GoHerping you forgot about the fact that they won’t eat 1. When there shedding 2. They don’t eat when there burmating and 3.they don’t eat during part of there mating season
When you mentioned mixing the bugs together, I thought of leopard geckos in cute lil suits, ties and evening dresses going to a fancy restaurant and order stuff like” cricket stuffed Dubia roach” and “Mealworms in a Superworm sauce, no garlic”
honestly, if somebody is uncomfortable feeding leopard geckos live insects, then they shouldn't have taken on the responsibility of caring for them in the first place.
When I was younger I couldn't deal with live feeders, so I didn't have any pets which required live insects. Period. I also can't feed snakes live, so I make DAMN sure any snake I am going to consider buying is on f/t.
Yup welcome to my world. Ziggy didn’t eat for months as she was ovulating, barely lost any weight. Then she started eat and refused crickets for months. Then literally one day she decided she absolutely loves crickets. Leo’s are definitely very very picky and a little unpredictable 😂
my older girl leo has gone off the food now. happens every year like clockwork. her belly's pretty much confirmed her ovulation. my younger leo can at least be relied on to eat, so I'm not getting bugs for nothing. :D
Leopard Gecko hey can u plz answer my question when I hit a new juvenile leopard gecko yesterday and he is super Afraid will even try to bite me most the time what should I do??? Plz I need a little help
I’m high, have no pets, and have an exam tomorrow, but I love this and all of your animals :) just started watching and I get mesmerized by the knowledge and this amazing animals
my leopard gecko doesn’t like the long shiny metal tongues! he won’t eat from it, and will run from it. Same with one of my bearded dragons but my other bearded dragon does not care at all he’s like gimme dat worm
@@purpleray9406 mine is the complete opposite. I've been feeding my leo off of metal tongs for a week or so, and now he'll just try to eat the tongs instead of the insects. Had to switch to bowl feeding lmao
Really ?? I'm going to try that . I've been thinking she might not like the bowl because it's kind of flimsy and she likes to stand on her water bowl to drink sometimes .
Mine has started refusing food off of the tongs but if I leave it on top of her hide she’ll eat it.🤦♀️ I’ve had her for 8 months and she’s just now refusing food.
I dont even get how you can feed your gecko freeze dried insects, when an insect just sits still for a little too long my gecko just seems to forget she was hunting it a second ago...
Yes they are, freeze drying holds onto 90+% of nutrients of anything. It just has no water like a normal insect would, and very slightly less nutrients. Still nutritious though. @Samira Noor
90% nutrient retention of the original insect that was put into the freeze drying process to begin with. The moisture that lizards need is irrelevant as no one mentioned moisture or water and it isn't a nutrient. Freeze dried insects are NOT just an exoskeleton, any and all nutrients are stuck in a solid state inside the insect. If you fed these insects properly, or even gutloaded them with nutrients, then freeze dried them, those nutrients would still be in that cricket, in a dry form. Freezing and thawing actually retains LESS nutrients percentage wise, on average than dry freezing does, because of the number of cells destroyed due to slow freezing process and ice crystals. To put it simply if you gutloaded 2 crickets, froze one in a freezer then thawed it out a few days later, and you took the other and freeze dried it, then tested the nutrients, the frozen and thawed one would have less nutrients than the freeze dried one, on average. This is true even with something as watery as a watermelon piece, far more water content than a cricket. There are plenty of studies showing freeze drying is the most efficient nutrient retention out of any way of storage similar. @Samira Noor
8:03 Yep. I once left a few waxworms in my gecko's dish and left a few crickets aswell in his cage. Came back a few minutes later to a cricket eating the waxworms and my gecko just not caring at all.
Omg yes. Geck just rolled her eyes at the wax worms as the cricket pulled them away and ate them. She ate the crickets later and got some super fat filled ones🤷♀️
In all honesty, I’m having trouble with my leopard gecko eating anything that moves, even things outside his cage Edit: I’m showing him this video, and he’s very interested with the geckos on screen
A reason why my gecko isn't eating sometimes is because she is going to lay eggs and in this time she just won't eat, but right after she laid them she is as hungry as ever and she eats just fine so for me there is no reason to worry and if that's the case for your gecko don't panic and just make sure that she can lay her eggs without problems
yeah i've had this problem with my crested gecko, i only have the 1 female cresty (no males) but she'll lay unfertilized eggs a couple times a year. i'll worry for a few days before i even remember she's probably about to lay eggs. i switched her to the breeding formula of pangea to help her with the needed extra calcium she more than likely needs during. and she seems to like it better than the other formulas but it could also just be her body needs the extra calcium so making her crave it more.
You forgot to mention about how they may go off feed for the breeding season, both female and male. Breeding season is around january to june/july. They may even go off feed for the entire breeding season. My boy has currently been off feed since the middle of february. He is constantly looking for a female, looking for a way out. His tail is still fat and his body is at a healthy size. I always try every other insect just to be sure as well as not dusting the insect to make sure it isn't the supplement.
My gecko stopped eating a few weeks ago. I tried the method where I cut the mealy open and she tasted the blood and then was interested in just 2 that I had to dangle in front of her. She used to eat rampantly. It's been a few weeks since she has consistently ate and I am very worried. Could it be because of breeding season?
So I have a male leopard and he hasn't ate for 2 weeks. My only concern is that some of his tail has thinned out. Help me someone please! I have 3 other geckos that are great eaters. I mix it up on purpose so they dont get bored. But the one that wont eat is concerning me highly.
My leopard gecko was originally owned by some jackasses who abandoned him during their move. Instead of rehoming him, they shoved him in a plastic container and left him to die in the back of a closet. He was in there for weeks until the new family that moved in found him. Poor guy was missing his tail and was extremely malnourished, but he somehow survived. I’ve had him for two years now and he’s doing great. He’s not picky with insects or vitamins and he’s also super friendly despite everything that happened. Sometimes I have him hang out on my desk while I work. He just chills or tries to walk off the desk’s edge. He’s such a stupid idiot. I love him.
It's such a relief to hear that it isn't uncommon for leopard geckos to go weeks or over a month without eating. I get so worried over mine when she doesn't eat for weeks (and she always stops eating in the winter and summer), but her weight hardly changes.
