Juvenile Leo not eating/eating very little

[riderchan]

I'm kind of freaking out so I'm sorry if I seem a bit disorganized.

For the past couple of days my leopard gecko, Bulma, has been very disinterested in eating. I usually feed her around 5-6 mealworms a day, but recently she's been eating fewer than 3 a day. I always feed her around the same time, and she always comes out to greet me, but even though she's coming out to say hello, she usually ignores her food (she's even just. Walked over it? Like completely ignored that it was there and just kept climbing onto her hot hide once.) Tonight, she refused to eat at all.

I have a couple of theories. First, I've had her for about a month now, and she is a juvenile, so I think she may be shedding soon. I'm not sure how to tell if she is (she's an albino so I'm not sure if she's just pale or shedding) and it's the first time she'll be shedding in my house.

My other theory is the heat. Right now we're in the middle of a massive heat wave that makes my bedroom 30C alone, and that's with a window open and a fan on. She's spending most of her day in her humid hide. The heat is subsiding now, but it made me so concerned about the heating in her enclosure all week. She's still pretty active during the night (I was actually just holding her a couple of minutes ago and she was all over me!) but I'm still worried that she's in trouble.

Can anyone help me out or offer advice?

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

30*C is just under the ideal warm end ground temp for leos.

How are you heating the enclosure? Either the heat pad or an overhead bulb should be on a thermostat.

Here's a temperature guide for all leopard geckos as measured with the probe of a digital thermometer or a temp gun (and controlled by a thermostat set at 91*F/32.8*C):[/U]

• 88-92 F (31.1-33.3 C) ground temperature right underneath a leo's warm dry hide
• no greater than 82ish F (27.8ish C) air temperature - 4 inches above ground on the warm end
• no greater than 75 F (23.9 C) air temperature - 4 inches above ground on the cool end

 

[riderchan]

Thanks for getting back to me!

Right now I'm using a heat pad and a overhead bulb, though I haven't been using the bulb as frequently because of the weather. I turned it on today and it only took a couple of minutes for the temperature to get dangerously hot. Getting the heat just right in her enclosure is one of my weaknesses- I really gotta invest in a proper thermometer/temp gun!

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Thanks for getting back to me!

Right now I'm using a heat pad and a overhead bulb, though I haven't been using the bulb as frequently because of the weather. I turned it on today and it only took a couple of minutes for the temperature to get dangerously hot. Getting the heat just right in her enclosure is one of my weaknesses- I really gotta invest in a proper thermometer/temp gun!

You're welcome.

The only way to get a handle on the heat is to buy a thermostat!! I use Hydrofarm's Jump Start MTPRTC thermostat from Amazon for my leo. Apollo brand thermostats are also reliable. Can you order a thermostat soon?

 

[riderchan]

You're welcome.

The only way to get a handle on the heat is to buy a thermostat!! I use Hydrofarm's Jump Start MTPRTC thermostat from Amazon for my leo. Apollo brand thermostats are also reliable. Can you order a thermostat soon?

Thanks for the advice! I can definitely get one soon. I'm starting to get even more concerned now... She hasn't eaten at all last night, but she is still very active and lets me handle her more frequently. My parents suggested getting her crickets for a little while to add variety to her diet, but I'm not so sure. Thoughts?

 

[acpart]

Keep offering and try not to worry. Sometimes having a heat source below and above can dehydrate the gecko. Consider turning off the overhead bulb. It's not unusual for a gecko, especially a new one, to vary how much s/he eats (if you ever become a parent to a toddler you'll know exactly what I mean).

Aliza

 

[Loki The Leo]

Hey I have a question. I got my leo 18 days ago. He is 5 months old. HE is new, but when I first got him he would eat 2-3 crickets a day. Now he either doesn't eat or eats 1 cricket a day. When I first got him the calcium supplements arrived late from Amazon, so he didn't have it back then. So it's been a few days with the vitimin dusting, and now he is not eating. The temp is on point, can humidity be a factor?

 

[GeckoFanboy]

Loki, if your gecko is 5 months old he should be eating like a horse every day. Most of the time when new gecko owners complain about their gecko not eating it's usually stress-based. Makes sure all his tank requirements are being met and just completely leave him alone. Don't pick him up at all...for days....weeks. I have learned from experience that they stress out by being handled too often. I hardly ever handle my gecko and he behaves and eats perfectly. Know this: when he is ready to eat he will be out pacing his tank.

