how to fatten up juvies?

So as of now I have 4 juvies all of different sizes:

1) (got yesterday) seems very young but at least 3 months- tail seems skinny to me but not abdomen. I think this means he needs more fat in his diet. The guy said he fed once a week but he seems healthy enough.

2) (got yesterday same guy) also at least 3 months but seems more "fuller." Saw him eat a cricket yesterday, and one of those two ate two mealworms I left in a bowl. He seems healthy not worried about him.

3) (got a month ago) only seen him eat once or twice. Not "skinny" yet but I am worried. He was a petco buy and I have no idea what they fed him. Someone is eating the mealworms I leave but I don't think it's him.. He needs to fatten up his tail and he seems very small (hasnt grown since I got him)

4) by far the biggest but probably about the same age as above. He seems fine but I have no idea how much to feed him! He eats pretty slow.


So a few questions.. I have repti-cal I shake the mealies in (i breed them) and I tried giving #4 a few waxworms which appear to have been eaten over night. I'm not a fan of crickets so if possible I'd like to feed them crickets only once or twice a week or less. Could I feed them all strictly mealworms and supplement occasionally crickets and wax worms?

Also, how do I fatten up #1 and #3? Any food suggestions for these babies? They seem too small for wax worms.

Small mealworms have a higher fat content than crickets or roaches so i guess if your trying to fatten them up a little and they are too small for wax worms even, baby mealies would prob work for that.

Ok I think I am going to make that my primary. I just got some multivitamins. So if I use rep-cal herptivite and rep-cal calcium w/ D3 is that enough?

How do I know when to start with waxworms? My blizzard seems fine with them as a treat (the small ones). But I'm not sure if the size matters or if they are too fat for babies?

The way to fatten up under nourished leos is to feed them INDIVIDUALLY so you know who is eating what instead of leaving a single bowl in a group tank and having no clue who is eating what or getting bullied out of the bowl. You should have at least 3 food bowls for a set up with 4 leos in it. Generally just feeding juvies (anything between 3-6 months old) a healthy rotation of bugs will put weight on them properly instead of fattening them up on gecko twinkies (waxworms). Feed juvies every day, offer food every day to EACH leo individually so you can track who is eating what and when. Their tails won't fatten up until they are closer to a year old because they are spending all their energy and food reserves on growing right now. Wax worms should be used sparingly. No more than 1-2 a week per leo, they are highly addicting. If you want a food a bit higher in fat try silkworms or butterworms.

I just must say, and small rant here but... I CAN'T BELIEVE you put all those leos together straight away... You should ALWAYS quarantine new leos because you never know what they're bringing into your current set up. Parasites is HUGE with leos fed crickets, crypto also runs rampant (look at the 2 threads just in the last moth of people who lost herps to crypto just on this forum alone), mites, lice, you name it... Quarantine for at least 30 days so that you can learn the new leo's eating habits, pooping routine, dee if there's any problems with their poo etc. I am NOT a fan of group set ups esp. by beginner herpers that don't have the experience on how to properly manage a group set up. For 4 leos to live in the same viv you would need at MINIMUM a 40 gallon breeder with hides enough for each leo to have their own hot and cool hide, and even potentially their own humid hides. I KNOW you don't have a set up like that. We've discussed this problem on other threads of yours. The potential for disaster is HUGE esp with juvies as you have no clue on gender but only a guess and 2 males WILL fight as young as 4 months old. I'm sorely disappointed... I'm sorry but... this is just stupid to say the least. You're doing these leos no favors.

Ok rant over...

There is a thread in the feeding section on the basics of supplimenting your leo... would be worth a read. It'll answer all your supplimenting questions.

http://www.leopardgeckoforum.com/t2888-how-to-basics-on-supplimenting-your-leo

Kermit wrote:The way to fatten up under nourished leos is to feed them INDIVIDUALLY so you know who is eating what instead of leaving a single bowl in a group tank and having no clue who is eating what or getting bullied out of the bowl. You should have at least 3 food bowls for a set up with 4 leos in it. Generally just feeding juvies (anything between 3-6 months old) a healthy rotation of bugs will put weight on them properly instead of fattening them up on gecko twinkies (waxworms). Feed juvies every day, offer food every day to EACH leo individually so you can track who is eating what and when. Their tails won't fatten up until they are closer to a year old because they are spending all their energy and food reserves on growing right now. Wax worms should be used sparingly. No more than 1-2 a week per leo, they are highly addicting. If you want a food a bit higher in fat try silkworms or butterworms.

