Tiny and filled with rage

[llleopardgecko]

In the last month or so I purchased a Leopard Gecko, I think she's a juvenile, and here name is Lewis. For the first several weeks she was just tiny and filled with rage. There was a lengthy period where she wouldn't eat and it stressed me out quite a bit, but I started hand feeding her wax worms and then mealworms and raised the tank temp (it was a little low on the warm side around 80-83°). Now I've hit a snag. She has warmed up to me considerably since I started doing this, and I've decreased the wax worms now that she's eating again. But how do I get her to eat from the food dish again? It's like she won't even acknowledge it now. A picture included just because.

 

[Josh]

You may have to just wait her out. She'll get hungry enough to eat out of the bowl. It will probably just take her a little bit longer to get hungry enough to look there. How often are you feeding right now?

 

[llleopardgecko]

I've left one or two mealworms in her bowl consistently, but she isn't interested in them. And then the last week or so I have been feeding her a combination of wax worms and mealworms usually 2-4 a day, just to get her to eat. Which she does readily, she just won't eat out of the bowl.

 

[acpart]

She has you well trained! If you hold a mealworm up to her, will she take it from your hand? I think the first step is to see if she will eat only mealworms and not waxworms from your hand, since some geckos get kind of addicted to waxworms. The next step is to start feeding her over her bowl. Once that's established, try getting her attention to the mealworm in your hand and then dropping it into the bowl before she can grab it to see if she'll grab it from the bowl. This will also help her associate the bowl with feeding time. It's also useful to put a whole lot of mealworms in the bowl so there's enough movement to get her interested.

Aliza

 

[llleopardgecko]

She has you well trained! If you hold a mealworm up to her, will she take it from your hand? I think the first step is to see if she will eat only mealworms and not waxworms from your hand, since some geckos get kind of addicted to waxworms. The next step is to start feeding her over her bowl. Once that's established, try getting her attention to the mealworm in your hand and then dropping it into the bowl before she can grab it to see if she'll grab it from the bowl. This will also help her associate the bowl with feeding time. It's also useful to put a whole lot of mealworms in the bowl so there's enough movement to get her interested.

Aliza

So, I don't love touching the worms, so I use a pair of short tweezers and offer it to her as she's either on my hand or in her tank. She eats the mealworms pretty consistently but I do still offer the odd wax worm. I'm going to give filling the dish with more worms a shot. Thanks!

 

[acpart]

You can drop the mealworms in the dish with tweezers as well.

Aliza