Newbie Q: What is a Normal Amount for 9 month olds to eat?

Hi,

As some of you may have seen from another thread, I just bought a lovely pair of 9/10 month old girls. These are my first leos, and I've had cresties for a while, so I'm used to the amount that cresties eat, and not leos.

My impressions of leos are that they are big eaters, but my two haven't seem to have caught that fire in their bellies yet! I know, I only got them on sunday, so they are probably still just settling in. But, I would like to know, for reference, how much do your leos typically eat? I'm currently going to be feeding them mealies and 1/2 inch crix until they get a little larger, then I will super-size their meals to super/king worms and crix (I'm hoping this is the right thing to be doing!!). And of course, they have a dish of fresh water and calcium always present (even though I have no intention of ever breeding these two).

Thanks (as usual) for any insight!
Amanda

How much do they weigh?

Id say that my 9-10 month olds each anywhere from 12 large mealies a day and 3-4 crix to the next day 6 mealies and no crix. I don't feed supers tough. And when they are large enough to eat pinks they get a pink 1-3 times a month. Many of my 10 month olds eat pinks so they may not eat for 2 after the pink then eat a little less.

Id say 10 months old should be mostly grown so 40-60 grams maybe even larger, eating 6-12 large mealies a day (less if supers) and a dozen or so crix a week more crix if they eat less mealies.

Alright, thanks. So far, in the past two nights, they have only eaten 1-2 normal mealies each, and 1-2 half-inch crix each. I will tyr to guess that they are still settling in, but how long do you think it will be before they start eating normally??

I haven't had a chance to weigh them yet, as I just ordered a scale off ebay a couple days ago, and it should be here in a week or two. Maybe you guys can guess how much they weigh by their pics? The containers they are in are about 4 inches in diameter. They both look very similar in size to my naked eye, so here's one pic:





Thanks for all the help!
Amanda

My best answer.. working in a pet store...

People often exagerate their leopard gecko's size. Or any pet's size. I commonly hear "my ball python is atleast 8 feet long", and "I seen a snake ate a dog". So, I try to refer them to use the feeder of the size between the eyes, and no longer than their head. Next piece of advice I give is to feed as many crickets as they can eat in a 15 minute period. All leos ARE different, and some do grow faster than others, depending on whatever variables.

Hope this helped some, I do understand what you are asking, and for the experienced breeders here, it is a good question to ask them. I personally dont keep count of how many crickets. With my collection, still under 100 geckos, I can remember about how many a night my geckos can eat. I eyeball it usually, I havent counted in a long time.

Good luck!

I've had some eat right off the bat and some take a few weeks to start eating normally.

I bought a 10 month old male last year during the winter, he arrived and decided it was time to brumate. He went into his hide, blocked the door with substrate and that's where he stayed. I think that it was close to a month before he ate. As long as they're not losing weight give them some time.

A lot of my guys seem to eat about 10 mealies every other night or so, but sometimes they'll binge and eat all 10 for a few days running. I also usually try to give new additions a couple of weeks with as little disturbance (no handling) as possible to allow them to adjust.

-Alice

I agree some eat alot sooner than others, Ive had some eat right out of the box and some not for a week or maybe longer.

I do keep track of my food intake because I know that I have to to be able to order enough food supplies for 70+ leos a month.

I put say 6 crix in at midnight, then at 5 am there are or are not some left. Same with mealies but its a weekly count, I put in 100 per week per juvie, subadult or adult (babies receive a smaller amount & size of mealies and no crix for a while), in the food dish with gutload and calcium and a thin slice of carrot and check them daily, I have some that don't quite eat them all Sunday to Sunday and others that need a little more so knowing what they eat is not hard to do and is a must so I can order food items ahead of time and get them gutloading a week or so before feeding out of the new feeders.

They do seem to go on binges, a lot for a few days then a day off or a lot for a week then none for a few days.

Since you just got them in a couple of days ago Id not worry about them not eating much yet

And its hard to tell by the pic really how large the leo is

He looks rather small to be 9-10 months to me. It could be the picture. Do you know for sure how old they are - like a hatch date from a breeder, or was it just a best guess?

My guys are right around 30g and are roughly 5 mo. old. If I had to guess, yours looks about the size, maybe smaller if that container really is 4 inches in diameter. LOL I don't know for sure how old mine are either, but when I got them on February 11th, they weighed about 8g. My guys eat 7 - 8 mealies every night. When I feed crickets, they'll usually eat 3 adults (I can only get 1/4" and adults around here).

Once your guys settle down, I'm sure they'll start to eat more.

I also noticed your comment about offering calcium even though you don't intend to breed. While it's true that growing geckos and breeding females need more calcium, it's important for geckos of all ages to have the calcium available. It's good that you have that in there for them. Reason being: feeders have a good deal of phosphorus in them that needs to be counter-balanced with supplemental calcium. Mealworms have one of the highest phosphorus to calcium ratios out of any of the feeder bugs, so calcium becomes even more important for the health of the gecko if they are used as a staple. When the calcium is always there, they can balance their system as needed. Just to make sure - you only need pure calcium in with them at all times, no D3 or phosphorus added.

Well, the breeded had their hatch date on the containers, so unless the breeder was wrong, then I guess they probably are on the small side of things. I've been keeping them so that there are always mealworms in their food dish, but an amount that I can count how many are in there so that I can keep track of exactly how much they are eating. I wish I had a scale right now to weigh them on. I didn't think they were too underweight when I bought them because their tails looked decently plump with respect to their body size.

The two leos are still pretty shy, they will sometimes peep their head out of their hide at night, but as soon as they see movement in the room, they run back into the hide! I can't wait until I can see more of them, I've almost forgotten what they look like because I haven't seen them in so long!

What should I use to gutload my mealies beforehand?? I have the Dragon Shack Farms Power Feeder which I have been using since forever on my crix, is this gutload ok for mealies? It says it's for feeder insects. If so, then I should put some of it in the food dish that's in their cage with the mealies along with a slice of carrot? I keep my extra mealies in the fridge, so they are in their dormant state, and I don't think they would eat anything then, so I will assume that I don't have to put gutload in then?

That's all I can think of for now. I'm sure there will be more later!

Thanks again, and always!

Amanda

Sorry, I forgot to ask this in my previous post, but can't edit (to the best of my knowledge).

Why can they have no vit D3 in the calcium? I can understand the no phosphorous, but wasn't sure why no D3?

Thanks again,
Amanda

Originally Posted by HerpAddict

What should I use to gutload my mealies beforehand?? I have the Dragon Shack Farms Power Feeder which I have been using since forever on my crix, is this gutload ok for mealies? It says it's for feeder insects. If so, then I should put some of it in the food dish that's in their cage with the mealies along with a slice of carrot? I keep my extra mealies in the fridge, so they are in their dormant state, and I don't think they would eat anything then, so I will assume that I don't have to put gutload in then?

That's all I can think of for now. I'm sure there will be more later!

I don't know of that feeder, but you can gutload them with pretty much anything you can gutload a cricket with. The 24 hour rule still applies, so you'll want to take the worms out of the fridge the day before feeding and let them load up. Carrots can be used, as well as apples and potatoes.

As for the D3, because the leos are nocturnal (part of the reason you hardly see them) they have much lower requirements then a diurnal animal. They do still need some, so use a calcium +d3 dust on their food items 1 - 2 times a week. The D3 can build up in their system over time and cause serious problems, so you don't want to overdo it. Plain calcium carbonate should be used for dusting most feeding and be in the bowl for them.