Stubborn eater

[Hotpeon]

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After getting my first leopard gecko a while ago I noticed that he only eats when he can hunt the prey down. After both of us getting used to that routine he would chomp down at least 10 mealworms or crickets per day. Now I've got a decent number of dubia roaches and he absolutely loves them but the problem is that they tend to stand still/burry after I chuck them into my bioactive terrarium. The 'problems' began last month around 28th as he was shedding. His appetite wasn't the same, he wouldn't eat mealworms anymore as he would just check what's moving and lick it and be done with it. He won't eat from tongs or from my hand (he's not afraid of me, he just seems to like prey running around) so I just have to chuck in some extra dubia (10-12) since he doesn't catch all of them in one night and I want him to catch as many as possible. Today I got fed up with dubia hiding in there and reintroduced a feeding dish into his enclosure. He was intrigued by the movement but still only ate one and went back to his hide. After some time I checked on him and he still hasn't eaten from the dish but still ate when I threw a few in front of him (he's not able to catch them all so a few always end up buried in his hide). I'm not worried about his health yet since he's very active, is pooping every few days and generally seems in great shape but I always see that other geckos chomp on everything that's moving and would overeat if they could.

I'm sorry for the long description but I'd really like to know if that should be worrying me or if some leos are just like that.

[acpart]

I find that some leos are worse than toddlers when it comes to food. He may be more willing and able to eat if you put him in a separate enclosure to eat or if you block off part of his enclosure (and remove the furniture temporarily) so it's harder for his food to hide.

Aliza

[Hotpeon]

He may be more willing and able to eat if you put him in a separate enclosure to eat

That's what I'm going to try next He likes the handling but doesn't really like when I put him inside something other than his enclosure but I guess he'll have to get used to it

[SpottedDragon]

My male will rarely eat from a dish. He doesn't like to be hand fed either. So I have to feed him one at a time when he is in his hide. The bugs can't immediately get out of it and so he grabs them. Some days he eats 5-10, some days he eats one. My female is fully dish trained but has a similar thing with the dubia. She interested if they move but immediately losses interest if they stop moving.

[GizmoDaGecko]

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I have one male that will eat anything anytime, in a bowl, loose it doesn’t matter. He eats mealworms, dubia, soldier fly larvae, crickets, isopods literally anything.

I have a female that’s the opposite, she refuses to eat crickets or dubia. I have put 6 in her enclosure and literally 2 weeks later found all 6, 4 alive 2 dead. I repeated this with 6 crickets or dubia or a mix, each week, she did not eat a single one in 2 months!!! I finally caved and put 4 meal worms in her bowl and she ate them over night.

I have tried dubia and soldier fly larva and she will refuse to eat for months! I do my best with supplements and she is over 5 years old and so far is healthy but she is a pain. She will very reluctantly eat the soldier fly larvae but only 1 or 2 a week. Her enclosure is 20 long properly set up warm side under tank heater with thermostat, cool side hide with water, moist hide in the middle. I have tried changing temps more hides, less hides, different substrate tile, paper towels, repti carpet she just flat out is the pickiest pain in the butt.