what when where why how

[sawyers]

i need to know all of these! i have a new hatchling and he only eats about 3 crickets before he loses interest and he wont touch a mealworm. i find the smallist crickets i have a drop them in front of him and like i said he will eat about 3 and then just wander off i dust them as well can you just tell me how you feed them please thanks

 

[GeckoMandi]

You don't have to give hatchlings the smaller crickets I give them ones about the size of their heads and they do just fine, same goes for mealies to. I think they have trouble finding the pinheads. Hatchlings can get stressed WAY easier than bigger geckos I've noticed to a lot more jumpy.

How old is the hatchling? What are your temps?

Sometimes they can take up 7 days before they even touch their first meal, I had one that didn't eat for that long and now she's a fat plump thing.

 

[ledhead]

For size they'll happily tackle most things you think might be big.

Took me a bit to adjust (still adjusting) to my young one. My gecko has figured out that "the big hand in the sky = food" so he'll come out of his hide and start
looking around. When he goes head first in his hide or lays down and closes eyes he's done. A thing that might help with mealies is, get a good soft freshly molted
one. I will drop the worm/cricket right down on the tile when he's facing the general direction, a good 3-4 inches away so he gets a look at them moving.

He'll chase after crickets soon as he gets a good look at them moving.
Normal mealies he'll sneak up on them but wont hit them till they move a couple times.
The white (fresh molted) mealies, he sees them he's eating them. it twitches it's lunch. They are very soft and will actually hold a bit of dust.

If I drop a normal and a white he'll hit the white and then do the wait thing on the other.

back to size... I was using "small" mealies as I was worried the normals were to big. I got to the point he was eating about 6-12 mealies + 6 smallish crickets a night.
Plus there were always about at least 4 more gone out of the dish by morning.

Last night started giving normal size and he's all over them. put down 4 normal about 4 small and 3 crickets. this is all at about 3-4 months...
he's probably doubled in size last 4 weeks and shed twice. Knowing what i know now I'd maybe use small mealies for the first week (if at all)
just to get him eating them then switch to normals. With the small leave them at room temp with food and some veggies or fruit and they will
molt quickly giving a number of white mealies to tempt them with.

I'm limited on my size options for crickets where I'm at. small or full grown. anything smaller then 1/4 inch he has a harder time catching.
Over 1/4 he's in the zone. I don't think I've gotten anything up to 1/2 yet but i think he'd do just fine with it after watching him crunch up the rest of the things.

I was a tad worried about the normal mealies then he ate 5 + crickets so I'll assume he's good with them. he seems to like things that put up a fight.
When he gets a feisty cricket or work he seems to hit the next one a little harder. He snagged the back legs of a cricket and seemed bored with it after that...

 

[eyelids]

Take my advice... With the next hatchling DO NOT offer crickets until they're 20+ grams... You'll find your geckos growing faster and they'll be much better feeders!

 

[GeckoMandi]

Take my advice... With the next hatchling DO NOT offer crickets until they're 20+ grams... You'll find your geckos growing faster and they'll be much better feeders!

You are right I forgot to mention I don't even offer mine even at 20 grams, I give them mealworms from the start and usually they don't want cricks when they get bigger which is fine with me, I hate crickets! lol

 

[acpart]

I leave a bowl of mealies in the enclosure once my hatchlings have shed and pooped. At first I go with the smaller mealies, but once they're "in business" I go to regular size. Most of the time, it seems as if they've taken very few mealies the first few days and then I start waking up to empty bowls. I keep clutchmates together, but if they get too different in size I either separate or re-combine them. Occasionally I have a hatchling that doesn't seem to be gaining that fast. One option would be for me to put it by itself and count the mealies before and after but I'm a bit limited by space. I make sure it's housed with another the same size and will often "help" it eat by holding it and gently pushing a melaworm against its mouth. Pretty much all of mine that were slow starters caught on to this and got more independent (and fat) fairly quickly.

Aliza