Young pregnant female losing weight

[ForTozs]

I have a 35g female which unfortunately mated earlier than I intended. I witnessed her mating and I believe I see eggs. I just purchased her (and a male) and I haven't witnessed her eating her mealworms. My male is an absolute pig, and I wonder if he's out-competing her for food. The male is about the same size as her. I have seen her around the food bowl and seeming interested in the food. So I was hoping she was just a shy eater. By the way, she was a cricket eater, and I have been trying to feed her mealworms. I have kept track of her weight. These are the results:

June 11 - 34.8 g
June 18 - 35.3 g
June 29 -34.1 g

I thought she was eating in secret when I saw weight gain the first week, but now I wonder if it was just a normal fluctuation in water weight. Is it normal for a female to lose weight during pregnancy. I know reproduction takes an animals energy allocation, but this doesn't seem healthy to me. I feel bad for pairing her with a male at such a young age, and don't want her to be unhealthy. Does anybody with any experience know what I should do?

 

[ForTozs]

Well I guess I can simplify (hopefully) the question a little, since I just witnessed her eat a mealworm. I guess all I can do is keep an ample supply of mealworms available at all times and cross my fingers. I've been putting 16 gutloaded mealworms in every two days (dusted every other time), and they're usually gone by the next day. I'm thinking it might just be time to increase the number of mealworms I'm feeding.

 

[acpart]

Many females nearly stop eating in the day or so before they lay and then are really hungry soon after they lay. This may be what's going on. In any case, I highly recommend that you separate her from the male (so you don't provide her with more sperm to store and produce even more eggs) and vary your feeders to include something like crickets or superworms. It can work in many cases to switch a gecko to a feeder that the owner prefers, but during a gravid period, especially if it's an undersized gecko, is not the time to do this.

Good luck with her.

Aliza

 

[ForTozs]

Thanks, I'll try and feed her crickets this weekend.

 

[RampantReptiles]

Some females can be very picky when they are pregnant, just like pregnant women. They only want to eat certain things and a gecko that favors crickets would probably prefer her favorite food during this time.
I have a gecko I have had 6 years now. I raised her on crickets and she definitely prefers them to mealworms. I did not breed her but she lays eggs every year anyways. During this time she wont eat at all many times. Or will only eat crickets. Sometimes wont even eat waxworms which are her absolute favorite because all she wants is crickets.
Definitely take the male out, men just complicate things and stress women out!