African Fat Tailed Gecko Refuses Mealworms! (Please help!)

[Geckozilla0439]

Alright, so... where to begin.

I own a gecko named Chief, whom I bought at a pet store. He's an adult, and I think he was fed crickets there. I've had him for almost two years now, and ever since I got him I fed him crickets as well.

Recently, the fact that I've repeatedly had Phorid flies infest my cricket bin, and the fact that I am super low on money (and I mean super low), has made crickets literally almost not an option at this point. So, I started researching mealworms and decided to try them out. No Phorid flies, low price, and easy to care for. Seemed perfect, other than the fact that I had an extremely hard time finding a dish that they couldn't crawl out of or wasn't too high, but that's beside the point. So, I tried them; I put some calcium-dusted carrot slices in the dish and about twenty five mealworms, and I waited to see what happened.

Nothing did. For over three weeks now.

The mealworms are slowly dying off, and the first batch I bought of fifty went wasted because Chief never ate them. Not one.

I fear that he is waaaay too used to being fed crickets now, and he literally doesn't see anything else as food. I tried to get him to notice them in so many different ways, and nothing worked. It's like he doesn't even realize that they're supposed to be his food. I get the fact that maybe he would prefer crickets, but for pity sake, he won't even try one.

I'm at a loss on ideas of what to do! I really, really need him to eat the mealworms instead of the crickets! Again, I barely have enough to pay for crickets anymore, and there are other major issues that keep me from being able to get them as well. If he tries them and just doesn't like them... that's one thing, but he's refusing to even try them.

I don't want to starve him to death, and I'm scared that if I don't give him the crickets, he'll continue to refuse to eat and that exact thing will happen. But if I put crickets in there... he'll never try the mealworms...

I'm at a loss for ideas on what to do, and I really need help. If anyone has any advice, please, please help me!!!

 

[JIMI]

Are you willing to give roaches a try? As a poor college student I understand your dilemma! They are much healthier than mealworms, have more meat, gutload much better, there's no smell or sound, and the list goes on. It might be that your AFT is not as responsive to the mealworms because their movement is not very stimulating. Roaches on the other hand are very stimulating. They are easy to breed so you can get your own small colony going and sell off adults to keep numbers low. I have only bought roaches once and they've sustained me for a little over a year now.

 

[Geckozilla0439]

Are you willing to give roaches a try? As a poor college student I understand your dilemma! They are much healthier than mealworms, have more meat, gutload much better, there's no smell or sound, and the list goes on. It might be that your AFT is not as responsive to the mealworms because their movement is not very stimulating. Roaches on the other hand are very stimulating. They are easy to breed so you can get your own small colony going and sell off adults to keep numbers low. I have only bought roaches once and they've sustained me for a little over a year now.

That might be a consideration. One question, however. Do they attract Phorid flies? I have had a huge problem with them with my crickets. They'll try to breed if there's so much as one dead cricket in the bin for more than one day, and I got really sick of cleaning out maggots. Also, can you buy roaches online?

 

[JIMI]

I've never heard of any complaints that they attract flies. They have long lifespans(I think about 2 years) and they're pretty hardy so they're not quick to die off, unlike crickets. Within 6 months of purchasing the roaches I only had one death. As long as you keep the bin clean, keep them well fed and well hydrated they will attract nothing, you won't smell anything, and you will have healthy feeders for your AFT. There's a tutorial on here for a self cleaning roach bin that makes keeping the bin clean almost no work at all, I could link it if you'd like. As a precaution though, I would purchase an air tight bin, drill small holes on the sides for ventilation and maybe place a double layer of screen over that to keep flies out. Yes, you can definitely purchase them online. You can purchase different species of roaches, but the most common are Dubia roaches. These are illegal in Florida, so if you live in Florida discoids are an alternative.

 

[acpart]

Many fat tails won't touch mealworms and you may be out of luck. Roaches would be a good alternative. You could try holding the gecko and gently poking a mealworm at its mouth. Hopefully it will bite at the mealworm and possibly decide it likes them. You could also try super worms but those aren't cheap. I do have some phorid flies in my cricket enclosures. How do you keep your crickets?
I keep up to 1500 3/4" crickets in a 10 gallon tank with gut load at the bottom on one side, egg crate on top of the gut load and jar lids with water crystals on the other side. The maggots tend to be in the water crystal lids only due to the moisture and if it gets too bad, I just dump the crystals and "reload". It hasn't been hard to deal with at all.