My dad kept a leopard gecko that would only eat out of HIS hand. Not a bowl, not tongs, not my hand or our pet sitters hand, only his hand. She was so incredibly picky. Most of her life she only ate crickets, I am not sure that when we got her 20 years ago we even knew other insects were an option. When she saw him with the insect she would walk over really close to make sure it was moving, but if it touched her with a foot or antena she would walk away and possibly not eat that day. He had a certain way he would hold crickets so one leg would twitch but their antenna were held back. She lived for 18 years and twice over that time my dad was hospitalized for long periods, we did everything we could to get her to eat but it never worked. We held them like he did, tried to do everything the same, but she only would eat if it was my dad feeding her. The funny thing is his other leopard gecko, who I think even was from the same clutch as the first one ate everything in sight. If it moved, she tried to put it in her mouth.
I felt really stupid for not just googling why my oldest leo wouldn't eat but I also felt apprehensive about possibly getting the wrong information but I can easily tell that you really care about your Leo's along with all of your herps! This video helped immensely and I'm now happy to say that my old boy is eating again 🥰
Even though this is an old video, I want to thank you cause you literally saved my geck. She hasn't eaten for months and is really tiny now due to losing so much weight and for a long time I passed it by as if it was gecko puberty (I saw somewhere online that geckos can go through puberty at an early age and will have symptoms of skittishness, hiding a lot more, not going towards heat, not eating, etc.) and then someone today mentioned that it might be brumation, and told me that crickets are better for them than mealworms. I was hesitant at first because I absolutely hate bugs, especially ones that move quick like how crickets do, but I introduced them to her after seeing this video and hearing that it could just be her being picky. Sure enough, I introduced her to one by killing it first and then putting it in front of her so she could get a taste, and she absolutely loved crickets. So for now I am a gecko and cricket owner (:
I didn't realize that my bowl for meal worms wasn't high enough so a bunch escaped and I didn't realize, so I keep finding beetles every where lol Time to add them to the mealworm far :)
My leo ate the day after I got it. It's very brave. It was being kept on some kind of bark/mulch stuff (not sharp, not small enough to be eaten) but it was kept with some other geckos and had 1 hide. They were babies so being kept together I can understand but 1 hide? Thankfully none of them seemed unhealthy, and the guy working there seemed very informed about their diet, they are fed locally sourced dubias. The tank it's in now has a bioactive substrate, a hot hide, humid hide, and cool hide, and even some places to climb. It immediatly got exploring and loves to sprawl out in its hot hide. I fed it 3 baby dubias and a small mealworm.
some one else motioned it but if its a female she could be about to lay eggs. i have 1 crested gecko, it's a female, but she'll still lay eggs, unfertilized though.
I had two really old female Leo's, like, over 12 years old, who lived together since they were sister's and never had a problem with each other. One day they just stopped eating, tried different foods and supplements. It was almost 8 months before they finally passed away, I believe they were just really old as they were going blind and slept a lot of the time so I think they just decided it was time. Such great pets, bless them.
I feel soooo much better about my fear and dislike for insects now lol thank you 😂 I don’t know if I’ll ever be brave enough to touch them but knowing I’m not alone and someone like you also feels weirded out by them is super comforting. I was told I should re-home the bearded dragon I just rescued if I don’t like bugs... I don’t like dead mice but I wouldn’t rehome my snake over that I just deal with watching their cute faces be devoured
So glad I came across this video, my one leopard gecko who I've had for 6 years suddenly has not been eating for two weeks( never refused to eat before) and he's always eaten mealworms or superworms. I'm going to offer him other insects to see if he'll eat that.
I really appreciate your talking about the difference in metabolisms in reptiles because it's also probably key to understanding many of their differences from a mammalian perspective 🤔
I’m getting a leopard gecko in less then a month and I’m watching a lot of your videos and I really wanna make sure I have the right care and make sure he’s happy
After being in a Leopard Gecko group without a FAQ or members with search bars, I really wish you'd have talked about ovulation because I had to explain it to 10 different people :/ Basically, if your female doesn't eat in the springtime it's most likely due to ovulation
do female leopards lay unfertilized eggs even when they've never been around a male? my crested does, was just wondering if they did too. i don't even own a male crested or any other crested and she still does it.
Thank you for your help. Lots of important information and very helpful. I have tried crickets they are way to complicated and it is to much to keep alive.
we’ve had 2 leopard geckos for 3 days now, and the baby boy we have eats crickets, mealworms and waxworms. but the baby girl we got hasn’t really eaten much, and the lady we got her from said she only eats crickets, and we gave her crickets but she doesn’t like them. she’s slowly starting to eat mealworms now, but not as much. it was very scary because i thought she was sick and that there was something wrong but she may be stressed in a new home with another gecko.
I’ve owned leopard geckos for years now and the best trick is honestly to hold the insect with tweezers or tongs and rub them on the geckos nose and mouth. If it doesn’t make them hungry, it’ll sure as hell piss them off and make them bite. I don’t do this unless I’ve become seriously worried about the health of my gecko, but it can really help the animal regain its appetite. With that being said, it’s not good to make it a common practice as it can annoy or stress out your animal.
this was super helpful! i have an extremely old leopard gecko named norie, he used to love crickets and mealworms but now he refuses to eat anything but waxworms and superworms. he wont eat out of a bowl and hates the vitamin powder too.
I just got out of Avengers Endgame and have to get up for work in 4 hours. Instead I'm watching videos about small vertebrates I haven't had to care for since high school
Thanks so much for all your help and support for our new leopard gecko I will definitely watch all the videos and also recommend your channel to all my friends.
So I got my leopard gecko from a girl that was losing interest in her, and you could tell. The cage was an absolute mess, they used sand, I think it might have been play sand because it was extremely dusty and they just dumped a bunch of freeze dried meal worms in there. Luckily the gecko's tail wasn't slim. I changed the sand to eco earth, and now she gets fed live meal worms and crickets. Also the heat mat was in the middle and the hides were just in a row. I'm glad I got her and not someone else that could have been worse. She is doing great right now and her tail is nice and fat.
just got three month old leopard gecko 3 days ago and last night he ate three crickets i was so proud lol hope to get him eating more and more regularly once he settles in
I got my Leo about, say, a week ago. We were new to it as much as it was new to us.. so it was concerning when she did not eat her superworm nor her mealworm for the first week. When it was the seventh day, we introduced crickets. She didn’t eat. A few days after trying cricket and worms, she finally ate about two crickets! I was so excited! I fed her the next-next day and she ate a cricket again, YAY!... bad part is.. she regurged it 😕 after that I was losing hope, I thought we’d have to go to the vet.. we kept trying tho. Day after day. And.. what we’ve learnt is that she doesn’t like calcium on her crickets, so we give her a choice if she wants calcium or not. Secondly, we only feed her smaller crickets without they’re legs because we believe she resurgence because of size. Thirdly, we try worms, but she hardly bats an eye at them. Thanks for reading my Leo journey. My note to GoHerping: yes, crickets are a hassle, but they are the only stable diet she’s even tried to stick with. An alternative to the hassle would be to cut the legs off (which is what I do) to prevent “annoyance”. Thx for your feed back, love your vids! Keep it up!
Could you do a video on how you store your feeder insects? I know some people keep them in fridges but I know of others that keep them in tubs to care for
my bearded dragon came from Craigslist, and was pretty scrawny. He started eating crazy and gaining weight. Now he’s a healthy weight but he’s a adult and he doesn’t eat very much or often since he’s not growing and is a good size. I get scared quite often but everyone I ask say don’t be worried
When I got my leopard gecko she was so underweight that she ate from my hand the day I brought her home. After 45 days, she was up to the perfect weight for her size (even a bit chunkier). I would give her crickets and mealworm, but about a month ago she just completely went "Nah I'm not hungry". She's only lost 1g and looks fantastic....but she hasn't pooped in like 3 weeks. I'm getting her a nice array of insects at a speciality shop today, but I'm glad I saw that she's fine
Thank you so much for telling me about this, because I was freaking out, my lizard hasn't been eating for 2 weeks. I have been completely freaking out. Thank you for telling me this, or else I would have went completely insane😂
My gecko won't eat from a bowl and I have to tong feed him but even that's not working. His heat mat caught fire last week so we had to buy him a new enclosure, most of his things had to go so I think the main reason he's not eating might be because he's adjusting still and his tail is nice and fat. Thank you for making this video, I'm a lot less worried now and knowing he's just getting used to an all-new enclosure is really comforting.
My gecko is a rescue who was in a 10 gallon tank for however long she was alive before I found her abandoned. She has MBD and did super well after I brought her home and got the fertilizer soil out of her tank! I decided to move her into a proper 20 gallon tank and she stopped eating and showed signs of a lot of stress. I moved her back into the 10 gallon and she began to eat and move around again happily like she used to. She’s super tiny since she didn’t get to grow in proper conditions (and without heat).
Rewatching your videos because I always love to see the reptiles but also your commentary is great! Funny enough, I got two female Leopard Geckos a couple years back, one is a super great eater, the other is okay, she gets extremely picky during late winter/early spring (and I know that's normal), after trying everything I did give her Grub Pie, which she wasn't a fan of but she did eat it which got her to increase her appetite again, I really only used it in an emergency where she was losing weight. Still healthy! But she is definitely a brat when it comes to insects.
@@nightinggale6470 not anymore, they use to be when they were juveniles, but once they were close to being adults I got another enclosure and separated them. This is normal for her to be very picky during the winter, I really could have gone without giving her the grub pie, she still had a good plump tail. The weather is getting warmer where I am so now she's not being as picky about eating
What my toads and my leopard gecko and I Axolotl don't eat my bearded dragon will so nothing goes to waste in the mosteller house Also the supplements and calcium are pretty good they don't taste chemically
My friends leo likes to go on hunger strikes(Shes never lost weight on her hunger strikes so shes not concerned) it usually happens when her apartments temperature fluctuates so during heat waves and cold waves she'll go off her feed for a couple weeks she especially doesnt like the heat waves.
Another reason! If you have a female leopord gecko, sometimes, they may not be eating because they're ovulating. Whenever my adult female leo is ovulating and fairly close to laying eggs, she will act very hungry and wants to eat, but just can't. You can also recognize this with different signs, like their stomach being larger and firmer, and them laying on their tummy more. Don't worry if this happens! It may take a little while, but after the eggs are laid, they should go back to eating.
Great advice! I've experienced everything you've mentioned. My Murphy Patternless only eats dubia's, my Mack Snow eats crickets and dubia's. Used to freak out about the fact that my Murphy, but you can easily spot if your gecko is losing weight. In the end it was all fine and she even gained 5 grams over the course of 6 months!
its pretty obvious this was your passion man. love the vids, you're super informative. i never not one time in my life ever plan to get a pet that you keep, or any of the T keepers i watch that they keep, but i still watch all these videos religiously. i love animals, always have, its my passion, i just got nfi how to get involved in the field, so i live it through you guys.
HORN WORMS SAVED MY GECKOS LIFE! I rescued him and he was too weak to eat or catch anything. His tail was literally the width of a pencil. But as soon as I introduced hornworms he fell in love. Once he had enough energy I switched to wax worms (way cheaper) then to giant meal worms and now he loves them! He put on a TON of weight in the last month I’m so thankful.
Just a friendly heads up, catching wild insects for your reptiles isn't recommended because you dont know what they've been eating or what diseases/parasites/pesticides they may have come into contact with.
i just figured this out tonight. i got my leopard gecko 2 weeks ago. i noticed she was barely eating. i bought many different things. wax worms, meal worms, super worms. i usually kept them in a bowl with calcium powder so they couldnt escape. tonight i put her worms on the reptile carpet so i could wash her bowl, came back a minute later and they were gone. i was like theres no way they escaped that fast so i went and put 2 more on the reptile carpet and she ate, and then i put down another 2, and then another 2, and then another 2... long story short, my leopard gecko doesnt like bowls and ended up eating 13 mealworms
I just got a leopard gecko five days ago and he hasn’t eaten. I’m very worried, I’ve fed him numerous things, watched his temperature of the tank and humidity. But thank for for the video I’ll try what you suggested.
