micro hatchling not eating -- need advice please!

This little pictus hatched out 4 days ago, shed 3 days ago, and hasn't eaten a thing. For size reference, the water dish is a "frying pan" from my daughter's doll house and is slightly bigger than a nickel. I picked out the tiniest baby mealies I could find in the mealie bin, and the hatchling will snap to attention when I drop one in, and even sometimes follow it a few steps, but makes no attempt to catch or eat it. Would pinhead crickets be a better bet, or would they be too big as well? Flightless fruit flies? Any and all suggestions welcomed!
(PS: he does have tiny wet and dry hides in his tank as well, and the temp is mid 80s)

I would at least try pin heads.

maybe put some paper towells in there, i've heard they're colorblind maybe the contrast will give him an easier way to see them? ummm, or maybe put them in a dish for him, or holding one infront of his mouth and let it squirm around, hehe maybe he just needs to be pampered like that? lol.

wow, thats a tiny sucker. a nickel? dang

Yeah my sister has a pictus, it will eat maybe one mealies at a time, but give it crickets, whole nother story there pal. Try some pinheads and they papertowel idea isn't bad either.

I had to take the paper towels out because the worms went straight under them. I bought pinheads and flightless fruitflies today -- he watches them but won't eat them either. My adults are all big eaters so I'm at a total loss to know what to do with this little guy. He is losing weight by the minute and I wouldn't have a clue how to use the slurry without drowning him. Any suggestions welcome! If we lose this little guy my son will be inconsolable....

did you try tweezers, and hold the mealie right by him it'll squirm if you hold it and it should get him to want to eat.

Originally Posted by shadraak

did you try tweezers, and hold the mealie right by him it'll squirm if you hold it and it should get him to want to eat.

yup, tried the tweezers (I tweezer-feed most of my gex) and he just stared at them. Tried dropping them right in front of his nose, too, and he would look at them and sometimes even follow them. But no eating

You can also try to squeeze out some of the mealie guts onto his/her nose, sometimes they just need to get a taste to know what its all about.

You can also try the Slurry Marcia at GGG makes. you can do a search here for Slurry and if you can't fidn it let me know and Ill look it up for you!

Otherwise try posting on the gecko forum, you may get more responses than in the leopard gecko forum as it's not singled on one species.