[Flash]

Hi guys, how are you? First time posting here.

I have this juvenile Tokay (about 7 months old, about 6.5 inches total length) ) and after watching him hunting for crickets I started wondering about his hunting skills. I don´t know if it is HIS problem or all juveniles tokays are just like him, but he seems to have lots of problems to "grab and hold" the cricks once he attecks them. He will go for the attack and sometimes he grabs the cricket but when he does tha shake thing the cricket gets trown away, and sometimes he can´t even grab it, it jumps away. He is with me for almost a week now, and I´m not sure if he is eating while I´m not home. Every night I feed him his first circk using a tweezer, and he will bite the crick several times before he actually grabs it, but since I´m holding the cricket, it´s not trown away. But after that, I just trow a few crickets in and watch. Yesterday was the first day I saw him grabing and swallowing a crick by his own, but that happened after a lot of attempts.

Oh well, I don´t know if there´s anything I can do to make things easier for him, or if it is just the way it is. I sometimes remove the cricket´s hind legs, but that gives them a hard time climbing the walls and the log, which is a good thing so the Tokay can spot them.
He has a Infra-red bulb on 24/7, so I dont turn the lights in the room on to feed him.

Just wanted to know if this is a common thing or not.. Any comment is very apreciated!! The link below is a pic of his enclousure (18x18x24).

Thanks guys and sorry about my english, I´m from Brazil so I don´t get to practice it everyday..

Later,
Dan

[cliff_f]

It just takes practice. You didnt come out of your mom knowing how to walk it just takes a little practice. Nothing to worry about as they get older their hunting skills will get better.

Oh, your English is pretty good. I didn't have a hard time reading it.

[Flash]

Originally Posted by cliff_f

It just takes practice. You didnt come out of your mom knowing how to walk it just takes a little practice. Nothing to worry about as they get older their hunting skills will get better.

Oh, your English is pretty good. I didn't have a hard time reading it.

Thanks Cliff! To be honest, I imagined that already, just wanted to make sure since I´m new to the Tokay world and was concerned about him getting enough food.

Thanks again!!!

[dfourer]

Regarding feeding, my experience is not with Gekko, but with two two tiny house geckos, now both gone. At first they were not such good hunters, compared to some common tree frogs, which never ever miss, and will eat anything. With time, one gecko got stronger and became a good hunter (the other died). He ate large crickets that looked too big to swallow. Also very fast. I like to see when they strike almost before the food hits the gound. Both lizzards and insects can be so fast that I really can't see it. I take that as a sign of very good health. When they fumble around, it can be hard to get them enough food to get strong again, especially if they won't take food from a tweezers. That gecko would never take food from a tweezers. I provided a lot of foliage for both geckos and insects to hide. I didn't really know how much the gecko was eating.

[aliceinwl]

My juvie tokays don't have any problem catching and subdueing their crickets. In other species I've kept, the failure to subdue prey items like you described was an early symptom of metabolic bone disease. In my experience, it usually first manifests itself as jaw weakness. As the body starts metabolizing calcium in the bones, the jaw becomes weak and the lizard will appear to have trouble holding onto or grabbing prey items. At this stage it is usually completely reversible.

I supplement all my feeders with a calcium powder containing vitamin D3 at every feeding. I've had very good luck with Rep-cal with vitamin D3. When I've dealt with lizards with metabolic bone disease, I make sure all the feeders are thickly covered with calcium. If the case is fairly advanced (can't even pick up a prey item) I will offer smaller insects than a lizard its size would normally take, I pre-kill the insects and offer them by hand or via forceps for more skittish lizards. Pre-killing allows the lizard to put its effort into swallowing the item, rather than trying to crush it with its weak jaws decreasing the chance that it will drop the prey. Offering smaller items will also make swallowing easier.

Even in mild cases, I try to hand feed or offer prey via forceps. This ensures that there are no loose feeders running around, losing their dust. If the lizard refuses even prey offered on long forceps, I'll remove the legs and offer prey one by one, ensuring each is eaten and any uneaten are promptly removed. In mild cases, the lizard usually recovers in 1 to 2 weeks. To prevent a relapse, make sure that you only feed what your lizard can consume in a sitting and remove any uneaten prey. Crickets will rapidly groom off their calcium coating so if your lizard starts subsisting off crickets that have been in the cage for awhile it is at more of a risk for metabolic bone disease.

-Alice

[cliff_f]

Originally Posted by aliceinwl

My juvie tokays don't have any problem catching and subdueing their crickets. In other species I've kept, the failure to subdue prey items like you described was an early symptom of metabolic bone disease. In my experience, it usually first manifests itself as jaw weakness. As the body starts metabolizing calcium in the bones, the jaw becomes weak and the lizard will appear to have trouble holding onto or grabbing prey items. At this stage it is usually completely reversible.

I supplement all my feeders with a calcium powder containing vitamin D3 at every feeding. I've had very good luck with Rep-cal with vitamin D3. When I've dealt with lizards with metabolic bone disease, I make sure all the feeders are thickly covered with calcium. If the case is fairly advanced (can't even pick up a prey item) I will offer smaller insects than a lizard its size would normally take, I pre-kill the insects and offer them by hand or via forceps for more skittish lizards. Pre-killing allows the lizard to put its effort into swallowing the item, rather than trying to crush it with its weak jaws decreasing the chance that it will drop the prey. Offering smaller items will also make swallowing easier.

Even in mild cases, I try to hand feed or offer prey via forceps. This ensures that there are no loose feeders running around, losing their dust. If the lizard refuses even prey offered on long forceps, I'll remove the legs and offer prey one by one, ensuring each is eaten and any uneaten are promptly removed. In mild cases, the lizard usually recovers in 1 to 2 weeks. To prevent a relapse, make sure that you only feed what your lizard can consume in a sitting and remove any uneaten prey. Crickets will rapidly groom off their calcium coating so if your lizard starts subsisting off crickets that have been in the cage for awhile it is at more of a risk for metabolic bone disease.

-Alice

I dont think his case has a thing to do with MBD. Every young hatchling I have ever had with any species usually takes a few trys to catch a cricket just because they dont have their "hunting skills" zoned in perfect. But usually within a few feedings they start nailing them. It is a simple answer that the geckos just need a few "practice runs" to get their hunting skills zoned in.

[aliceinwl]

Originally Posted by cliff_f

I dont think his case has a thing to do with MBD. Every young hatchling I have ever had with any species usually takes a few trys to catch a cricket just because they dont have their "hunting skills" zoned in perfect. But usually within a few feedings they start nailing them. It is a simple answer that the geckos just need a few "practice runs" to get their hunting skills zoned in.

I'd agree with you, but in this case the gecko is 7 months old, not a new hatchling.

-Alice

[Flash]

Originally Posted by aliceinwl

I'd agree with you, but in this case the gecko is 7 months old, not a new hatchling.

-Alice

Alice, thank you for the post.

And Cliff, thanks again.

The little guy is eating pretty good, catching cricks without any problem now. I think he just needed some time to adjust into his new home and practice a little.

Thanks again guys!