Diane, I'm no expert, but from my experience and what I've read, most cold-blooded creatures will eat less when their habitat is kept at a lower than ideal temperature.
For my one adult male (3 yrs old) Leopard Gecko (Thrasymachus), I use repti-carpet (which I hand wash at least once a month -- I have two so I can give him a fresh carpet when the other one is drying), a one hundred watt heat emitter, and a humidity shelter (with moistened sphagnum moss [great stuff because its naturally anti-bacterial) directly under the heat emitter (it's a hand-built shelter that has a wooden platform for a lid, with stones to absorb some of the heat attached to the wood). His defecatoria is on the cool side of the 30 gallon tank (I use calcium sand [zoo med is the only brand I like] in this area to keep the carpet clean). The warm side of the tank ranges between 85 in the evening (when the emitter is turned off by a household timer), to ~95-100 in the daytime. The cool side ranges from 65 in the evening to 75 in the daytime (I have a thermometer on both sides). Thrasymachus eats ~15 4wk old crickets, once a week. He is really slow moving, so I use one of those "ant-hill" contraptions they sell at pet stores that makes the crickets emerge one-by-one, single file, and not until they find the hole in the dark. He sometimes climbs up on the hill and pounces on them as they come out--very cute. Sometimes I'll give him a treat of wax worms or butter worms (they're fatty and delicious and stay alive [dormant] for weeks in the fridge). He gobbles these up hastily and seems to relish them. It's also very important to take care of your food and feed your food well. Gutloading! My crickets, I feed on Dr. Gecko's Ultimate Feeder Insect Diet (home-made). You can find the recipe here: http://www.drgecko.com/insectdiet.htm. Very cheap to make and it lasts forever, vacuum sealed and frozen. This is a dry diet. I use the fluker's cricket globules (whatever they're called) for water in my cricket tank. Sometimes I'll give them a leaf of Kale or Collard greens (which are both great because they dry up rather than rot when left out). I feed these to my bearded dragon, Smaug, who waits until they dry out and eats them like chips. I line the floor of my cricket tank (about 150 crickets in a 10 gallon tank) with moistened sphagnum moss mixed with a small amount of play sand to avoid the environment getting too wet. The food and water globules are both placed on dishes inside saucers in order that no food gets knocked on the moss and promotes mold growth. I give the crickets a paper egg carton or two and/or paper towel rolls to hang out in. I've had crickets live for a month in an environment like this, with minimal smell and few deaths. I've had Thrasymachus since he was about 5 months old. When he was a juvenile he lived in the same habitat, but he ate ~10 2wk old crickets every other day. Today, he is very healthy, has a big fat tail, he's relatively active for a creature with such a low metabolism, and he's very cheerful--of course it's hard to tell if a leo is unhappy with that smile carved into their faces. I'm sure Thrasymachus is happy though. I hope this helps some. Good luck with Enzo! -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Diane Rudesal Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 7:52 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [gecko]New gecko questions Thanks for your input, Sonya. I think Enzo is getting better now. He seems to like the changes I made back to what he was used to. I think a lot of his problem was stress, as you mentioned. The sand might not be ideal, but he seems to prefer it since that's what he grew up with. I think I freaked him out a little today when I tried adding heat above his tank again (see my message in response to Elizabeth) but after I took it off again he went back in his house on the side with the undertank heater. Diane On Wed, 26 Sep 2007 21:38:52 -0500, "Sonya Owings" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > Diane, > > I am assuming that you are talking about leopard geckos. I agree tha > tthe calci-sand is not good. The sand pieces are not round, they have > sharp edges on them. I actually just use paper towels. As for the > light, leopard geckos are more of a nocturnal gecko, they do not need a > light. Do make sure that you have an under tank heater on one side of > the tank and a cooler side too. They also like to have hiding places > during the day. > > I also had trouble with a male that I bought at a reptile show. It > seemed very healthy but once home would not eat. Finally started eating > and got to be healthy again. However, I then moved it and the same > thing happened. I think he just really stresses out. > > Hope your gecko gets better! > Sonya > > _______________________________________________ > Global Gecko Association > http://www.gekkota.com > Classifieds > http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi > gecko mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko -- Diane Rudesal [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- http://www.fastmail.fm - The professional email service _______________________________________________ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko _______________________________________________ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko
