Thick Tailed Geckos

[minimetoy]

Hi,

This is my first post, our kids got some Geckos for Christmas. We have had lots of fun feeding and watching them.

Last week 1 gecko which we think is the female has stopped eating crickets. She will not eat them at all, however when we offer meal worms than she will happily eat them. Previously she had no issue with eating crickets. We are unsure why this is happening and we dont want to let her eat to many meal worms. We have let her eat only a couple of meal worms this week and she still does not want to eat crickets.

Has anybody got any ideas or past experience.

Dan

 

[Wild~Touch]

Try feeding her at night, geckos are nocturnal and she possibly needs somewhere to hide, ie a piece of bark, they feel secure if they have somewhere to hide
Hope this helps
Sandee

 

[Chrisreptile]

yep, try the night feeding and a place to hide.

 

[mitchdiamond]

Yeah the tank looks very bare get some peaces of bark and sterilise them and place them in the tank.You could also make a rock structure,but make sure that it's very strong and won't fall over.

 

[minimetoy]

Thanks for the replies, I took the log out before the photo. She sleeps in the log all day and usual comes out at night. We feed them at 9pm each night and over the last few nights there have been a couple of crickets in there all night, which she has not bothered to eat.

Dan

 

[ex1dic]

What are the day/night temperatures like?

 

[Chrisreptile]

mainly check for poos and crickets missing in the morning.
that'll tell ya if theyre eating

 

[sparticus]

this might sound cruel but pull the hind hoping legs of the crickets they could be moving to quick and putting her off.The mealworms are slow moving so try and create this with the crickets and see how you go.

 

[Rocket]

If the female is the one on the sand, she may be gravid.

Place multiple Hides in there, Hollow Rocks caves etc. Do you provide any heating?

Shawn

 

[minimetoy]

Shawn,

The female is the one on the sand, we thought she may be gravid to. How long are they gravid before they lay, we cannot see any eggs however and she has been like that for some time. We will try the multiple hides. We do not provide any heating as yet.

Uptill now she was a really good eater??? Not sure what has happened. The male has also been digging and hiding under the hollow log leaviong her behind, previously they both used to reside in the log. Every so often she joins him.

Dan

 

[MoreliaMatt]

can we get a picture of the enclosure as it normally is? with hides etc?

and a closeup of the female?


have you definately got a pair?

 

[Twiggz]

Just basing this on the pic above:

I wouldn't be jumping to the gravid issue at all......they still seem rather small. Adults will get up to round a total of about 10cm in total length. From the pic they only look bout half that- but i could be wrong.

How old are they roughly?

If they are still rather young i'd be more concerned as to whether the temp is adequate.
You should be keeping young milii at around 27-29deg until they are close to adult size.
What temps are they kept at?

Normally when the temp is down, they will go off their feed- normal.

JMO
Hope it helps is some way.

 

[PhilK]

The crickets could be too big? Try offering crickets th size of the space between her eyes? I'm far from an expert but it's what I tried with my sick Asian House Gecko and he gobbled them up really well.

 

[minimetoy]

Thanks guys,

They are about 2 years old. She did not feed for over a week and a half, she was happy to eat meal worms but we stopped that so that she did not become dependant on them. We got new crickets which were very small and she finally started to eat and has had a healthy appetite since.

We do not have a heat lamp, do Geckos really need a lamp??

Dan

 

[Twiggz]

Not a lamp per say. Depending on the species, most people tend to use heat mats and cord.
Depending on where you live and the temps that your milii as exposed to will determine as to whether you need a heat source.

Milii generally like to be housed at roughly mid to high twenties in the warmer months and basically low twenties/high teens in the cool months.

I live in the illawarra and find that using a 12W heat mat under half the tank over summer works very well (naturally turning it off on days of excessive heat). As for the winter months it stays off completely (with the exception of real low temps ie <10deg).

JMO and hope it helps

 

[MoreliaMatt]

not that i have had mine for longm, but they are just kept at room temp (its the snake room so its the warmest in the house)

and will just use a heatmat at the end of winter to heat up to signal breeding season.