baby leo not feeding

Hello,

I have just bought 2 baby leo's (first time owner) and one of them appears to be off his food. the female eats no problem but the male has only eaten 1 wax worm in the last 24 hours (right when he first arrived) and ive not noticed him drink any water (i wouldnt know if he had overnight though) both leo's are housed seperately in 36" vivariums heres a picture



im using beech woodchip for a substrate and have heat pads underneath the substrate running around 85-89 degrees on the warm side and 72-76 on the cool side with an ambient air temperature of 75 across the vivarium.

heres some pictures of the male (RAPTOR/Jungle)



any help and advice would be great

Thanks

Hi Mark and welcome to the forums. Those are some very cute little babies you have there.

First off I am going to ask you to give a little more information by copying the health questionnaire at the follow link and then answering the questions. I will answer the best I can from what I have but some times information may be missed so this questionnaire helps us make sure we have all the information.
http://www.leopardgeckoforum.com/t134-please-read-and-fill-out-with-your-health-questions

First off those are very nice enclosures you have there. My first observation is that you are using wood chips for substrate. This is very dangerous for leos, especially babies. If they eat it along with their food it can cause impaction which can be fatal. The best substrate for babies especially is paper towel or tiles.

Next, your heat on the warm side should be between 90 and 95. I know that sounds hot but our body temperature is 98.6 so it is not as hot as you would think. The way that they digest their food is thru belly heat so this is very important.

Next, the not eating. Many leo will not eat for the first few days that they are home because they are just trying to settle in. Trying wax wormss to get them interested is great but don't feed them too many because they an become addicted to them and not want to eat anything else which is not good for them.

Hope this helps and if you have any more questions please feel free to ask.

Thanks for the reply. I've knocked the thermostat up a little to raise the temperature on the warm end as i did notice last night he was wriggling down into the lowest point next to the hide (im guessing because the thinner layer of substrate was warmer) i will change substrate aswell and give him a bit more time to settle in. if he still wont eat i will fill out the questionaire but fingers crossed it wont come to that!

my only question is you dont think that he looks too thin on the pictures?

Thanks

He looks a healthy size and weight for his age, you have nothing to worry about just yet. Don't be too surprised if it takes him a week to start eating, you also might want to consider starting him off on mealworms, and keeping the waxworms as treats.

Welcome to the forum by the way

I agree with Jordan, when they are younger they do look thin but that is just because they are putting everything into growing, not storing up like adults do. I STILL look at my babies and think they look too thin but that is the way they are supposed to look.

Thanks alot, makes me feel a bit more at ease now! il pop out and grab some mealworms and see if he fancys a worm or 5 later on

Just to add my 2 cents...something with juvies is it's said you should keep them a bit warmer for them. Even going as high as 97*f isn't unreasonable. I would suggest 94-97*f hot side temp range for such young leos. Keeping it warmer tends to make them more active (even if is to try to thermoregulate or exploring) which will increase appetite.

Also I would try handfeeding juvies before a dish simply because it helps them get use to your hands intruding in their tank (plus active prey riggers hunting responses)... being a prey creature usually anything larger than them is trying to tun them into lunch so it is wise to desensatize to our intrusions into their habitat. Best way to do that is food. It also helps your leo to bond with you. I use tweezers and drop food directly in front of eros... he loves it. But he won't eat out of a dish

Those mealies (or whatever they are) are a little larger than I'd be comfortable feeding. They're pushing the large side limit of food should't be bigger around than the space between their eyes. Are you feeding them in their vivs or in a seperate feeding contaner? Do you know what the leos were being fed before they came into your possession. Your vivs are nice but be careful with pointy artificial foliage. It could damage their eyes or baby skin can get scratched. And the substrait... which was already mentioned. There's a useful thread in the housing section on different safe substraits.

So... hope some of that was helpful... welcome to the forum

Thanks Kel for pointing out the even higher temps for babies.

Thats great il knock the thermostat up a little bit again was sitting at around 92 degrees il see if i can get it to 96 on average. i have been trying in the viv mostly but i have tried a seperate container aswell to see if that had any effect. the big worm in the picture is a wax worm i thought he might have eaten it as ive heard they love them. il set the temperature before i go out to work and he should be up and about when i come in at 11.30 and il see if he has a bit more appetite

thanks

Happy to help. I think once you change the substrait and are able to bedded in his viv more efficiently and the temps are up they'll be eating like champs. Try to keep them in their vivs when feeding as the constant move still stress them. They're not tegus, they won't get habitat aggressive.

Wow I love your vivs.. they look really nice ^ ^ and your baby leos are soooo cute :P

Thanks ! yea there great little things !

and i spent hours decorating those viv's got a bit obsessed if im honest my partner thinks im sad!

Well SUCCESS - came back from work tonight and little rambo had 4 crickets (i fed him two and he caught two on his own)

Big relief!

Thats great to hear

Well done, and good luck with your gecko future!

Yay for little rambo. Just be careful leaving free range crix unattended with your leo. Crix can and do harass leos and could nibble and bite them.

Yippeeee. That's great!