Only eating at night

[Stonewal]

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Around 3 weeks ago my gecko (approx 6 months old) just stopped eating, having been engulfing 10 crickets a day prior to that. I waited a few days before taking her to the vet as she was also looking a little sluggish. Poop sample later and she's all clear for parasites and I was given some liquid food to try her with. Now she ate the food with about as much ease as expected and only refused it as she was coming to shed.

She did eat her shed and after that, I thought maybe it might 'kickstart' her appetite. She is eating again, around 8-10 crickets if I had to guess, however she will not eat off tongs anymore. Beforehand I would let the cricket go right in front of her and shed strike at it, now she seems to prefer having them in there and hunting them throughout the night.

I'm nervous doing this because unless I completely strip her enclosure each morning I cant guarantee she's eating right and I'm worried about leaving the live food overnight. Any advice on getting her back to eating off tongs?

[acpart]

If you think about it, the natural way for geckos to eat is to hunt their food. It provides mental stimulation, exercise and enrichment. Geckos are variable in terms of how much they eat, and as your gecko moves from being a juvenile to an adult, it may eat less often (I feed my 30 or so leopard geckos twice a week) and go through periods where it eats less in general, or even when it doesn't eat at all. This is normal. I've had geckos fast for weeks or more and be just fine. Some people say that it's important to remove all the feeders that haven't been eaten in 15 minutes. I don't do this and with one exception years ago, have never had a problem with feeders bothering the geckos. Consider letting your gecko hunt (the tongs are probably too boring to it at this point) and not worrying too much about exactly how much it's eating. As long as it remains active and the tail isn't visibly getting smaller, it's fine.

Aliza

[Elizabeth Freer]

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Welcome aboard, Stonewal!

An intermediate feeding method between tongs and free-range feeding is to use bowls. The glass tealight holder sold in the USA is very sturdy. I use 8 ounce, clear glass, Anchor-brand storage containers as some of my geckos' food dishes. Sometimes, depending upon the gecko, I add a stone "stepstool" up to the dish's rim.

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