I have my gecko trained, and I know exactly when he wants to eat. How? All I have to do is grab the baggie that I dust his bugs in, and shake it around in front of his tank. When he hears that baggie shaking he knows food is on the way. So, when I want to know if he's hungry, I go up to his tank front, grab the baggie, shake it around making noise with it. If he's hungry he'll get very excited and jumpy, looking towards the baggie. If he's not hungry at all, he won't even flinch...no reaction. Normally, my gecko never eats during the day, but today I was in front of his tank managing his bugs, and he heard me, came trotting out of his hide over to the front glass...looking down at what I was doing with the bugs...this was my cue, "He's hungry!", and sure enough he ate some bugs today when I offered them.

But leave your gecko alone. Don't pick it up at all for awhile, just observe him from outside the glass, and let him get use to you interacting with him when you clean his tank floor, change his water dish, etc. Geckos scare very easily, and they take awhile to get over whatever stressed them out. If I do anything to stress mine out, he stays in his hide, skips meals and doesn't act himself. If I want him to act normal and healthy, it's always best if I don't handle him other than picking him up to clean his enclosure.

This is how my gecko behaves when he's hungry. He watches me mess with his bugs...

 

[Loki The Leo]

Thanks, I stopped handling him for a little while, and went in his tank just to replace water, clean tank, and put in food. Soon he started eating again, then I noticed he only likes meal worms. This is normal, right? He is eating now, like 5 meal worms, but no crickets.

 

[GeckoFanboy]

Everyone handles things differently, but what I find works best is to never leave a dish of any kind of food in his tank. Some folks will leave a dish of mealworms in the tank for whenever the gecko feels like eating. Personally, I like to know when and how much he's eating. This way I know everything's okay or if something might be wrong with him.

If I walk in at night to feed him, make some noise outside his tank, call him by name, shake his dusting baggie...if he is hungry, he'll come out of whatever hide he's in. If he doesn't come out, than I know obviously he's not hungry. I usually will come back a couple hours later and do the same thing. Sometimes he'll be out of his hide, and respond like he's hungry when I shake his dusting bag.

Also, just like my last gecko of 17 years, my current gecko always wants to eat after he poops. LOL, I guess it just makes room for more food, but that is something they both have in common. So if I see a poop in the tank, there's a pretty good chance he's gonna be hungry very soon, if not immediately. My gecko pooped late lastnight, so I can almost guarantee he’ll eat tonight when I go in to check on him...and that's another thing...

...get him use to being fed the exact same time of day. Geckos go by their biological clocks. My tank is in a room with the shade drawn, and very little sunlight getting in, if at all. I have a timer on a 25 watt bulb (that is set very dim, so as not to warm the tank), that runs from 7:00AM to 7:00PM. When that bulb turns off at 7:00PM, my gecko perks up and leaves his hide to venture around the tank. It's his time to be awake. I usually venture in to feed him around 8:00 - 9:00PM, and he's either gonna eat or not, depending on how many bugs he ate at his last meal.

When I feed my gecko, I vary his bugs from day to day. He never eats the same bugs. Tonight he's gonna get a couple small mealworms and then a nice big fat dubia roach. The next time I feed him he'll get crickets. The next time, some large mealworms. The next time a giant hornworm. I use long tongs to put bugs in front of him, and I literally place the bug right in front of him. With dubia roaches, the best way is to place them right in front of him, with the dubia lying on it's back (they have a really hard time righting themselves up). This way he can catch them super easy. Dubia roaches are fast and can get away easily if you don’t lay them on their back. When a bug can escape your gecko easily, and successfully, often times the gecko will give up...and not eat at all. Don't ever leave the escaped bug in the tank, hoping your gecko will eat it later. Most likely he will not, and the bug will stress him out...and then he'll start acting weird again.

Some geckos are picky eaters. My last gecko would not eat mealworms at all. My current gecko use to eat superworms when he was a little juvenile, but now as an adult, he will not eat them at all...but he eats everything else...although there have been some days he'll turn his nose up to something...but days later he'll eat it.

You need to get to know when your gecko is hungry...you gotta train him by observing his habits. But he also knows you are his owner and food source. Like spoiled child who refuses to eat something, sometimes you just have to keep trying, and sometimes they relent and eat what they might not have liked in the past.

Bottom line: he needs to eat more than mealworms. Crickets and dubias are the best as far as nutrition. Dubias are the best though. They can eat alot of gutload and retain it far longer than crickets. Dubias can really fatten up with proper gut-loading. My gecko loves dubias! He also loves crickets as well, but crickets can get away easily. When I feed my gecko crickets, I drop them right in front of him with the long tongs, and I keep corralling the cricket towards him with the tongs. If the cricket gets aways from him and hides I go after it with the tongs, and try again…he always eats it.