Oh, Alex! Please don't forget the 5 platters of insects idea! It sounds super cute! And it was similar to what you just did with your Beardies. Which was also pretty cute. ^-^
You know I am really good I found (and fell in love with) your channel. I realize that even though I really really love leopard geckos and snakes, I would be the worst reptile owner and now understand that. I can always check by on this channel to get my gecko fix ❤️ I'll leave reptiles to the people who can tolerate feeding them with worms and bugs and mice to snakes. Thank you for having the best personality and having an amazing channel! ❤️❤️
I feel so lucky. I got my first leopard gecko 4 days ago. About 6 weeks old and it has been eating since day one home! I'm curious when it will be tired of dubia though lol.
Great information and we have just got a baby Gecko a few days ago who has not eaten, I know he is still getting used to his home and he had a long journey too so that will unsettle him for a while. We have small mealworms and small crickets that don't make noise. We have tried a mealworn without calcium powder but nothing yet. He looks healthy so will just keep at it. He is tricky to hold as he just loves to run around lol. Will try the bowl feeding rather than tweezer feeding, even offered him mealworms from my fingers too. Just like our dogs and kids they are all fussy
Nighting Gale Thanks and yes we keep trying other foods but he is super duper fussy. He will only eat mealworms if we take the heads off and they have to be fresh, we have managed to grow some beetles from the worms so hopefully we can start to grow our own worms for him 👍
12:08 I'm gonna nitpick here. Freezing, when done properly, is actually a great way of preserving the nutrients in food, whereas fresh degrades faster. (IDK about freeze-drying though, I also assume that would deplete some nutrients.)
Leopard Gecko Supplies I use: kit.com/GoHerping/leopard-gecko-setup
Leopard Gecko Care Guide: goherping.com/leopardgeckos
What time zone are you in?
@@ethansmith2942 eastern standard
hello! :D
Why am I watching this at 1am
Why was this uploaded at 1 am
Why am I watching this when I don't have any plans to get a leopard gecko
GoHerping you forgot about the fact that they won’t eat 1. When there shedding 2. They don’t eat when there burmating and 3.they don’t eat during part of there mating season
When you mentioned mixing the bugs together, I thought of leopard geckos in cute lil suits, ties and evening dresses going to a fancy restaurant and order stuff like” cricket stuffed Dubia roach” and “Mealworms in a Superworm sauce, no garlic”
Hahah omg I love this comment
Yes like that's amazing
Yeees I need an art channel to make this!!!
I've been trying to come up with painting for my den/office...now I know.
A banquet for kings
honestly, if somebody is uncomfortable feeding leopard geckos live insects, then they shouldn't have taken on the responsibility of caring for them in the first place.
So entirely agree.
When I was younger I couldn't deal with live feeders, so I didn't have any pets which required live insects. Period. I also can't feed snakes live, so I make DAMN sure any snake I am going to consider buying is on f/t.
I'm terrified of dubias. So I make my fiancé do it 😂 I use to be afraid of mealworms, but I'm ok with them now.
Totally. Any reptile really. Especially snakes. If you don't want to have to feed your snake mice/rats (whether alive or not), don't get a snake.
Lizards have to have live feeders, while snakes just eat frozen and should never feed live.
Yup welcome to my world. Ziggy didn’t eat for months as she was ovulating, barely lost any weight. Then she started eat and refused crickets for months. Then literally one day she decided she absolutely loves crickets. Leo’s are definitely very very picky and a little unpredictable 😂
does she lay eggs? my crested lays unfertilized eggs a couple times a year, ended up switching her to the breeder pangea formula just for that lol
I'm so lucky mine doesn't lol .w.
my older girl leo has gone off the food now. happens every year like clockwork.
her belly's pretty much confirmed her ovulation. my younger leo can at least be relied on to eat, so I'm not getting bugs for nothing. :D
Leopard Gecko hey can u plz answer my question when I hit a new juvenile leopard gecko yesterday and he is super Afraid will even try to bite me most the time what should I do??? Plz I need a little help
I think "a little" is an understatement. They are completely unpredictable.
Goherping be like: none of my animals eat but its all good.
YUP
At least we have a cactu...oh...
Hell even my cat goes on couple day hunger strikes. Not eating is one of the few things they can control.
@@carschmn I've had cats for 20 years and that's not really normal. I'd see a vet tbh. Cats don't go on hunger strikes for more than a few hours
MintChocolate how many cats have you had?
Doesn't have a leopard gecko, still watches the video. "Hmm interesting"
Michael Ilustre you should get one, they're amazing. I've had mine for 8 years and you'd be surprised about the amount of emotion they show
I have a leopard gecko but I’ve never had him refuse food 😂
Highly considering getting one soon "Hmm interesting"
😂😂😂😂😂
I'm getting a crested
I’m high, have no pets, and have an exam tomorrow, but I love this and all of your animals :) just started watching and I get mesmerized by the knowledge and this amazing animals
Oof me to bud I own a ball python but like he makes me want to get more reptiles
....... what u high on?
Lol maybe you shouldn’t admit on the internet that you’re high
Bluestar why not
His "knowledge" isnt the thing youre mesmerized by.
a reason my gecko hasn't eaten: he didn't like the bowl I offered it in. The moment I switched bowls he ate the same insects out of it.
Sounds like me
my leopard gecko doesn’t like the long shiny metal tongues! he won’t eat from it, and will run from it. Same with one of my bearded dragons but my other bearded dragon does not care at all he’s like gimme dat worm
@@purpleray9406 mine is the complete opposite. I've been feeding my leo off of metal tongs for a week or so, and now he'll just try to eat the tongs instead of the insects. Had to switch to bowl feeding lmao
Really ?? I'm going to try that . I've been thinking she might not like the bowl because it's kind of flimsy and she likes to stand on her water bowl to drink sometimes .
Mine has started refusing food off of the tongs but if I leave it on top of her hide she’ll eat it.🤦♀️ I’ve had her for 8 months and she’s just now refusing food.
No one:
Leopard Geckos: 🙂
their permanent expression is :]
it makes me very happy :D
And their eyes are like >:(
I dont even get how you can feed your gecko freeze dried insects, when an insect just sits still for a little too long my gecko just seems to forget she was hunting it a second ago...
pretty much lol
Lasnight same
My gecko won’t eat any dead insects and doesn’t even know it’s there if it doesn’t move
He just walks on it
Tong feed them, and move it around with the tongs, I've had them take them this way.
Yes they are, freeze drying holds onto 90+% of nutrients of anything. It just has no water like a normal insect would, and very slightly less nutrients. Still nutritious though. @Samira Noor
90% nutrient retention of the original insect that was put into the freeze drying process to begin with. The moisture that lizards need is irrelevant as no one mentioned moisture or water and it isn't a nutrient. Freeze dried insects are NOT just an exoskeleton, any and all nutrients are stuck in a solid state inside the insect. If you fed these insects properly, or even gutloaded them with nutrients, then freeze dried them, those nutrients would still be in that cricket, in a dry form. Freezing and thawing actually retains LESS nutrients percentage wise, on average than dry freezing does, because of the number of cells destroyed due to slow freezing process and ice crystals.
To put it simply if you gutloaded 2 crickets, froze one in a freezer then thawed it out a few days later, and you took the other and freeze dried it, then tested the nutrients, the frozen and thawed one would have less nutrients than the freeze dried one, on average. This is true even with something as watery as a watermelon piece, far more water content than a cricket. There are plenty of studies showing freeze drying is the most efficient nutrient retention out of any way of storage similar. @Samira Noor
*when your favorite reptile channel uploads at 1 am*
8:03 Yep. I once left a few waxworms in my gecko's dish and left a few crickets aswell in his cage. Came back a few minutes later to a cricket eating the waxworms and my gecko just not caring at all.
They were watching the cricket gutload itself
Omg yes. Geck just rolled her eyes at the wax worms as the cricket pulled them away and ate them.
She ate the crickets later and got some super fat filled ones🤷♀️
That's hilarious!!!😂😂😂😂 She's just watching them like, "May the odds be ever in your favor," or "Finish him."
In all honesty, I’m having trouble with my leopard gecko eating anything that moves, even things outside his cage
Edit: I’m showing him this video, and he’s very interested with the geckos on screen
Blessed little critter!
Post a video of him!
try feeding with tongs if you haven’t! my crested refuses to hunt when i give them so i always tong feed :)
@@kelseycarlton1253 Pretty sure his issue is that his gecko is hunting everything
The Lonely Tetra If he's interested, try feeding him some geckos 😋
Maybe he just wants to help you save 15% or more on car insurance.
Not that kind of gekco
Wooosh
That's a Day Gecko (don't wooosh me)
@@ivlineofficial woosh
Bar Mitzvah Elmo woosh
I really don't care about the content of this video. I just love listening to Alex.
A reason why my gecko isn't eating sometimes is because she is going to lay eggs and in this time she just won't eat, but right after she laid them she is as hungry as ever and she eats just fine so for me there is no reason to worry and if that's the case for your gecko don't panic and just make sure that she can lay her eggs without problems
yeah i've had this problem with my crested gecko, i only have the 1 female cresty (no males) but she'll lay unfertilized eggs a couple times a year. i'll worry for a few days before i even remember she's probably about to lay eggs. i switched her to the breeding formula of pangea to help her with the needed extra calcium she more than likely needs during. and she seems to like it better than the other formulas but it could also just be her body needs the extra calcium so making her crave it more.
What if she doesn't have a mate? Or does that not matter?😳😳 I'm not ready to be a mom...
@@jasminelopez4080 the eggs won't be fertile, if there is no male there is no baby in the egg.
Do they have to be pregnant to lay Eggs??
Do females always lay eggs? Cause I'm not sure the sex of mine, I think he's male but the owner percieved her as a female
You forgot to mention about how they may go off feed for the breeding season, both female and male. Breeding season is around january to june/july. They may even go off feed for the entire breeding season.
My boy has currently been off feed since the middle of february. He is constantly looking for a female, looking for a way out. His tail is still fat and his body is at a healthy size.
I always try every other insect just to be sure as well as not dusting the insect to make sure it isn't the supplement.
dajoke24 so I have some sub adult leopard geckos in separate cages. Neither of them have ate for months. This might be why! Thanks!
@dajoke24 Hey there! Is this consistent worldwide?
dajoke24 omg this must be why my gecko isn’t eating. All of the sudden he wants to escape.
My gecko stopped eating a few weeks ago. I tried the method where I cut the mealy open and she tasted the blood and then was interested in just 2 that I had to dangle in front of her. She used to eat rampantly. It's been a few weeks since she has consistently ate and I am very worried. Could it be because of breeding season?
So I have a male leopard and he hasn't ate for 2 weeks. My only concern is that some of his tail has thinned out. Help me someone please! I have 3 other geckos that are great eaters. I mix it up on purpose so they dont get bored. But the one that wont eat is concerning me highly.
My leopard gecko was originally owned by some jackasses who abandoned him during their move. Instead of rehoming him, they shoved him in a plastic container and left him to die in the back of a closet. He was in there for weeks until the new family that moved in found him. Poor guy was missing his tail and was extremely malnourished, but he somehow survived. I’ve had him for two years now and he’s doing great. He’s not picky with insects or vitamins and he’s also super friendly despite everything that happened. Sometimes I have him hang out on my desk while I work. He just chills or tries to walk off the desk’s edge. He’s such a stupid idiot. I love him.
It's such a relief to hear that it isn't uncommon for leopard geckos to go weeks or over a month without eating. I get so worried over mine when she doesn't eat for weeks (and she always stops eating in the winter and summer), but her weight hardly changes.
Does your Leo still do this? Because those seasons are during brumation seasons.
Wow this video was so helpful, I just adopted a leopard gecko and he is not eating!
Good luck with your new pet :) I have a leo as well, she turned 10 in February.
Me too!
same
Same with me
Lol same
I just got one and I named it Mango and he is sleeping rn
0:59 that roach spinning in the back💀 me on a swivel chair
Goldie is so gorgeous, it's like he has crystal eyes that can see right into your soul 🦎
My dad kept a leopard gecko that would only eat out of HIS hand. Not a bowl, not tongs, not my hand or our pet sitters hand, only his hand. She was so incredibly picky. Most of her life she only ate crickets, I am not sure that when we got her 20 years ago we even knew other insects were an option. When she saw him with the insect she would walk over really close to make sure it was moving, but if it touched her with a foot or antena she would walk away and possibly not eat that day. He had a certain way he would hold crickets so one leg would twitch but their antenna were held back. She lived for 18 years and twice over that time my dad was hospitalized for long periods, we did everything we could to get her to eat but it never worked. We held them like he did, tried to do everything the same, but she only would eat if it was my dad feeding her. The funny thing is his other leopard gecko, who I think even was from the same clutch as the first one ate everything in sight. If it moved, she tried to put it in her mouth.
I felt really stupid for not just googling why my oldest leo wouldn't eat but I also felt apprehensive about possibly getting the wrong information but I can easily tell that you really care about your Leo's along with all of your herps! This video helped immensely and I'm now happy to say that my old boy is eating again 🥰
I love how in every video he's staring awkwardly at the camera while the lizard/snake is just roaming his body or the table.
@@Madelin. yeah he owns snakes too
sorry this is one year later lmao
@@Madelin. i know lmao I just re found this channel and watched this again and I saw my comment
@@Madelin. diDn’T asK i can see ur one of those types of people who overuse those phrases i don’t give a shit if you don’t care it’s my comment
I learned recently that my leopard hates mealworms but he used to love those things. I think he just likes his food when it runs
Even though this is an old video, I want to thank you cause you literally saved my geck. She hasn't eaten for months and is really tiny now due to losing so much weight and for a long time I passed it by as if it was gecko puberty (I saw somewhere online that geckos can go through puberty at an early age and will have symptoms of skittishness, hiding a lot more, not going towards heat, not eating, etc.) and then someone today mentioned that it might be brumation, and told me that crickets are better for them than mealworms. I was hesitant at first because I absolutely hate bugs, especially ones that move quick like how crickets do, but I introduced them to her after seeing this video and hearing that it could just be her being picky. Sure enough, I introduced her to one by killing it first and then putting it in front of her so she could get a taste, and she absolutely loved crickets. So for now I am a gecko and cricket owner (:
I didn't realize that my bowl for meal worms wasn't high enough so a bunch escaped and I didn't realize, so I keep finding beetles every where lol
Time to add them to the mealworm far :)
Lol
Funny
My leo ate the day after I got it. It's very brave. It was being kept on some kind of bark/mulch stuff (not sharp, not small enough to be eaten) but it was kept with some other geckos and had 1 hide. They were babies so being kept together I can understand but 1 hide? Thankfully none of them seemed unhealthy, and the guy working there seemed very informed about their diet, they are fed locally sourced dubias. The tank it's in now has a bioactive substrate, a hot hide, humid hide, and cool hide, and even some places to climb. It immediatly got exploring and loves to sprawl out in its hot hide. I fed it 3 baby dubias and a small mealworm.
weird that you just uploaded this, my leopard gecko hasn’t been eating lately
some one else motioned it but if its a female she could be about to lay eggs. i have 1 crested gecko, it's a female, but she'll still lay eggs, unfertilized though.
I had two really old female Leo's, like, over 12 years old, who lived together since they were sister's and never had a problem with each other. One day they just stopped eating, tried different foods and supplements. It was almost 8 months before they finally passed away, I believe they were just really old as they were going blind and slept a lot of the time so I think they just decided it was time. Such great pets, bless them.
I feel soooo much better about my fear and dislike for insects now lol thank you 😂 I don’t know if I’ll ever be brave enough to touch them but knowing I’m not alone and someone like you also feels weirded out by them is super comforting. I was told I should re-home the bearded dragon I just rescued if I don’t like bugs... I don’t like dead mice but I wouldn’t rehome my snake over that I just deal with watching their cute faces be devoured
Ugh I'm so happy you uploaded this, I got my leo about a week ago and I've been worried because he isn't eating. I really appreciate it
About to go to sleep and I get a notification from your channel 😂😂
So glad I came across this video, my one leopard gecko who I've had for 6 years suddenly has not been eating for two weeks( never refused to eat before) and he's always eaten mealworms or superworms. I'm going to offer him other insects to see if he'll eat that.
I really appreciate your talking about the difference in metabolisms in reptiles because it's also probably key to understanding many of their differences from a mammalian perspective 🤔
I’m getting a leopard gecko in less then a month and I’m watching a lot of your videos and I really wanna make sure I have the right care and make sure he’s happy
After being in a Leopard Gecko group without a FAQ or members with search bars, I really wish you'd have talked about ovulation because I had to explain it to 10 different people :/ Basically, if your female doesn't eat in the springtime it's most likely due to ovulation
yeah i was expecting him to cover that too
do female leopards lay unfertilized eggs even when they've never been around a male? my crested does, was just wondering if they did too. i don't even own a male crested or any other crested and she still does it.
abyss610 Yes they do! I only own one Leo, and she laid a few weeks ago :)
Could it be that they will stop eating after getting into a fight? I will definitely try a different vitamin powder though. Maybe that will help.
i have a male think and he isnt feeding hes a baby so maybeeeeeeee hes really a she
Thank you for your help. Lots of important information and very helpful. I have tried crickets they are way to complicated and it is to much to keep alive.
Can you do a guide on all the different types of insects? What good quality is? What good price is? All that stuff.
we’ve had 2 leopard geckos for 3 days now, and the baby boy we have eats crickets, mealworms and waxworms. but the baby girl we got hasn’t really eaten much, and the lady we got her from said she only eats crickets, and we gave her crickets but she doesn’t like them. she’s slowly starting to eat mealworms now, but not as much. it was very scary because i thought she was sick and that there was something wrong but she may be stressed in a new home with another gecko.
My brother's gecko won't eat and has gotten pretty skinny in his tail region so I watched this video and it helped me so much! Thank you!
Your regular leopard gecko is hella yellow rn did he just shed
I’ve owned leopard geckos for years now and the best trick is honestly to hold the insect with tweezers or tongs and rub them on the geckos nose and mouth. If it doesn’t make them hungry, it’ll sure as hell piss them off and make them bite. I don’t do this unless I’ve become seriously worried about the health of my gecko, but it can really help the animal regain its appetite. With that being said, it’s not good to make it a common practice as it can annoy or stress out your animal.
