Holodactylus baby

[vavavoomy]

temp is 85 warm end and 75 cool end and it is more moist at the cool end than the warm end, yea Brian the info was indeed a collection of what you were given by other, but I guess this is how further info builds up, and maybe I am just lucky one has hatched

Keeping it alive, well thats a different matter, still not eaten, but it id very active moving around in it s burrows a lot

 

[modoki]

Congrats to this success !!!

I haven't seen your post before. I would suggest to offer your baby a mixture of banana, crushed calcium D3 pills and water.
Try to put a drop of it on it's mouth or nose two times a day and make the mixture thicker each time once the gecko starts licking it. So you will be sure it gets something in it's belly before it starts hunting crickets. I had similar issues on most of my Holodactylus hatchlings.

Best wishes

Thomas

 

[vavavoomy]

thanks for the info Thomas, thats fantastic, I will give that a go tonight when its dark. I have just moved the the baby's box to a cooler part of the house, but it is on a heatmat next to a juvie cornsnake, with no way of it seeing the snake. I did wonder if it could smell a predator and hence is keeping itself hidden??

I have fresh bananas but only have pure calcium. I don't have any D3 but there is usually a capsule of the stuff in the tub of Nutrobal vitamin powder, should I not put some vits in the mixture too? . Also I have some t-rex hydro-life drops and wondered if it would be worth trying the lil un with those too mixed in with the slurry too?

I'm on a mission to keep the lil un alive now and watch it grow and thrive. I think there is a good possibility one of my adult females has gone as I only ever see my lil male and huge female out and about. Incidentally the lil female was bought originally by a friend and then i took her off her hands so she has only been with me for about 4 months. I guess I will just have to hope she appears sometime and proves me wrong

Off topic somewhat, I dont know why but a lot of the UK leo owners seem to think I am successful at breeding, because I had leos breed for the first time last year and hatched 15 out of 17 eggs laid by the 2 gravid female, spose I must just be lucky, but I never candled any of the eggs and never bothered them much either when they were incubating

 

[modoki]

I wouldn't put too many different vitamins into the mixture. Just make sure the little one will take on the banana which obtains enough vitamins for the beginning. Once it is used to it you can add other things, but usually it will catch legless dusted crickets within a week or so.

Cheers

Thomas

 

[vavavoomy]

cool thanks, i just gotta try to unearth it without frightening it half to death and watch it dig itself back underground. at least i know where it is as its on the bottom of the box at the far cool end

 

[vavavoomy]

well i took modoki's advice and made up a slurry of banana, water, calcium and a teeny tiny bit of vits cos i had no D3, really just a few of the fine granules of nutrobal (hope i dont overdose the lil thing), i gently unearthed the baby holo and coaxed it into feeding from my baby finger, off my hand (easier than trying to feed it in box plus it was less likely to get sand over the food).

It took a bit of coaxing but after a few mins it started to lick the mix and then couldnt get enough. every so often it would make a yawning action but it really stuffed its little face.....managed to get some pics but they arent very good so am posting the best one.......hopefully it will still be alive tomorrow morning, and i will continue this till i can see it strong enouh to tackle crix

thank you all for your support and advice

 

[vavavoomy]

well an update the baby ate again last night but im not sure it really likes the banana, as it will eat some and then make a clicky noise and open its mouth really wide............I was wondering if i could feed it organic baby food in some meat flavour and supplement it with vits and calcium........i cant get my hands on D3 unfortunately

 

[Kevin McRae]

Congrats again. If the baby is feeding, especially hand feeding I see it surviving. Throw some small crickets in, I'm sure it will gulp them down.

 

[SelectGex]

That's awesome! Best of luck with it.

 

[vavavoomy]

cheers peeps, yes i am much more hopeful......last night after i fed the lil un i put it back in a different box, with more areation hols so the condensation problem has been solved (dont want it to get a resp infection)

It now had a lil water dish made from a milk bottle lid with some sterilised stones in the bottom, to stop it falling in and drowning. It still doesnt seem overly happy with the banana, tho it will eat it it is still opening its mouth wide and making the clicking noise.

The substrate is a bit deeper in this box and its doesnt feel the need to bury itself right to the bottom now.....bad for me tho cos now I have no idea where it is to dig it up at feeding time....oh well i will just have to take a bit longer, start from the cool end and work my way towards the warmer end, bound to find it eventually, trouble is doing that scares the poor lil thing. Mebbe if I do this at the same time each night, it will get used to the process and hopefully will soon realise I am not something scary that wants to eat it. Also the surface temps are now much lower with them being 80F at the warm end and 67F at the cool end, however the temps near the bottom of the substrate at the warm end is obviously higher due to thge under tank heat mat with it being 85F, towards the middle the temps is 79F.....are these cold end temps too cold by any chance? Mind you it isnt stupid it will burrow towards the required temp, so praps I am fretting for nothing

 

[baldygit]

hows the little guy doing ?