How much to eat!?

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provider1975

New member
Hi there,
We just welcomed a new gecko (Ringo) into our family. He is about 3-4 months old, and is in a 10 gallon tank. He has an under tank heater, no lights as he is in a bright room during the day. He has been super friendly, he now crawls right onto my hand when I put it in the tank. he is about 5 inches long. I'm so confused on how much his little guy should be eating in order to be healthy. We mainly feed him meal worms, with some crickets here and there. He was eating 6-7 worms a day, plus about a cricket every two to three days. About 5 days ago, he started only eating 2-4 worms/day, and today was only down to 2. He seems to be on a downward trend with his food, and we are worried about him!!! How little is too little when it comes to food amounts!?
 
JessJohnson87

JessJohnson87

New member
Usually the rule of thumb is to let them eat however much in a 15-20 minute period. Mealworms can be left in an escape proof dish over night. With the crazy weather going on every where, it is not uncommon for them to go off food or not eat as much when it is cold outside. How are the floor temperatures? Sometimes they will not eat if the temperatures are too low.
 
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provider1975

New member
Thank you for you're response! I have a floor thermometer, and the temp on one side of the tank usually hovers around 99. The cooler side is usually around 75. I have a small ceramic dish that the worms can't escape from but I don't think my little guy knows they are there! I'll try to leave them in there tonight and see what happens!
 
JessJohnson87

JessJohnson87

New member
I would try to get those temps down on the warm side, that's way too hot for them. They generally like it around 88-92*, 95* is the max. Do you have a thermostat to control the temperatures of the UTH?

Eventually he/she will figure out they are in there, I have a rock in my tank that I put the bowl beside to "train" my leo to eat from a dish when he got worms. Now he knows they are in there and I can place it anywhere in the tank and he knows there's food.
 
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provider1975

New member
So I have on of those thermostats with the wire and probe. I put that under the hot hide....which is where temp measures around 100. If I lay it on the floor (not in the hide) it measures around 90. Do you think I should still lower it? It seems like it's only 100 inside the hide. I also have a cool hide on the cool side of the tank. I just put a bunch of worms in there, can't wait to see what happens in the morning. He's pretty active overnight so I hope he finds them :)
 
JessJohnson87

JessJohnson87

New member
I have my thermostat set to 91* and the probe is inside of the warm hide taped to the tile. The thermostats function is to warm up to the desired temperature and then cut off once it has reached it and cut on when it is 3* lower than the set temperature.
 
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provider1975

New member
Oh JEESH, I hope I'm not frying the little guy! He seems to love it in there, but maybe I'll pickup a thermostat tomorrow and try to lower it a couple of degrees!
 
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