Aliza

 

[Geckozilla0439]

I've never heard of any complaints that they attract flies. They have long lifespans(I think about 2 years) and they're pretty hardy so they're not quick to die off, unlike crickets. Within 6 months of purchasing the roaches I only had one death. As long as you keep the bin clean, keep them well fed and well hydrated they will attract nothing, you won't smell anything, and you will have healthy feeders for your AFT. There's a tutorial on here for a self cleaning roach bin that makes keeping the bin clean almost no work at all, I could link it if you'd like. As a precaution though, I would purchase an air tight bin, drill small holes on the sides for ventilation and maybe place a double layer of screen over that to keep flies out. Yes, you can definitely purchase them online. You can purchase different species of roaches, but the most common are Dubia roaches. These are illegal in Florida, so if you live in Florida discoids are an alternative.

I actually live in Arkansas, so being illegal in Florida wouldn't be an issue. Hmm, I looked up the Dubia roaches, but the sites I found them on wanted a lot of money for not very many... Could you direct me to a website?

 

[Geckozilla0439]

Many fat tails won't touch mealworms and you may be out of luck. Roaches would be a good alternative. You could try holding the gecko and gently poking a mealworm at its mouth. Hopefully it will bite at the mealworm and possibly decide it likes them. You could also try super worms but those aren't cheap. I do have some phorid flies in my cricket enclosures. How do you keep your crickets?
I keep up to 1500 3/4" crickets in a 10 gallon tank with gut load at the bottom on one side, egg crate on top of the gut load and jar lids with water crystals on the other side. The maggots tend to be in the water crystal lids only due to the moisture and if it gets too bad, I just dump the crystals and "reload". It hasn't been hard to deal with at all.

Aliza

Well, it will be pretty disappointing if he does not eat the mealworms... As for roaches, I am considering them but I haven't yet been able to find a good price on a decent amount of them, and money is my biggest issue right now. I did try poking a mealworm at his mouth... he still refused to eat it. But, I did just find a dropping in his tank this morning (on the side of the mealworm dish), so now I'm curious if maybe he finally tried one.

As for my crickets, I usually only keep 200 of them at a time, for two reasons. Number one is that 200 already costs me eight dollars, and I've got less than forty bucks right now. Number two is that several of them usually die every day to every other day so I don't like to buy a lot, because half the time I wind up wasting some money depending on how many died and how many he actually ate.

I keep them in a large plastic storage bin with screen attached to the lid for ventilation. I usually have a lamp sitting ontop of the screen for both to keep the bin warm and dry and to help reduce the flies (it helps a lot with that). Then I have some egg crate in the bin for them to crawl around on and a few carrot slices or baby carrots for them to feed on. I used to keep cricket gel in there as well, but several times I've had it get infested with worms or worm eggs, so I took a break with that for awhile.

I didn't mind cleaning out a couple worms occasionally, but I started having to deal with them literally every single day, and I got really sick of it. Like I said, the lamp reduced them drastically, but not completely, because the bin is in my room (unfortunately), and I turn the lamp off at night, which I guess they use as an opportunity. Plus, when the worms do get in there, they make it stink even worse than it did before they were in there. Which, by the way, is another reason I didn't like buying crickets; they stink up my room.

 

[JessJohnson87]

Medium .75" (3/4") Dubia Roaches
Dubia Roaches for Sale | Dubi Deli | Blaptica Dubia Roaches

Are a couple of places you can order from. If you wanted to breed, you would have to order a starter colony and give it about 6 months to be established enough to feed off.

Here is Kyle's(khlotme) self cleaning dubia set up. http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...tion/79355-self-cleaning-dubia-roach-set.html

 

[Geckozilla0439]

Medium .75" (3/4") Dubia Roaches
Dubia Roaches for Sale | Dubi Deli | Blaptica Dubia Roaches

Are a couple of places you can order from. If you wanted to breed, you would have to order a starter colony and give it about 6 months to be established enough to feed off.

