New Gecko Owner

[SteeveHoudini]

So currently I feed his cricket and mealworms a mixture between carrots, cucumber, cabbage, sweetcorn. Sweet potato!

The substrate for the insects, they are still in the box they came in! Is that not good?

Yes, I’m still unsure as to why I cannot upload a picture/ video

 

[SteeveHoudini]

This is a picture of Steeve when he came out yesterday!

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

This is a picture of Steeve when he came out yesterday!

Next time he's out please measure him from nose tip to end of tail. IF he's long enough perhaps we can sex him.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

So currently I feed his cricket and mealworms a mixture between carrots, cucumber, cabbage, sweetcorn. Sweet potato!

The substrate for the insects, they are still in the box they came in! Is that not good?

Yes, I’m still unsure as to why I cannot upload a picture/ video

Aliza ~
Please help leo Steeve & Kay with a good way to keep & feed mealworms.

Kay, please eliminate sweet corn & cabbage. Corn is difficult to digest.

 

[SteeveHoudini]

Aliza ~
Please help leo Steeve & Kay with a good way to keep & feed mealworms.

Kay, please eliminate sweet corn. Corn is difficult to digest.

Okay! Can do that. Everything else is okay though?

He doesn’t really come out his hide. It was just by chance he came out that time because he thought my fingers were food

He does have a vet appointment on Monday to address the MBD. I’m also going to ask if it’s normal for him to not be using the toilet at all. I’ve seen absolutely no droppings since I’ve had him.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Okay! Can do that. Everything else is okay though?

He doesn’t really come out his hide. It was just by chance he came out that time because he thought my fingers were food

He does have a vet appointment on Monday to address the MBD. I’m also going to ask if it’s normal for him to not be using the toilet at all. I’ve seen absolutely no droppings since I’ve had him.

Carrots, cucumbers, & sweet potatoes are good.
Some leos explore at night. Have you noticed that?

We can build/create more nutritious insects & worms by also feeding them a balanced DRY diet 24/7/365 days per year.
A commercial gutloading food like Bug Burger or Superload (both by Repashy), Cricket Crack, Dinofuel, etc. will make your life easier AND provide a nutritious diet for your crickets at the same time. Avoid Fluker's gutloads, as they are super feeble in their formulas.

Here are Olimpia Martinotti's lists of great ingredients to feed your gecko's bugs & worms:
Best: mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelion leaves, collard greens, escarole lettuce, papaya, watercress, & alfalfa.
Good: sweet potato, carrots, oranges, mango, butternut squash, kale, apples, beet greens, blackberries, bok choy, & green beans.
Dry food: bee pollen, organic non-salted sunflower seeds, spirulina, dried seaweed, flax seed, & organic non-salted almonds.
Avoid as much as possible: potatoes, cabbage, iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, corn, grains, beans, oats, bread, cereal, meat, eggs, dog food, cat food, fish food, canned or dead insects, vertebrates.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

, , , , ,
Yes, I’m still unsure as to why I cannot upload a picture/ video

Info shared by GU's admin Hilde:

The only way is to provide a link to the video on another site.
The option for video is easy to find when you hover over the icons in the message box. It's the picture/video icon, near the end, next to the smiley.
There's a list of approved sites to link from. When you click it, it says:
Approved sites
You may insert media from these sources
Apple Music Dailymotion Facebook Flickr Giphy Imgur Liveleak Metacafe Pinterest Reddit SoundCloud Spotify TikTok Tumblr Twitch Twitter Vimeo YouTube
The only way I've added a video is via youtube link, I assume the others work, too. Uploading here directly doesn't work.

 

[SteeveHoudini]

Carrots, cucumbers, & sweet potatoes are good.
Some leos explore at night. Have you noticed that?

We can build/create more nutritious insects & worms by also feeding them a balanced DRY diet 24/7/365 days per year.
A commercial gutloading food like Bug Burger or Superload (both by Repashy), Cricket Crack, Dinofuel, etc. will make your life easier AND provide a nutritious diet for your crickets at the same time. Avoid Fluker's gutloads, as they are super feeble in their formulas.

I can’t really say if he’s been active at night as I sleep at 12 but I know he doesn’t come out before anytime before I sleep!

