Fussy Eaters!

i have two fairly new baby geckos, had them for a month. when i first got them they were quite skinny. i have a great setup for them, everything they need. at first i tried them with baby black crickets but neither seemed interested. they ate one or two but not much more. i tried brown crickets, locusts, meal worms, even the occasional wax worm! they dont seem to eat anything
i put about a tub of locusts in there at one point and i think they have all gradually been eaten because there are none left but its taken a while and both of the geckos are slim- not really healthy size. just now i literally watched both Orion and Maynard look at the meal worms and a cricket and just wander away from them! i have supplied a dish of jam, fruit, baby food and they were left untouched! what should i do?
(i had a leo before these two and he was not fussy, ate a fair bit of food)

Hi, Since they are housed together, there may be fighting going on, meaning they are both stressed out and so not up for food.

Are the feeders the right size?

Also, what is the set up like? Are the temps correct?
It is perfectly normal for gecko's to slow down their eating over the winter period and maybe not even eat at all.


Jam, and fruit and baby food are not good AT ALL for leo's in fact it would do more harm than good if they ate it. Especially baby food as it contains vitamin A which can be toxic to leo's.

Hi and welcome to the forum
Let us know about your set up and we should be able to help a bit more.
Thank you

Jordan, Admin

hi. i have researched everything for about a billion times! the net is so full of contradiction. i haveb a meter and half vivarium with heat mat and bulb. the temperature gets to 93F during the day and about 75F durin the night. there is water supplied. the substrate is small wood chip, specifically designed from my local pet store. i have noticed some odd behaviour between the two geckos- no fighting but earlier Orion crept up to Maynard. Maynards neck began to pulsate like when a gecko is hunting. then a little while later Orion licked Maynards nose and Maynard did the same back. i have a feeling looking at them that one is male one is female.
as for feeding jam baby food and fruit, this advice is from a man i know who has a pair of 7 year old leos. he feeds them a mixture if he has not seen them eat for a while. both of his are to be healthy so im assuming that it would be ok.
thanks for the advice- i do worry about them, dont want to make any horrible mistakes

Yes it's tough to find a caresheet that can be fully trusted.
Thats why forums are the best way.

93 is a good temp and so is 75f, so i wouldn't say your temps are the problem.

'Loose' substrates (e.g. woodchip, sand etc) are generally frowned upon and thought as bad for leo's as they can ingest the substrate which can cause impaction and digestion issues.
(I'd recommend changing your substrate, HOWEVER, i experimented with a small wood chip type substrate for a while and found no problems, so i wouldn't completely disagree with you if you kept it) but it could be the issue.

Are they both the same age? what age are they?
If they are male and female they will need seperated soon, as there are a whole range of problems that can arise from that. A lot of which can lead to death of either sex.

Gecko's digestive systems are not designed for fruit. They are insectivorous and should only eat suggested insects and worms.
Are you sure the man has Leopard gecko's and not some other form of gecko? as there are plenty that DO eat fruit.


You could post picture's of the gecko's if you would like us to tell you which sex they are. A clear picture of their groin/pelvis area would do it. However it is hard to say 100% with young leo's so it may be hard if your leo's are young.

hi. i think my geckos are little over a month old. perhaps 6-8 weeks. im sure they are the same age but the man that sold them to me was extremely unhelpful. i know about substrate and impaction however i used to use kitchen roll and all the insects would hide underneath from the geckos. what substrate would you suggest i use?
the man i know definately has two leopard geckos, no question, and he isnt the only person i have talked to that has fed leos fruit or baby food. i wont attempt to in future as you say it is unhealthy.
i dont wish to attempt to take any photographs of my geckos- they are both only just getting used to me and are both timid, i dont want to stress them out. but i did read that body shape can say a lot about the sex, is this true?
maynard is slimmer with more streamlined features whereas Orion has quite chunky features and a larger throat which is especially visible when observing him breathe.

To be honest i would have suggested kitchen roll. haha.
But i know its quite common for people to use different type of tiles.
There is a caresheet within the forum, here: https://leopardgecko.forumotion.co.uk/t55-proper-housing-for-leopared-gecko
which takes you through all about housing how to do a brilliant housing environment for your leo.

Thank you for trusting me and not feeding your gecko's things it shouldnt be fed haha.

hope the caresheet helps.

Fair enough, taking photos can be stressful for them and if they aren't eating already then that could make it worse.

Shape can say a lot about sex but mostly only in adults.
At a young age they are barely sex-able, until about 4 months old.

hi, any updates on this?

well the wierd thing is that the hungry gecko is now eating and fat and the prevoiusly fat gecko has become skinny. its just really odd. im sure if there was something wrong with the tank both of them would stop eating.

I see your point yeh. I think the weird eating habits can be quite common with 'Pet shop' gecko's.
I cant think of any reasons for it exactly but i've heard a lot of cases of gecko's bought from large commercial pet store's to have weird eating patterns.