Here is Kyle's(khlotme) self cleaning dubia set up. http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...tion/79355-self-cleaning-dubia-roach-set.html

If I were to get some, how many would I start out with, and what size? Chief is an adult Fat Tail and he eats several crickets a day. It doesn't seem like I can get too many roaches for a low price...

 

[JIMI]

This one is probably one of the best prices for a 50 count that I can find: Small .5" (1/2") Dubia Roaches Just realized that Jess found it first though lol

The initial purchase does tend to run a bit on the expensive side depending on how much you are looking for, but for just one gecko a batch of 50 will last a long time. Keeping them at room temperature or cooler will slow their growth rates so they'll remain at an optimum feeding size for awhile. A small batch of 50 will probably be able to hold you until you can save up for a larger batch or some adults to start a colony if you'd like to breed them. If you can get them locally, the price tends to be much less. I purchased a batch of 50 at my local reptile expo for only $6. Some people have luck finding someone on Craigslist who breeds them and sells off their excess locally.

Your AFT will probably do best with Dubia around .5"-.75"

 

[JessJohnson87]

50 for $14 isn't bad. I would say the 3/4", I have some that are 1" and I think they're a little to big for my leo. You don't feed as many roaches as you would crickets, I read somewhere that 1 roach is equal to 7 crickets as far as nutritional value and stuff is concerned. Mine eats like 3 roaches

 

[Geckozilla0439]

Okay, another question, lol. I usually feed my gecko ten crickets each day. If fifty roaches would last awhile, how many should I give him a day? Because if I gave him five they would only last five days.

I was writing this comment before Jess' last one was posted...

So... I would only give him, like, three a day?

 

[JessJohnson87]

I would say like 2 or 3 roaches in one feeding. I have about 25 right now that should last me a while and I've only had one roach death in the last month. I also feed mealworms and go get a few crickets from the pet store

 

[Geckozilla0439]

I would say like 2 or 3 roaches in one feeding. I have about 25 right now that should last me a while and I've only had one roach death in the last month. I also feed mealworms and go get a few crickets from the pet store

I've got to be honest, one reason (the smallest reason, money being the biggest, biggest issue), I liked getting the mealworms was because it was a reason to go to the pet store, which I like visiting. I like seeing all the reptiles species there... and well, there's another reason....

But see, I don't have a license nor a bike, so virtually no way of transportation other than my dad driving me around, which... he doesn't like. He doesn't like to go places unless I have a very good reason for it.

Anyway, I think I might try the free sample and see how he reacts to them. I don't want to buy a ton if he refuses to eat them as well...

How much does your pet store sell crickets for?

 

[JessJohnson87]

I just go to petsmart for the crickets and they're like .14 each for large. The store I get my roaches at, I'm not sure on the price and it's 30 minutes away so I don't go there unless I have to.

 

[JIMI]

An adult AFT should be fed about every other day. For example, I feed my leo every second or third day after a feeding. I know I'm talking about a leopard gecko here, but their feeding habits are pretty similar.

I say go for that sample!

 

[Geckozilla0439]

I just go to petsmart for the crickets and they're like .14 each for large. The store I get my roaches at, I'm not sure on the price and it's 30 minutes away so I don't go there unless I have to.

I get 200 large crickets for $8.04 at a store I visit here.

 

[Geckozilla0439]

An adult AFT should be fed about every other day. For example, I feed my leo every second or third day after a feeding. I know I'm talking about a leopard gecko here, but their feeding habits are pretty similar.

I say go for that sample!

Yeah, I usually can read about Leopard Geckos and still get info I need for my AFT because they are very similar, it's mostly the humidity that makes them different in terms of care.

I probably will, if they can last awhile and Chief eats them they may be a better deal.

 

[JessJohnson87]

They are. The roaches can live about 2 years and they don't stink! Also they're quiet, unless they're eating but that's better than chirping....

 

[Geckozilla0439]

They are. The roaches can live about 2 years and they don't stink! Also they're quiet, unless they're eating but that's better than chirping....

That's good, because usually I find several dead crickets in the bin each day. :?