 

[acpart]

Here is some information about feeding the feeders so the geckos can get the best nutritional benefit (based on my own experiences):
I no longer use mealworms because I developed a respiratory reaction to the mealworm skin casts which blow around a lot. Currently I'm using superworms and crickets as feeders. I keep both on a substrate of ground grains. The super worms are in a container with about 1" of this stuff and the crickets are in a 10 gallon tank (I get lots of crickets) with about 1/2" of this stuff and a bunch of egg crate so they have a place to sit.
At one point I tried to make my own ground grain by getting a lot of stuff at a Whole Foods type store and grinding it up. For me it was a disaster because I must have used some ingredients that were pretty oily (like sunflower seeds) and the mealworms got all gummed up in it and died. I get my grain stuff (called "gut load" see below) from "Professional Reptiles" which used to be called "pro-reptiles". Here's a link to the page with the insect food: https://shop.professionalreptiles.com/Insect-Food-c63585001.
I get 20 lb.at a time because I'm going through 2000-3000 crickets every 2 weeks (and the 20 lb. has free shipping), but there are smaller amounts. The idea behind feeding the feeders is that they should be at their nutritional peak when fed to the gecko. People talk about providing nutritional food to the feeders just before feeding them to the gecko, but that's always been a weird idea to me. What are you supposed to do the rest of the time, keep them without food and then introduce them to food some number of hours before you feed them off? I just provide access to nutritional food all the time figuring that when I feed the gecko, the feeders will be at different points in their nutritional cycle but will have had an opportunity to eat well.
In addition to providing the grain based gut load, I also provide raw fruit and veggies (the parts I don't use when I'm cooking, like orange peels, apple peels, etc) mostly to the worms for moisture, but also to the crickets. I also get the dehydrated water crystals in bulk from Professional Reptiles so I can hydrate them as needed (just add water . . .) and put them in a container for the crickets. Some people in the past have fed the crickets on dry cat food but I think that's going to send their phosphorus or protein levels too high.
Let me know if you have questions.

Aliza

 

[SteeveHoudini]

So update!

I Took Steeve to the vets on Wednesday!

He didn’t like it at all.

They were unable to tell me his sex as he was too young. He weighed 47g if I remember correctly.

They had told me they were unsure if his left front and back leg showed signs of MBD or a fracture from previous owner (which I was very saddened by.. my poor boy)

On the night of coming back he ate more than he usually would. I’d say around 9-10 mealworms and one cricket? (Based on the fact I don’t know his age but assume he’s below 4 months) I feed him until he’s ready to stop.

But now.. he has not eaten properly. I have to coax him with a waxworm for him to even sniff a mealworm. He refuses to eat the crickets now and just turns his nose up at them. Now he’s doing the same for the mealworms.

He hasn’t pooped since I’ve bought him back from the vets. So 2 days without food/poop.

He also has been inside his hot hide for the last 2 days. His enclosure has shown no signs of him walking about of a night time so I’m very baffled and a little worried and not sure what to do about it.

 

[SteeveHoudini]

So update!

I Took Steeve to the vets on Wednesday!

He didn’t like it at all.

They were unable to tell me his sex as he was too young. He weighed 47g if I remember correctly.

They had told me they were unsure if his left front and back leg showed signs of MBD or a fracture from previous owner (which I was very saddened by.. my poor boy)

On the night of coming back he ate more than he usually would. I’d say around 9-10 mealworms and one cricket? (Based on the fact I don’t know his age but assume he’s below 4 months) I feed him until he’s ready to stop.

But now.. he has not eaten properly. I have to coax him with a waxworm for him to even sniff a mealworm. He refuses to eat the crickets now and just turns his nose up at them. Now he’s doing the same for the mealworms.

He hasn’t pooped since I’ve bought him back from the vets. So 2 days without food/poop.

He also has been inside his hot hide for the last 2 days. His enclosure has shown no signs of him walking about of a night time so I’m very baffled and a little worried and not sure what to do about it.

Sorry, he had his appointment Monday! So Monday night he ate, and since then he hasn’t eaten or pooped. (We’re now Thursday night) aside from 1-2 mealworms

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Thanks for sharing!
Did the vet mention any signs of impaction?
Be sure to do your best to keep SteeveHoudini hydrated.

 

[SteeveHoudini]

Thanks for sharing!
Did the vet mention any signs of impaction?
Be sure to do your best to keep SteeveHoudini hydrated.

Vet said he showed no signs on impaction.

Steeve has a constant flow of water at his disposable!

I’m unsure if this feeding strike will last long. He won’t even come over to the front of enclosure. He see’s me and then Belines for the back of his hide

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

"Steeve has a constant flow of water at his disposable!"
"The substrate for the insects, they are still in the box they came in! Is that not good?"

Like a fountain?
IF you think he's not drinking, maybe he'd just like a bowl of still water???

Have you moved Steeve's mealworms into a food substrate like Aliza has recommended? Sometimes mealworms are sold in a non-food substrate.

 

[SteeveHoudini]

No, like it a small water bowl.

And yeah, I’ve put the mealworms on a substrate Aliza recommended!