If you have any spare large boxes or tanks, then a good thing to do would be to seperate them and deal with them individually. Illness's could be a common cause for not eating, do their feces look normal?

well the one that has just turned ill seems to have runnier feces but the fact that he has feces surely indicates he may be eating? i have observed them both together and they never fight, they seemto always stick together so i dont think he is bein bullied

hi Violeteyes,
might be a idea to get them checked by a reptile vet as they could have worms which will need treating, if you have a reptile vet take a sample of each geckos poo with you as the vet should ask you for one.
sam

Feces can indicate eating, however gecko's can produce small amounts of feces for a long time without having eaten anything. If its runny, it may be a good idea to get checked by a vet. Any vet can do fecal tests, and give you the results, but a reptile vet will be able to suggest what your next step should be and will know what they are talking about.

unfortunately as i learned with my previous gecko, vets are very expensive and with my last one i asked for a feces test however they didnt do one. no idea why. but im not willing to pay £50 to be told they dont know what is wrong. i may search out a vet elsewhere.

yup vets are like that sometimes

May i ask where about it is you live as someone may know of a good vet near you?

you could get the samples sent off to a lab yourself and get the results sent back to you, here's pinmoore animal laboratory services website www.palsvetlab.co.uk they do all the fecal tests you'll need.

thanks for that link, really helful, i will do that.

i live in dover and the last vet i used was called Burnham house. i took my pet gecko and asked for a fecal examination (i had a feces sample with me) and they didnt do one, i now think my previous gecko stopped eating because of the shock of being moved (he stopped eating when we moved into a new flat) also the vets charge extortionate prices so i dont wish to pay for them just to tell me he is too skinny and i should keep him warm (again).
as for the feces website, it is very confusing. how much is a fecal examination and where do i send it? thanks

Having runny poo still doesn't totally indicate that the leo is eating. waste is produced in the body even with out the introduction of food esp. if you suspect parasites and there's no appetite. The parasites produce waste that would be expelled in the leos feces hence creating the runny poo. It could be that it's not really the leo's excriment but lil invaders and secondary waste in the leo's system.

With MOST animals when there's nothing going in you'll end up seeing something called GI Stasis wher the GI stos working since there's no food to be digested. Stasis can be reversed and often ends up in constipation tho not runny poo. Parasites is generally the usually suspect for runny poo (or inappropriate diet but since we don't know that the leo is eating and it has now affect3d BOTH leos I'd suspect parasites or partial impaction). Partial impaction would also cause runny poo. The intestines being aprtially blocked and the poo having to ribbon it's way around teh blockage... whether the blockage is being caused by parasites or ingesting too many shelled feeders or other means is about impossible to tell.

Body shape can help to give you an idea of gender... females will be more pear shaped from front to back, males more streamlined, but after my male eats a shed or a good meal he also appears kind of pear shaped the way a female would because of the full belly. You can also get a good idea by the shape and number of scales around the vent area. Females will have consistantly larger scales thru out the vent area wheras males have smaller more inconsistant in shape scales tapering in size the closer you get to the pores and the vent area.

ok, well il look into fecal samples but as i currently have NO money at all, it might have to be a week or two till i do
if i separated my geckos and put the skinny one in a different home for a while with different substrate (such as kitchen roll) is that a good idea or bad? i want to try anything to get him better and the idea of him having parasites and me not being able to help is horrible.

I honestly would seperate the 2 solely for the reason it is easier to monitor who is eating what and what poos are being left by which gecko in case a fecal does need to be done. Also just in case they do both haev parasites, if it is a different parasite each oen has they won't infect the other leo any worse than they already could be. Putting them both on kitchen roll won't be harmful. It'll just better enable you to clean things completely and maintain a more hospital like environment to make sure their poo related issues aren't environmentally related.

ok thanks i have contacted my local vet and asked about costs of a fecal exam, if i can afford it i will try to get one this weekend. i will try to seperate the geckos best i can, although without another proper vivarium this could be tricky.

Depending on how big your uth is you could put them in temporary plastic tubs end to end both sharing the same uth maybe???

As just a temporary home, anything can be used. It doesn't have to be big and fancy. A lunchbox would do it, as long as it had air holes.
For a hide you can use many things, a toilet roll tube cut in half, a toblerone box, anything lol.
A water dish can just be a small ramekin dish, or even a bottle cap, if the gecko is young.
They can go without a calcium cap temporarily.
And Kel mentioned about heating above.

using tubs end to end is a great idea. il see if it will fit. i just got off the phone to my nearest reptile vet and he poo pooed the idea of getting a fecal examination and told me to take the gecko straight to him (costing £30 or £60 with treatment) so i dont really know what to do. if its not parasites, worms or anything that can be seen in feces then what can it be? i dont want to spend £30-£60 just to be told he has strange eating habits or maybe the temperature is slightly wrong.

Well if you don't want to go in just to be told something pointless, then that's the reason to actually get a fecal exam.

If it comes back negative then you know not to take it in to the vet, and we will look more closely at husbandry issues.

If it comes back positive then you DO have reason to take the gecko in, as they will surely help you deal with parasites.