Once again you're a life saver, Alex. 👌
this was super helpful! i have an extremely old leopard gecko named norie, he used to love crickets and mealworms but now he refuses to eat anything but waxworms and superworms. he wont eat out of a bowl and hates the vitamin powder too.
I just got out of Avengers Endgame and have to get up for work in 4 hours. Instead I'm watching videos about small vertebrates I haven't had to care for since high school
High Stepping Night Owl i would expect after a movie like that you would isolate yourself for a month
Little sister got a leopard gecko on Christmas and ate for a few weeks and then stopped and I’ve had to help it eat. So thank you for this
good luck!
The TV plush in the background made my night!
I bought a leopard gecko and its already 3 days in his new tank.
Until now he refuse to eat.
Good thing u have this video..
Thank you so much
How did you know?!? I never needed this video more than now 🙈
Thanks so much for all your help and support for our new leopard gecko I will definitely watch all the videos and also recommend your channel to all my friends.
thanks!
That one curl on his forehead is distracting me lmaoo 💀😂😂
So I got my leopard gecko from a girl that was losing interest in her, and you could tell. The cage was an absolute mess, they used sand, I think it might have been play sand because it was extremely dusty and they just dumped a bunch of freeze dried meal worms in there. Luckily the gecko's tail wasn't slim. I changed the sand to eco earth, and now she gets fed live meal worms and crickets. Also the heat mat was in the middle and the hides were just in a row. I'm glad I got her and not someone else that could have been worse. She is doing great right now and her tail is nice and fat.
Y u gotta post when I’m about to go to sleep 🤨
How was this posted 26 mins ago but it was posted 24 min ago.?
Jah I know
It's nearly 8am here and my sleep schedule is messed up and this video might put me to sleep idk I just find the way he talks relaxing lol
@Blue Pollux me to dont live in denmark though i live in holland
@@nelfi0940 ik ook
just got three month old leopard gecko 3 days ago and last night he ate three crickets i was so proud lol hope to get him eating more and more regularly once he settles in
8:20 please do make this video, "The Leopard Gecko buffet" :D
maybe sooonnnn
I got my Leo about, say, a week ago. We were new to it as much as it was new to us.. so it was concerning when she did not eat her superworm nor her mealworm for the first week. When it was the seventh day, we introduced crickets. She didn’t eat. A few days after trying cricket and worms, she finally ate about two crickets! I was so excited! I fed her the next-next day and she ate a cricket again, YAY!... bad part is.. she regurged it 😕 after that I was losing hope, I thought we’d have to go to the vet.. we kept trying tho. Day after day. And.. what we’ve learnt is that she doesn’t like calcium on her crickets, so we give her a choice if she wants calcium or not. Secondly, we only feed her smaller crickets without they’re legs because we believe she resurgence because of size. Thirdly, we try worms, but she hardly bats an eye at them.
Thanks for reading my Leo journey.
My note to GoHerping: yes, crickets are a hassle, but they are the only stable diet she’s even tried to stick with. An alternative to the hassle would be to cut the legs off (which is what I do) to prevent “annoyance”. Thx for your feed back, love your vids! Keep it up!
Could you do a video on how you store your feeder insects? I know some people keep them in fridges but I know of others that keep them in tubs to care for
I just adopted a leopard gecko and he doesn’t eat much. This is so helpful u just removed all my doubts :) Tysm!!
1:23 Hol 'up. I think one of his parents was a Crested Gecko.
my bearded dragon came from Craigslist, and was pretty scrawny. He started eating crazy and gaining weight. Now he’s a healthy weight but he’s a adult and he doesn’t eat very much or often since he’s not growing and is a good size. I get scared quite often but everyone I ask say don’t be worried
Alex, you absolute legend
This is exactly the problem we've been having
Thank you
When I got my leopard gecko she was so underweight that she ate from my hand the day I brought her home. After 45 days, she was up to the perfect weight for her size (even a bit chunkier). I would give her crickets and mealworm, but about a month ago she just completely went "Nah I'm not hungry". She's only lost 1g and looks fantastic....but she hasn't pooped in like 3 weeks. I'm getting her a nice array of insects at a speciality shop today, but I'm glad I saw that she's fine
Thank you so much for telling me about this, because I was freaking out, my lizard hasn't been eating for 2 weeks. I have been completely freaking out. Thank you for telling me this, or else I would have went completely insane😂
The exact same thing has been happening to mine and I made the stupid mistake of going to google which convinced me he was gonna die 😂
My gecko won't eat from a bowl and I have to tong feed him but even that's not working. His heat mat caught fire last week so we had to buy him a new enclosure, most of his things had to go so I think the main reason he's not eating might be because he's adjusting still and his tail is nice and fat. Thank you for making this video, I'm a lot less worried now and knowing he's just getting used to an all-new enclosure is really comforting.
This is kinda handy, my gecko hasnt been eating anything except wax moth larvae for a while now when she was always fine with crickets before...
My gecko is a rescue who was in a 10 gallon tank for however long she was alive before I found her abandoned. She has MBD and did super well after I brought her home and got the fertilizer soil out of her tank! I decided to move her into a proper 20 gallon tank and she stopped eating and showed signs of a lot of stress. I moved her back into the 10 gallon and she began to eat and move around again happily like she used to. She’s super tiny since she didn’t get to grow in proper conditions (and without heat).
I don’t even own a single reptile, but I love watching these videos lol
Rewatching your videos because I always love to see the reptiles but also your commentary is great!
Funny enough, I got two female Leopard Geckos a couple years back, one is a super great eater, the other is okay, she gets extremely picky during late winter/early spring (and I know that's normal), after trying everything I did give her Grub Pie, which she wasn't a fan of but she did eat it which got her to increase her appetite again, I really only used it in an emergency where she was losing weight. Still healthy! But she is definitely a brat when it comes to insects.
