The ones that eat; the ones that don't

[acpart]

There have been a bunch of posts lately about hatchlings who aren't eating and since I've spent my hour and a half feeding all the babies (closing in on 60 now, but that's another post), it's very much on my mind. It's very clear to me that some babies catch on to eating fast, some more slowly and some REALLY slowly. I have 3 week old babies who weigh 8 grams and 2 month old babies who weigh 4 grams. I find that in general I have more trouble with the hatchlings that weigh less at birth, but this isn't always the case. Some of them just don't get the idea of eating out of the bowl (I feed mealworms) and some don't get it even when the mealworms are crawling around the tub. Now most of these guys are hungry. They're easy to hand feed. When I hold them and hand them a worm they snap it up as though they're starving. Some of them have decided that the only food dispenser in the world is my finger, or else that my finger is a really huge mealworm and the only thing worth eating. As soon as my hand comes into the tub they latch on and try to swallow me whole. I go back and forth between wanting to hand feed and wanting not to go there at all so they'll figure it out. This week, I'm back in the hand feeding mode, having found a gecko born 6/5 that still only weighs 4 grams. This gecko snapped up 5 mealworms like they were going out of style when I hand fed her.

I have had success getting hand fed geckos to eventually become independent, but it takes quite awhile, sometimes months. I actually have one from last season that I kept (another who was 4 grams at a few months old). This one is a super snow who finally, at nearly a year old, weighs 43 grams. I still often have to hold the cricket in front of her by a leg.

Anyone else, especially people with a lot of babies, going through this?

Aliza

 

[Kingofdeath]

Well with mine even if i have the mealworm in its face it wont eat. So what ive been doing is getting a needle poking the mealworm untill the guts come out and rub it on his mouth, he opens his mouth and i kinda insert the mealworm in his mouth but he also trys to attack it. Today i thought i had a break through because i rub the guts on his mouth like i usually do but nothing then it looked like he was going to attack it and he did but i tryed again and nothing.

 

[Chewbecca]

I don't know what to tell you.

I know that some of my adults (ESPECIALLY the females) have become rather spoiled by tweezer feedings.

My hatchlings?

From the first time we offer them food, we place the worms in a dish.
Sometimes 3 days would go by before they'd eat them. But they WILL eat them eventually.

I dust all worms in the repashy calcium ICB, and I *think* that might entice them somehow.
Because ALL of my hatchlings (well, all 12, I know it's not 60 :main_laugh have caught on to eating out of a dish.

They all will eat one or two from the tweezers, too.

Are you dusting worms? If not, you could try it? Maybe? The dust might have a scent that attracts them.

I've always been told to just leave the worms in a dish and that the hatchlings will eat them eventually when they are hungry enough. They'll know the food is there because they'll smell it.


I could not imagine having to feed that many hatchlings by hand. It takes me long enough to gather up enough worms for 12 hatchlings, toss them into a dusting container to dust them, and then distribute the worms equally between the 12.

I use the little plastic small dishes from superior enterprise for the hatchlings.

 

[Kristi23]

I actually start off by putting some worms in a dish and some on the floor. As they get bigger, they start eating out of the bowl easier. I do have a few that have taken a lot longer to eat, but most of mine eat a lot early on. I have one baby who likes to eat the worms from the tongs before I even get them in the bowl. It's so cute, but I don't want her to get too used to it. I also use calcium plus and rep cal.

 

[acpart]

I dust the mealworms with Repashy calcium plus. I have some geckos in the tub with mealworms both in the dish and on the floor. What worries me is when day after day goes by and there's no poop. That's my best sign that they're eating. Fortunately I don't have to hand feed all 60. The vast majority are waiting at the dish when I get to them and dive in right away. I do have faith that they'll get it, but at this point I've decided that I'm going to have to hand feed the ones who are still tiny so they get a bit of weight on them. I won't sell them till they can reliably eat by themselves.

Aliza

 

[Palor]

I have read and been told by some people that Super Snows grow much slower than other leos for some reason.

So far I have had no trouble getting any of my hatchlings to eat, seems like phoenix worms as a 1st meal tempts em too much

 

[acpart]

I have read and been told by some people that Super Snows grow much slower than other leos for some reason.

So far I have had no trouble getting any of my hatchlings to eat, seems like phoenix worms as a 1st meal tempts em too much

I have had mixed results with my super snows. At the moment I have 5 SS hatchlings:

one is about average
two are little piggies (clutchmates)
one is growing very slowly
one is too young to know yet

Most of the ones having trouble are not snows this season.

ALiza