Young Fat Tail reluctant to eat mealies?

[Fallupinreverse]

Hello all. I recently bought a Fat Tail from Nick at Lecko My Gecko, she is about a month and half old I believe. Well for the last few days I've been feeding her crickets, much to my chagrin. I picked crickets up at the reptile show that I went to, but only got about 20 or so of them. Well she ate about 10 during the last few days, and the other died. I'm sure I did something wrong while trying to keep them, but as of right now that's not the issue, as I don't like crickets anyway.

Anywho, I bought some mealies for her today and put one in the cage to see if she'd be interested. She showed a small amount of interest, more of a curiosity than anything, then walked away. At first I thought maybe it's because she's accustomed to eating at night, so I waited til 8:30 pm to give her another one and still she showed very little response. I've got refrigerated meal worms but I made sure to pick a particularly active one because I know that could play a role. I really would prefer mealies as the main part of her diet, especially while she's this young and is awkward while hunting the crickets. Is this normal? Is there a way for me to try and transition her over to mealies?

I'm much more comfortable with meal worms for some reason. I'm not much of an insect guys, and I had a terrible time trying to track down just a couple of them to put in the cage with her (Since I don't want to give her too much). I'd really appreciate some feedback on this - I hope this is the right forum for it, I know that there's a feeding/feeder section for Leo's and I might repost it there just to be sure I get a response.

 

[acpart]

Most fat tails don't seem to eat mealworms.

Aliza

 

[Fallupinreverse]

I've never read that before, there's no way around that?

 

[spykerherps]

ya mine wont touch regulars or supers can't get them to eat em. but then in the same instance they will gobble up crickets and roaches so I know they are hungry. they just have a preference.

 

[THE WHISPERER]

The only Fattails I have that will eat mealies are the ones I hatched. Maybe cause they don't know any better. but I couldn't get the rest to switch either.

 

[Fallupinreverse]

So even though she's still so very young there's not much of a chance?

 

[Emyo101]

yeah mine seem to only go for the crickets...unfortunately...i hate those things. my one seems to be interested in supers but he's still a tad too small for them. the others wont go anywhere near worms.

 

[Gecko Galaxy]

Have you tried prescenting the worms with the crickets scent. I have had success with this with my fattys. There is a product called cricket maker out there for the use of scenting food items I cant vouche for the product but i am getting some this week so i can prescent roaches for my fatties, i will let you all know how it comes out. What i did with my mealies, i took a cricket and smeared its guts all over the mealworm, and it seemed to well over strike the interest of my fatty and they ate it up.

 

[lpcad]

My fatties won't touch meal worms, phoenix worms or wax worms. my female will sometimes on rare occasion eat a super, but not very often.
They eat crickets everyday and go crazy over pinkies. I give my female pinkies after she lays eggs and without fail the male tries to steal it/them away.

 

[Emyo101]

recently i tried rubbing the cricket scent on some mealies and giving to the baby fatty i have and it worked! he took them all immediately after i did that but he wouldn't touch them before. older fatties would probably be more reluctant to take them with the scent though but idk...

 

[Dan K.]

another for only crix's and every 3-5 month's a pinkie. I know only fat but gotto put weight on him somehow.

 

[GroovyGeckos.com]

You have to feed Fatties worms from the start, or it is pretty hard to switch them over. It is possible, but takes time, and you can not be afraid of "starving" your gecko. I say it like that, because they will not even come close to starving, even if it takes a few weeks for them to get hungy enough to try the worms. I know we all pretty much like to "baby" our animals. Just don`t give in, they will have to eat eventually.