@@nightinggale6470 not anymore, they use to be when they were juveniles, but once they were close to being adults I got another enclosure and separated them. This is normal for her to be very picky during the winter, I really could have gone without giving her the grub pie, she still had a good plump tail. The weather is getting warmer where I am so now she's not being as picky about eating
What my toads and my leopard gecko and I Axolotl don't eat my bearded dragon will so nothing goes to waste in the mosteller house
Also the supplements and calcium are pretty good they don't taste chemically
My friends leo likes to go on hunger strikes(Shes never lost weight on her hunger strikes so shes not concerned) it usually happens when her apartments temperature fluctuates so during heat waves and cold waves she'll go off her feed for a couple weeks she especially doesnt like the heat waves.
Another reason! If you have a female leopord gecko, sometimes, they may not be eating because they're ovulating. Whenever my adult female leo is ovulating and fairly close to laying eggs, she will act very hungry and wants to eat, but just can't. You can also recognize this with different signs, like their stomach being larger and firmer, and them laying on their tummy more. Don't worry if this happens! It may take a little while, but after the eggs are laid, they should go back to eating.
Great advice! I've experienced everything you've mentioned. My Murphy Patternless only eats dubia's, my Mack Snow eats crickets and dubia's. Used to freak out about the fact that my Murphy, but you can easily spot if your gecko is losing weight. In the end it was all fine and she even gained 5 grams over the course of 6 months!
Thanks for answering my question because my leopard geko won’t eat
its pretty obvious this was your passion man. love the vids, you're super informative. i never not one time in my life ever plan to get a pet that you keep, or any of the T keepers i watch that they keep, but i still watch all these videos religiously. i love animals, always have, its my passion, i just got nfi how to get involved in the field, so i live it through you guys.
My baby bearded dragon refuses to eat unless his bugs have calcium powder on them 🤦♀️🤦♀️
HORN WORMS SAVED MY GECKOS LIFE! I rescued him and he was too weak to eat or catch anything. His tail was literally the width of a pencil. But as soon as I introduced hornworms he fell in love. Once he had enough energy I switched to wax worms (way cheaper) then to giant meal worms and now he loves them! He put on a TON of weight in the last month I’m so thankful.
Why did I notice the 13:03 butt scratch
Also very intesting to know that their tail is like a fat reservoir, I love them andd their chubby tails.
The intro with all of the happy looking geckos made me even happier
I just caught a damn cricket for my gecko and she is being so ungrateful and refuses to acknowledge it
Dont catch them buy them
Just a friendly heads up, catching wild insects for your reptiles isn't recommended because you dont know what they've been eating or what diseases/parasites/pesticides they may have come into contact with.
i just figured this out tonight. i got my leopard gecko 2 weeks ago. i noticed she was barely eating. i bought many different things. wax worms, meal worms, super worms. i usually kept them in a bowl with calcium powder so they couldnt escape. tonight i put her worms on the reptile carpet so i could wash her bowl, came back a minute later and they were gone. i was like theres no way they escaped that fast so i went and put 2 more on the reptile carpet and she ate, and then i put down another 2, and then another 2, and then another 2... long story short, my leopard gecko doesnt like bowls and ended up eating 13 mealworms
Aight I've had my gecko for 2 weeks now. Shes still not eating. I'm gonna try crickets next but I'm getting stressed out for her
I just got a leopard gecko five days ago and he hasn’t eaten. I’m very worried, I’ve fed him numerous things, watched his temperature of the tank and humidity. But thank for for the video I’ll try what you suggested.
Thank god my leo has a painfully slow metabolism
i love how your southern accent comes out when you say words like "python"
Why am I watching this I literally just fed mine😂😂😂
Oh, Alex! Please don't forget the 5 platters of insects idea! It sounds super cute! And it was similar to what you just did with your Beardies. Which was also pretty cute. ^-^
Please notice me and tell franklin I love him 🥰
You know I am really good I found (and fell in love with) your channel. I realize that even though I really really love leopard geckos and snakes, I would be the worst reptile owner and now understand that. I can always check by on this channel to get my gecko fix ❤️ I'll leave reptiles to the people who can tolerate feeding them with worms and bugs and mice to snakes. Thank you for having the best personality and having an amazing channel! ❤️❤️
Leapord geckos are just buttheads sometimes
Honestly
Yes, Emma! Yes!😂😂
I read that as butheds. Lol!
I feel so lucky. I got my first leopard gecko 4 days ago. About 6 weeks old and it has been eating since day one home! I'm curious when it will be tired of dubia though lol.
I have a Leo and he switches his taste like at least once every two months 😭 I love him but he makes life difficult
Great information and we have just got a baby Gecko a few days ago who has not eaten, I know he is still getting used to his home and he had a long journey too so that will unsettle him for a while. We have small mealworms and small crickets that don't make noise. We have tried a mealworn without calcium powder but nothing yet. He looks healthy so will just keep at it. He is tricky to hold as he just loves to run around lol. Will try the bowl feeding rather than tweezer feeding, even offered him mealworms from my fingers too. Just like our dogs and kids they are all fussy
Nighting Gale Thanks and yes we keep trying other foods but he is super duper fussy. He will only eat mealworms if we take the heads off and they have to be fresh, we have managed to grow some beetles from the worms so hopefully we can start to grow our own worms for him 👍
I got my leopard gecko yesterday and I fed him locusts after about two or three hours of taking him home and he ate them perfectly fine🙂
12:08 I'm gonna nitpick here. Freezing, when done properly, is actually a great way of preserving the nutrients in food, whereas fresh degrades faster. (IDK about freeze-drying though, I also assume that would deplete some nutrients.)
me : watching this video because my new AFT (who's my first reptile so i'm a bit worried) doesn't want to eat. even if i already watched it. 🥺
Thanks for this video it calmed me down because I was nearing panicking attack because my Gemini hadn’t eaten for a week and I was losing it
When are u gonna upload: how to get ur parents to buy u a lizard
Sometimes you don't. I got my first reptile after moving out when I could afford it on my own. Some parents can be convinced but others won't.
Tyler rugge (might have spelled this wrong) made a video all about that. Also some parents just don’t budge.
beg, and beg, and beg
@@anakinskywalker4590 I begged my mom for 3 years. Got Diego, my Leo 3 weeks ago :)
Just asked a friend this and he didn’t really know, thank you!