Hatchling weight gain

[sarahjane85]

Has anyone kept weight data -- hatchling to jv.? Mine has increased 0.2g since hatching, Dec. 1, and this gain was within the first 2 weeks. It has since remained steady at 1.9g. I'm thinking about increasing the amount fed from 3 to 4 - 1/2" crickets EOD.

Thanks,
Sarah.

 

[GenAureliano]

I feed my baby geckos as much as they want to eat. No extra food in the cage, but other than that I don't artifically limit their diet. However I only offer food 2-3 times a week. I have noticed that the babies take quite some time to put on weight especially here in the cooler months. Unless you have a really great scale which gives you 0.01g increments 0.1 to 0.2g don't mean very much at all as the error in the scale is 0.1g Basically your gecko could be anywhere from 0.1 to 0.3 grams heavier since original weight (pretty large error)

In short if it will eat more crickets then feed it more, just don't have lots of extra crickets running around the cage for days. Also I would be feeding a month old cat gecko 1/4" crickets not 1/2"

When I get home I will reweigh my geckos and let you know how much they have grown in a 4 or 6 weeks.

Hope this helps.

 

[kenya_1977]

I agree that it takes some time for these guys to really put on weight. I wouldn't expect more than 0.1g per month. Some of these guys will start at a really high hatch weight and then lose a little. Plus, these guys are so small, it really makes a difference on when you weigh them. If they have just defecated, that's probably 0.1g there.

I think there is a point to where they will start gaining weight quickly. I wouldn't really expect a rapid weight gain until they are past the 3-5 month period.

You can feed them as much as they will eat, but I think you'll find that they really only want to eat EOD at best. I've simply found that mine won't really eat more than 3 times a week (especially if I'm doing roaches, they tend to like crickets a lot better). What I've actually been doing is gradually increasing the prey size rather than number of items. I pick each cricket or roach out by hand (tweezer).

I weighed one of each of my three hatched clutches. The oldest is 4 months 1.89g, the next is 3 months 1.68g.. the last is almost 2 months 1.58g (this scale is to the 0.0000).