I just feed mealies.

 

[Pinky81]

the temps are like 85-90 in the morning and 85-82 at night.

your hot side temps shouldn't vary...it should stay a steady 92-93 do you have your digital thermo on the viv floor in your hot hide where your leo is laying??

also have you actually weighed your leo?? with a digital gram scale? from my experiece with petco's leo they are all basically babies.

 

[Reptis]

i use mealworms to as supers ar 2 expensive. (i have to buy everything myself)

 

[Reptis]

the thermomiter is like 1 1/2 in above the floor on the front left side of the tank. he usually hangs out under this 2 way ramp thingy i got from wal-mart but i don't want to put it under there cuz it blocks the basking bulb beam (say that 3 times fast! lol) and he divides his time between the humid half-log and that. i am also a little worried cuz i haven't seen im drink when as 4 my other leo he drank all the time. smsararas2, he loves to hunt and it is soo cute when he does!

 

[Reptis]

he is a baby and u have been wanting to weigh him for the absence of a scale...

 

[Dog Shrink]

You don't need a basking bulb just an under tank heater to make your heat gradient. Belly heat is what is important to leos not overhead heat. Plus if your basking light puts off a uv value it will stress your leo. Your temp probe should be directly on the floor of the tank for most accurate readings, and a degree swing or 2 from day to night isn't horrid. Mine goes down a bit at night too simply because the ambient room temp goes down after sunset. You'll actually go thru more mealies to feed an adult leo than you would superworms. I feed Eros who will be 1 year old in march 1-3 superworms per feeding 3x a week. He'd eat twice that much with mealies plus ingesting all that extra shell isn't good for them imo. I also don't like crix... nasty lil boogers they are.

 

[Reptis]

I already said i use mealworms as well as crickets. do any of u have any tips on how to make crickets grow faster??? he hasen't been eating the crix 'cuz he's to smart to waste his time on tiny ones and all i have are tiny ones. he won't eat from the mealworm dish either but they are gone in seconds if i throw them in front of where he is hidin'. also what are the signs of mites?? as he's got tiny black spots and his legs and feet as well as some of his back is more grey than anything.

 

[Reptis]

i don't have an under tank heater, will a heating pad work for now? thanks for the info dawg.