I just must say, and small rant here but... I CAN'T BELIEVE you put all those leos together straight away... You should ALWAYS quarantine new leos because you never know what they're bringing into your current set up. Parasites is HUGE with leos fed crickets, crypto also runs rampant (look at the 2 threads just in the last moth of people who lost herps to crypto just on this forum alone), mites, lice, you name it... Quarantine for at least 30 days so that you can learn the new leo's eating habits, pooping routine, dee if there's any problems with their poo etc. I am NOT a fan of group set ups esp. by beginner herpers that don't have the experience on how to properly manage a group set up. For 4 leos to live in the same viv you would need at MINIMUM a 40 gallon breeder with hides enough for each leo to have their own hot and cool hide, and even potentially their own humid hides. I KNOW you don't have a set up like that. We've discussed this problem on other threads of yours. The potential for disaster is HUGE esp with juvies as you have no clue on gender but only a guess and 2 males WILL fight as young as 4 months old. I'm sorely disappointed... I'm sorry but... this is just stupid to say the least. You're doing these leos no favors.

Ok rant over...

There is a thread in the feeding section on the basics of supplimenting your leo... would be worth a read. It'll answer all your supplimenting questions.

http://www.leopardgeckoforum.com/t2888-how-to-basics-on-supplimenting-your-leo

WOAH you need to find out more information before you act like that. I literally just got two together yesterday and have immediately separated them. I had two prior that are still babies in the same tank for a few weeks because I got them TOGETHER. ALL of the geckos EACH has their own space now. The two I got yesterday are in a large critter keeper that has a divider so I can share one large heating pad but they have individual bowls for food and water. The two I had before have been separated for a few days and before that I monitored how much crickets they ate separately because I fed them in separate containers. The mealworms and waxworms were treats I put in a bowl in their tank so no, I wasn't sure who ate the treats (although I have an idea) but I knew for sure they were at least both eating some crickets.

The "older" two each have 10g and each have a light source AND heating pad. It's not necessary to keep them in anything larger at this point they are still small. I have two 20g long in my garage for when they get bigger (from prior herps).

So just to clarify.. NEW geckos have NOT come near old ones so NO I didn't clump together. And just because I had two geckos from the same store that I bought within a day apart in a TEMPORARY tank does not mean I did anything wrong. They were in a tank with 7-8 other geckos in the petstore so having two for about 3-4 weeks in one 10g is not the end of the world. No aggression and no risk of transfer of disease. Just because I am new to leopard geckos does not mean I am an idiot.

Ok well if that is the case then I apologise but the way you made it sound was like they were all housed together. Maybe a little clarity when writing your descritptions of things will be a bit more helpful next time and avoid such misunderstandings.

Kermit wrote:Ok well if that is the case then I apologise but the way you made it sound was like they were all housed together. Maybe a little clarity when writing your descritptions of things will be a bit more helpful next time and avoid such misunderstandings.

Well ok but I wasn't try to write an essay. This post was only to discuss what and how much to feed them not my housing choices.

As much as you might hate feeding crickets, you may be better off trying to feed them those now and then move them to worms when their weight stabilizes. The heightened movement by the crickets may excite the predator drive, causing them to eat more. Once they've gotten to a good point, then I would try to switch them over to worms.

It's kind of a what will and wont they eat now ordeal, and if they'll eat the crickets then you should probably go down that road. I finally got that way with super snow, he wasn't interested in the worms so I moved him to the feeding container, dropped some crickets in, and boom; he ate 7.

When I feed my leo, I grab the mealworms that move around the most so he doesn't lose interest or think it's not food. I'm pretty sure the store I got my leo from was only giving him crickets because they don't sell mealworms. My leo took the mealworms with no problems. Trying to fatten him up so I put a bunch in his dish and he'll stop eating when he's full. (I know he will because I've watched him stop.)

Best way to fatten them up is by simply feeding them a good diet and put them on a regular schedule. If the pet store was feeding the young geckos once a week, then that's where the problem lies. A young growing juvenile requires daily feeding. They actually tend to eat twice a day if you provide the food. So to fatten up your geckos, all you really need to do is to feed them daily with well gut-loaded and vitamin-dusted feeders.

It can be crickets, mealworms, dubia roaches, silkworms, etc.. it doesn't matter which feeders you choose. They'll plump up as long as you put them on a regular feeding schedule with well gut-loaded and dusted feeders.

I would recommend avoiding waxworms as you don't want to get them addicted to them. It's true sometimes they don't get addicted to waxies, but if they do, you would have to starve them to get them back on track. Now wouldn't that be counter productive where you fed waxworms to plump them up, then having to starve them to get them to eat right? Waxworms are generally just not needed as superworms & mealworms provide more than enough fat for your geckos.

Good luck.