Leopard Gecko: Soon to be new owner - Heating Query.
- Thread starter Zux
- Start date
Zux
New member
Thanks Elizabeth but sadly yes, I went even further in fact and gave them a warm shower every day for a week to try and remove whatever odor she clearly found so distasteful but no joy, ah well, I will try her on them again when she is a little older perhaps. 13/14 aint bad I guess :lol:.
Last edited:
Zux
New member
Quite honestly you will struggle to convince them to if they outright refuse, but there are some things you can try.
Make sure the new insect is of either a slower moving or at least a similar moving speed as the insect she is currently eating as it is the change which puts them off in many such cases.
Try to get her to eat something she is likely to really love if she does try something new, a wax-worm for example. This way she will be more motivated to try it rather than switch from cricket to roach for instance.
Once she is eating more than that single insect type she was eating the problem will be far lessened and she should be more inclined to try new things you offer from then on.
Good Luck !
Zux
New member
You or others might find these interesting reading Jess
Silkworm Care Sheet -
Benefits of Silkworms -
JessJohnson87
New member
I'll do some reading. Thanks Shane!
Looks like my router will be of some use with the silkworms :biggrin:
Looks like my router will be of some use with the silkworms :biggrin:
Last edited:
Zux
New member
Yea we are lucky in that regard, I had read it to be common for Leo's to refuse Phoenix Worms but they are very nutritional to I deemed it well worth the risk to buy a batch and try them out. It for sure seems to be something to do with the smell because she wouldn't even lick them to check them out and they have literally no odor to me (and my sense of smell is strong).
I'll be honest though, if I had to choose one insect not to breed it would be the BSF. So in that small way i'm glad she wasn't keen. Because that was one colony I could do without for many reasons !!
JessJohnson87
New member
Yeah it seems really complicated to breed them indoors. Outdoors, you could throw them in a compost bin and BOOM phoenix worms.
Zux
New member
Yea and outside is unfortunately not possible in this climate :biggrin:.
JessJohnson87
New member
Well not right now with it being cold, duh. Maybe during the warmer months, yeah lol
Elizabeth Freer
Well-known member
/\ Click to enlarge this nutrition chart which is referenced in Shane's links.
Elizabeth Freer
Well-known member
On the other hand after eating her first two decapitated Phoenix worms, my 12.5 yo Ptychozoon kuhli would tolerate NO more. As much as I tried, she won......flinging the PWs hither and yon! Neither my chirping gecko nor my crestie went for PWs either. 
:biggrin:: Both my two young female fliers have said "YES!" to PWs! My leo also likes PWs this time.
:biggrin:: Both my two young female fliers have said "YES!" to PWs! My leo also likes PWs this time.
Last edited:
JessJohnson87
New member
It's weird, they're so nutritionally superior but yet not many species of reptile like them. Maybe it's the way they taste :scratchhead:
Zux
New member
No I mean in the UK its never warm enough to culture them outside, the flies cannot survive here lol !
JessJohnson87
New member
Well that stinks. I could culture flies in one day during the summer here. Maybe I exaggerated a bit, but still.
Elizabeth Freer
Well-known member
Maybe that taste is how the PWs survive.
Zux
New member
Stinks in more ways than one for sure !
JessJohnson87
New member
I started thinking after I posted about the PW's tasting funny but was too tired to make any sense of it.
When a body starts to decompose outside, flies are usually the first to come to the scene for a tasty meal and to lay their eggs, along with other various beetles and such. Once the maggots hatch, they begin the feeding frenzy and nothing will touch said body once maggots are present. It also makes me wonder if the maggots have evolved to have such a bad taste, so that nothing will eat them while they are cleaning up a decomposing body. I did an experiment one time when I was a kid to see if any predatory animals would come eat a baby rabbit that had been killed by a dog, once the maggots appeared, nothing would touch it. I know, I'm weird but it was in the name of science!
Hope this makes sense :shock:
When a body starts to decompose outside, flies are usually the first to come to the scene for a tasty meal and to lay their eggs, along with other various beetles and such. Once the maggots hatch, they begin the feeding frenzy and nothing will touch said body once maggots are present. It also makes me wonder if the maggots have evolved to have such a bad taste, so that nothing will eat them while they are cleaning up a decomposing body. I did an experiment one time when I was a kid to see if any predatory animals would come eat a baby rabbit that had been killed by a dog, once the maggots appeared, nothing would touch it. I know, I'm weird but it was in the name of science!
Hope this makes sense :shock:
amsdadtodd
New member
Jess, that makes sense, but I have to ask, why would you put so much thought into WHY a maggot is distasteful? JK!
Todd
Todd
JessJohnson87
New member
For the love of science!!!! :crackup::evil:
amsdadtodd
New member
well, a truly scientific mind would seek a final and definitive answer and taste it for oneself! Dare ya!