hannahs_haven
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Hi! I'm new to keeping leopard geckos but have experience with keeping other reptiles. I took in three leopard geckos from someone that couldn't take care of them anymore yesterday. One female has some pretty severe MBD and has a very difficult time aiming to eat her food let alone catching. All three are quite weak as well as they are all severe underweight (getting weights on them in the morning to track their progress). All three have eaten butterworms and two gobbled them up as soon as I offered them. The female with MBD ate one this morning.
I tried offering 1/4 inch crickets tonight but it didn't go to well. I cut the legs off the crickets (morbid I know) so they would have an easier time eating them but it didn't work to well and they were still able to get away from the geckos. The male who is in the best condition ate two but it took a lot of help. The stronger female was able to get one but it took her about 15 minutes and it took a lot of help. The female with MBD couldn't catch any and when I immobilized them enough for her they didn't move enough to instead her, she is also terrified of me so I can't even help keep the crickets from getting away from her like I did with the others.
Ideally I wouldn't want to feed them crickets at all because they are awful feeder to keep alive but I live in Canada and dubia roaches are illegal here and I have to keep some for my fire bellies toads anyways. I also don't want to feed mealworms because of the impaction risk, the fact that I have to buy 100 at a time and then deal with the beetles, and many other risks that I have heard about them.
I have easy access to hornworms, butterworms, waxworms, sow bugs (isopods), phoenix worms, and sometimes silkworms. I also have night crawler earthworms I kept for my African Clawed frogs that I could feed as well but I heard many turn them done and there not to nutritious anyways. I could also start a culture of house or blue bottle flies as well as I have a friends who did it for some veryyyyy picky tree frogs.
Does anyone have any experience with special needs geckos and have any advice. Going to see my exotic vet as soon as she gets an opening and see what she says too. Thanks!
I tried offering 1/4 inch crickets tonight but it didn't go to well. I cut the legs off the crickets (morbid I know) so they would have an easier time eating them but it didn't work to well and they were still able to get away from the geckos. The male who is in the best condition ate two but it took a lot of help. The stronger female was able to get one but it took her about 15 minutes and it took a lot of help. The female with MBD couldn't catch any and when I immobilized them enough for her they didn't move enough to instead her, she is also terrified of me so I can't even help keep the crickets from getting away from her like I did with the others.
Ideally I wouldn't want to feed them crickets at all because they are awful feeder to keep alive but I live in Canada and dubia roaches are illegal here and I have to keep some for my fire bellies toads anyways. I also don't want to feed mealworms because of the impaction risk, the fact that I have to buy 100 at a time and then deal with the beetles, and many other risks that I have heard about them.
I have easy access to hornworms, butterworms, waxworms, sow bugs (isopods), phoenix worms, and sometimes silkworms. I also have night crawler earthworms I kept for my African Clawed frogs that I could feed as well but I heard many turn them done and there not to nutritious anyways. I could also start a culture of house or blue bottle flies as well as I have a friends who did it for some veryyyyy picky tree frogs.
Does anyone have any experience with special needs geckos and have any advice. Going to see my exotic vet as soon as she gets an opening and see what she says too. Thanks!