Trouble feeding Bells, bad eyesight, bad appetite

[Alchemy]

I'm having the dangdest time trying to keep weight on my three baby Bells. I can't get them to eat mealworms and when they go for a cricket it seems 80% of the time they miss. I'm starting to think those pretty pink eyes are really a curse or something. I've been holding the crickets right to the tips of their noses so they can actually get them into their mouths, but the last couple of days two of them have been refusing to accept crickets this way and now I'm getting worried. They've got clean bills of health from the vet this morning, so now I'm stumped!

I'm pulling at straws here trying to figure out what's going on in their heads and I'm wondering if it's just the fact they've got super bad eyesight due to those eyes, and are having a hard time figuring out it's feeding time. When I drop the slurry on their noses they lap it right up, no problems. If I squish a bit of cricket gut out when I'm offering it they seem to accept it a little easier, but still not really that aggressively. I'm not offering crickets that are too big or that are dusted with anything strange tasting, in fact I've even tried offering undusted crickets to see if that changes anything and it doesn't.

Any suggestions?

 

[Gecko Ranch]

What supplement are you using? What type of set-up are you using and what are the temps? Are you using previously refridgerated mealworms or "farm fresh?"
Lotsa questions here! If you can post a photo that will answer a lot of them.

 

[johnnyboy4783]

i wonder that too about the albino eyes. I have noticed that my tremper has the same problem wiht missing the cricket and she isnt a hatchling.

 

[Alchemy]

These aren't hatchlings so much anymore, they're about three months old now. They're still small but they're not new to the idea of eating.
I farm all my own crickets, mealworms, waxworms and roaches so everything is fresh.
I use Nature Zone's total cricket bites although I've been considering going over to ProGecko's gutload. They get dusted with Rep-cal and Herptivite before feeding as well as a secondary feeding platform in the farm that provides it free range for the crickets to eat as well.
Do you want pictures of the cricket farm, the geckos, or? Heh, not sure what you're looking for there.

 

[eric]

try running a test .. light on and then off ..and see how there aim is on a wax worm or butter worm something that gives off an irresistible smell.

 

[Gecko Ranch]

I'm looking for pix of the youngster's set-ups, also temps.

Thanks for the answer on foods. Switching to Repashy Calcium Plus may help, RepCal and Herptivite do not get the same feeding response from Leopards and other Eublepharine geckos as Calcium Plus does due to the scent it has. Besides being the state of the art supplement out right now it does have that great side benefit! Allen also makes a great product for insect gutloading called "Insect Gutload," as long as we are on that subject.

I had a blind leopard gecko for some time and he never had any issues finding his mealworms. Leopards and other Eublepharine geckos depend greatly on scent - this is from recent research on the subject.

 

[Hale]

My albino seems to have trouble hunting. She is not as quick, and needs to look at the mealie longer to be certain it's food, even touching it with her nose first.

 

[Hale]

My albino seems to have trouble hunting. She is not as quick, and needs to look at the mealie longer to be certain it's food, even touching it with her nose first.

 

[johnnyboy4783]

yea i def think albino's eye site is not that great

 

[ARgeckos]

Bells eyes are sensitive to light. I feed mine late in the evening and they eat fine. Try feeding them after 9:00pm if you could. Hope that works

 

[Rejoice in the Lord]

My albino's eye sight also is not very good. He sniffs his food for a long time before striking, and then is as likely as not to miss and have to try again. Crickets he does not catch well at all. Mealworms, he shows no interest in. Superworms seem to be his favorite food.

 

[Gecko Ranch]

My albino's eye sight also is not very good. He sniffs his food for a long time before striking, and then is as likely as not to miss and have to try again. Crickets he does not catch well at all. Mealworms, he shows no interest in. Superworms seem to be his favorite food.

Superworms are probably the easiest for sight-compromised leopard geckos to be successful eating on a regular basis.

 

[BettaDragon]

I'm probably going to say the exact opposite here. When my bell was a baby she was a better hunter than my normal. What I might try though is making sure a little guts from everything they eat is squished out because they may be able to smell it better that way. What I do when one of mine go on an eating strike is I count the mealworms in their dish, just leave the dish out and count them everyday. I normally find they're eating a lot more than they'd like me to think.

 

[Firewind]

I don't have any experience with bells, but we're having the same problem with our patternless, he just seems to miss all the time with crickets, even meal worms some times.

What I have started to do with good success is to put the meal worm down on the ground about 1 or 2 inches in front of him, and poke at the meal worm to make it wiggle like crazy. he'll then see it and be strike at it. I also noticed he's easily spooked. So I make sure my movements are slow when I put the meal worm in the cage. I also don't let the meal worm touch him or touch it to his nose, if it does he suddenly won't want to eat it. I also now only feed him with the red bulb glowing and that helps out a little too.