Leopard gecko not eating

Brennen0301 · #1 12-15-2011, 01:51 PM

Need some help. We recently bought a leopard gecko from a pet store for my 6 year old son. We have him in a 10gallon tank with sand on the bottom, always a clean water dish meal worms, and crickets. We also have his calcium in a small cap as well.We get his tank up to 80 at least during the day using a day light a red night light and also a under tank heating pad. We have started to notice that he is not eating anything. He does come out from his hide out during the day and night and seems to drink is water, and he also walks around. We are just worried that the crickets and worms don't seem to be going away. Any idea or help would be greatly appreciated.
Amy

Harley_Davidson · #2 12-15-2011, 01:57 PM

How long have you had him/her? I know when I get a new gecko quite often they won't eat during that settling in period as they get used to the new sights, sounds and smells. Usually what I will do is cut a kingworm in half (ok gonna get gross LOL) and squeeze it a bit so the insides come out. I rub it on the geckos nose and they lick it off. Takes a few times but before you know it all of a sudden they are eating.

Brennen0301 · #3 12-15-2011, 02:02 PM

We got him last weekend. He just seems to sleep all the time crickets crawl over him and he just sits there.

Harley_Davidson · #4 12-15-2011, 02:04 PM

I know my one little girl probably went two weeks without eating.....scared the day lights out of me..... now she eats like a trooper.

Brennen0301 · #5 12-15-2011, 02:06 PM

Ok so should I not worry yet? I would just feel awful for my son if he dies it was an early Xmas gift for him

Harley_Davidson · #6 12-15-2011, 02:11 PM

Watch the tail, its the tail tell sign so to speak. Try different feeders as well. I change mine up now between crickets and kingworms. I don't feed meal worms cause everything I've read I would prefer to feed kings or chopped up supers.

Do you handle it much? After about a week I usually start slowly handling mine, 5 minutes for a couple days then build on it so they gain your trust.

cricket4u · #7 12-15-2011, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brennen0301

Need some help. We recently bought a leopard gecko from a pet store for my 6 year old son. We have him in a 10gallon tank with sand on the bottom, always a clean water dish meal worms, and crickets. We also have his calcium in a small cap as well.We get his tank up to 80 at least during the day using a day light a red night light and also a under tank heating pad. We have started to notice that he is not eating anything. He does come out from his hide out during the day and night and seems to drink is water, and he also walks around. We are just worried that the crickets and worms don't seem to be going away. Any idea or help would be greatly appreciated.
Amy

Sand is not for the novice keeper so please remove the sand and put in sheets of paper towels until you can buy slate tiles or reptile carpet. Do you have a thermometer with a probe? If not you will need one to check the temperatures. It is normal for reptiles not to eat for a while until they adjust to their new environment. However it's possible he is not eating due to inappropriate temperatures. One side of the tank should be around 77(cool side) 90-95f warm side floor right above the heat mat. He also needs one bottle of Calcium with D (phosphorus free) and another of Calcium without D.
Also a Multivitamin supplement. You can keep a small bottle of PLAIN calcium in the tank. Then dust the crickets with Calcium with D only 2-3 times a week. Multivitamins 2 times a week assuming he is young. If he does not eat the crickets within 15 minutes remove them. If not they can chew on your gecko and stress him out. He needs at least 2 hides, one on each end. One humid hide. This should cover basic needs just incase you were unaware and just keep offering food once a day. Avoid handling for at least 2 weeks. Just give him some time and hopefully he will begin eating soon.

Mardy · #8 12-15-2011, 02:30 PM

A few things you should take care of. I can tell you were sold something from the pet store because the husbandry is totally wrong for a leopard gecko.

1. Leopard geckos require belly heat, so you will want to purchase an under-tank heating pad. You want to buy one that would cover 1/3 of your tank, and stick it under the tank. I have an example of how you can get it setup correctly here.

Leopard geckos in general don't like bright light, they are crepuscular or nocturnal, so they come out at night only. While basking lights can work, I really wouldn't recommend using them for a novice gecko owner. So I would get rid of the day light, and purchase an undertank heating pad. You can keep the red light for night time viewing purposes if you wish, that's optional. Leopard geckos do not require basking light during the day, they'd much prefer to sleep during the day.

*EDIT* Just read more carefully you do have an under tank heating pad, so you should be fine once you switch out the sand.

The ideal temperature on the ground where they lay on needs to be between 90-95 degrees. If your temperature is only 80, it would make perfect sense why your gecko is not eating or moving around. It's too cold for them. To test the temperature properly you would need to use either a digital thermometer with a probe, or a temperature gun. Those stick on thermometers only tell you air temperature, which isn't as important as knowing the belly temperature where they lay on. Buying an undertank heating pad should take care of the heating needs for them.

2. Sand is bad, it's a loose substrate that could cause impaction. Impaction would make your gecko not want to eat, and even go as far as dying due to it. I know there are other leopard gecko owners that do use sand, but again, it's never something I would recommend. Why risk it when you could use much safer, cleaner, and better looking slate/ceramic tiles? So first thing I would suggest is to take the sand out, completely clean the tank out. Then put ceramic/slate tiles in there, or paper towels if you can't buy some tiles just yet. You will feel better knowing your gecko will not ever get impacted by loose substrate such as sand.

3. When feeding crickets, never leave crickets in the cage for longer than an hour. Always observe the feeding, and if the gecko does not eat the crickets, take them out. Crickets can cause your gecko stress, they can also injure your gecko by biting their soft spots like their toes & eyes. Stress can cause your gecko great harm, it's one of the #1 causes for them to not eat or have a shorter lifespan.

If you take a picture of your tank setup, folks here can help you with suggestions and advices. Good luck. The good thing is you are here asking questions, that's always a great first step

Brennen0301 · #9 12-15-2011, 07:07 PM

Thanks for all the advice. We took all sand out of the tank and have laid down paper towels until we can get to the pet store. We have his house over the heating pad is this ok? He has stayed out of the house and has been under a branch that we have in tank for him. Could it be to hot now? The only thermometer we have is the stick on one we have actually resting just outside his house sitting on floor it is reading 82.
Thanks again

Mardy · #10 12-15-2011, 07:50 PM

It's hard to say if it's too hot or not without testing the floor temperature. Also for the hides you use, make sure your gecko can feel safe in it. They like tight fitting hides without a lot of big holes or openings from all sides, etc.. The quicker your gecko can feel safe, the quicker he may get around to eating and feeling more comfortable moving around.

But it's important to know the floor temperature. The hotspot needs to be 90-95 degrees. You can sit a hide over it no problem. You could also set the hide in a way that half of it sits over the UTH warm spot, half of it out. This would give your gecko a temperature gradient to allow the gecko to move around and get comfortable on his own.