Food for thought...... ;-) When we keep herps in captivity, we try and
simulate nature as much as practical. Clearly purely natural conditions
are not necessary for maintaining herps as I have leopards on blue
Costco towels and they are happy with that. There are other examples of
natural simulation in my collection, like paper towel tubes for Phelsuma
to hide in/bask on. They work.
We also try to give our gex nature-simulated food items that they are
interested in, hoping there is some instinct that clues them into the
eating response when they see things such as mealworms. How much these
simulate nature I am not sure. Crickets and mealworms are good food for
leopards, this is well documented. They hop around and wiggle, just like
back home in the **** wherever our gex came from. Phelsuma like to eat
fruit flies. I can see them eating flies and bees in Madagascar
(McKeown, 1993).
The motion and nutrional quality of the food are probably the most
important things. Without motion in prey items, gex tend to lose
interest. In light of our discussion, it would seem appropriate to
locate the best moving cb food items recommended by quality breeders
instead of maiming insects and offering them as a daily staple. I don't
think there are too many mysteries left, in common herps anyway, as to
what makes a good food item.
There is much more to the subject of gecko feeding that one might think.
It is a neat trick, in my own experience, to convey proper feeding
techniques to newbies - how often, what size, what type, how many at a
time, whew! Gex seem to be preset to go for that large food item, even
those bigger than their heads. Test it out for yourself, put in a large
and small cricket. My advice has been to feed a food item 90-95% of
their head size. The other key is not to over feed. In my experience
this is the most common newbie mistake. Tons of crickets are running
around in the terrarium, and the gecko is overwhelmed! The food also has
nothing to eat except other crickets, so even if the gecko does get
interested, they will be eating "empty" calories.
When feeding mealworms, perhaps the best way is to set them out in a
smooth sided dish. This way the mealworms cannot escape and are on good
visual display for the gex. Very hard, chitinous (exoskeleton type)
worms should not be selected for feeding, wait for these to shed before
feeding them off. Select the soft ones and your gex should be able to
digest under normal circumstances. An unhealthy gecko should not be fed
mealworms, here is the only circumstance I know exists that presents a
danger in mealworm feeding.
Julie,
I think Lauren is about a year old now. Her eating habits have really gone down since she she had her first Fecal test for pinworms in May 2001 which came back positive. In Feb2001, she weighed 42 grams and was eating very good; she now weighs 36 grams and looks very skinny and unhealthy.
She ate 4 large mealworms about 5 days ago, but hasn't touched anything lately. She won't touch a cricket anymore. Tried to give her a wax worm last night and she pretended not to see it.
I had her into the vets on 7/24 because she was still not eating and her stools were loose. They tested her for pinworms and it came back negative. At that time, she weighed 32 grams. We ended up taking her on vacation with us to Myrtle Beach as I had to give her meds of Flagyl and Baytril. On 8/19, she weighed 38 grams.
I know I will probably be taking her to the vets this week because her stools are loose again; however, the last time I took her to the vets, there wasn't any food in her so they couldn't do a fecal exam.
I'd like to get a stool sample, but if she won't eat, do you have any other suggestions?
At what age do you start cutting back the feeding of a gecko from daily to what?
Becky
