Lazy or lethargic?

[noctua]

When I first got my leopard gecko, she would be pretty active at night, and eat food from the dish i put in there, but now, about a month on, she doesn't move around all that much (granted i don't see her at night) and she doesn't eat from the bowl, but will come out and look expectantly at me when I get up in the morning, and eats just fine from tweezers, (usually four crickets and/or six-seven mealworms).

Also, sometimes when she's eaten a fair bit, she'll squint and 's' her neck a couple times, which I heard elsewhere is a sign they're getting full.

She's still pooping, and they look good, though sometimes the urates are yellow/partially yellow, and she looks healthy. I weighed her yesterday and she's exactly 20 grams (5 months old).

Do you think her lack of feeding from the bowl is just a lazy/preference thing now that she's used to me, or could it be something more nefarious?

 

[PoppyDear]

We'll need to know a few more things to know for sure what is causing her inactivity:
•Warm and cool side ground and air temps?
•Have you always fed her out of the bowl?
•Do you only feed out of the bowl?

Nothing sounds truly amiss, but we should trouble shoot a few things. The 'S' she is making with her neck is not something that should happen often. I noticed my gecko's did this awhile back when I fed a Dubia Roach that was a bit large. They do this when they are struggling to move the insect down the esophagus. Are you feeding crickets or even mealworms that barely fit within the space between her eyes? I would start feeding smaller prey, particularily crickets.

I usually reccomend that geckos that are around 6 months be fed every other day, if she has usually eaten out of the bowl and suddenly stopped, she may want less food as she is getting older. At 6 months you should also be able to sex "her", unless you know she is female via incubation temps.

How often have do you have food in the bowl, is it only one type? She could be bored of the food. The main thing is that your temperatures are appropriate, she is eating and pooping while not showing signs of illness. Not eating out of the bowl can be a preference thing as well. I prefer not to bowl feed as feeding outside the bowl is so much more stimulating and allows your gecko to exercise.

Finally, yellow urates can be a sign of over supplimentation (Unless the poop stains the urate). What suppliments have you (Brand), how often are they used?

Best of luck!

 

[noctua]

The warm side is 31-33 degrees on the ground, sometimes it dips to 30, but not for long. The cool side sits pretty steadily around 21-22 with an air temp of 23 (heated with a CHE).

I leave mealworms in a dish pretty much all the time, and for the first few weeks I had her she ate from there, but now prefers to be tweezer fed. Before she stopped eating from the bowl I would still give her a couple via tweezers every day just so I could check on her.
It's possible that she doesn't like the slippery edge of the Tupperware container. I tried a 'mealworm proof' dish but I still had some wily escapees.

She takes both the mealworms and crickets I feed her pretty well, and only after the fifth or sixth bug she might make the 's' movement, and it's always after that she'll retreat back into her favorite spot to go back to sleep.

I try to feed her the most appropriately sized insects, the mealworms are all at least an inch long and the crickets around 2cm. Occasionally there'll be a very slightly bigger cricket, but she takes them without much issue, I found it easier for her sometimes if I kill the bigger ones right before feeding them to her so they go down without a fuss.

I have a 'reject bin' of crickets that've gotten way too big to feed her, and all the mealworms that are 2 inches or more I'm keeping for breeding.

As for supplements I give her 3-4 dusted crickets:
zoo med's calcium with d3 on mondays
reptile one plain calcium on wednesdays
zoo med's reptivite on fridays

It's possible that the poop is staining the urate, because in one case (she poops on a piece of paper towel for ease of clean up) there was one piece of poop where half the urate was yellow but the tip was pure white.

 

[PoppyDear]

Do you use a thermostat with your UTH? Your temps are a bit on the low end.

Do you only ever dust crickets? Your dusting schedule needs some modifications.
•Click: http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...mo-video-4-jan-2013-update-13.html#post459052

While having the bowl of mealworms always in the tank, did you feed crickets alongside it? I really don't think you need to tong feed the crickets, you can do so with mealworms or try a different, more secure bowl, see if she would like a different bowl. Tong feeding takes away the excercise and stimulation she can get from hunting, especially with the insect is dead. Killing it really doesn't help it go down much faster if you tong feed, and if they are on the bigger side and do not fit within the space between her eyes, don't feed it just to be safe.

I also think she is getting too many mealworms, the staple if anything, should be crickets or roaches and make up 60%-70% of the diet, or less if you can fit in more variety. But in your situation it sounds like you just feed those two insects. Mealworms are known to cause impaction.

So I would remove the bowl and just feed her during the evening every day. If you want to leave the bowl in on mealworm days, average how many she eats in 15 minutes and put those in so she doesn't overeat and get obese or not want to eat her staple.

Other than that everything sounds good!

 

[noctua]

I do use a thermostat, and a dual thermometer together. the thermostat seems to read higher than the thermometer most of the time, by maybe 1-2 degrees. I plan on getting a handheld thermometer to give me a bit more of a mean temperature reading.
I tweaked my thermostat a bit and the temperature is a little more stable now. The other morning it read 27 and I panicked that it was dying til I looked in and she was sleeping on the probe!

I dust according to the zoo med instructions, since she's only around 20 grams I dust 3-4 insects, and I found crickets collect dust far easier than mealworms.

I've pretty much done away with the bowls, except to house the feeders in with extra gutload a day or two before feeding, and I crush the crickets back legs because she's rather a slow hunter and if i don't maim the crickets to slow them down she'd never catch them (I've only ever accidentally killed a cricket when I had to recapture one, and she still ate it, I don't regularly kill them!)
I drag the crickets around a bit and let them make an attempt at fleeing, so she can track them across the tank and pounce on them. She seems to like eating straight from my hand, too, although a couple times she's missed and bitten my fingers.

We don't have any kind of feeder roach in New Zealand, and I've heard locusts are high in cholesterol, so i'm a little reluctant to feed her those.
The breeder I got her from fed his animals on only mealworms, so at least she's getting crickets now, you should have seen her light up the first time I offered her one. I definitely will start to feed her more crickets than mealworms, though. She averages 4 mealworms on the days I do offer them.

When I do feed mealworms I try to pick out ones that are freshly shed to lower the risk of impaction, and even the times she's eaten ones that haven't shed, she's had no trouble passing them.

 

[PoppyDear]

Everything is sounding good! I misread your suppliment schedules, I have been making quite a few mistakes lately! I am sorry about that.

The other morning it read 27 and I panicked that it was dying til I looked in and she was sleeping on the probe!

That has happened to me a few times! ;-) since then I managed to use their hide to help keep the probe away from them!

Mealworms usually become an issue when they are fed as the entire diet and the risk increases when other aspects of husbandry are also incorrect. Feeding freshly molted is great but seeing you have upped the crickets in her diet and her temps have improved I do think that she will have no issue passing a full belly of "un-shed" mealworms.

Instead of roaches you can always try some other worms! I have heard of varrying opinions on locust and cholesterol, I think a few every once in awhile would be fine.


I am happy things are going well!

 

[noctua]

Just keeping things in the same thread, but I'm wondering is it normal for geckos to make a sort of pop/clicking noise only while eating? She never makes the noise when just wandering around or while yawning, it's only while eating. Is it like when we eat something and our jaw pops? I do notice it more when she's eating crickets, and I've downsized the ones she gets from 1cm to 1/2cm, to see if that will make a difference.

 

[PoppyDear]

I've never heard of that, maybe it is the insects or it very well could be the jaw. If she is still in good health I don't think it is much of a big deal.

If you see wounds on the interior or exterior of her mouth, she stops eating completely or the popping sounds get louder I think it is time to be worried.

Other than that I'd say she is fine!