What should I do if leopard print refuses to eat?

Don’t panic, read this!

I believe that many friends have recently encountered the situation of leopard geckos not eating: they have been kept warm and the breeding environment has not changed. As a result, the little cub who had been eating so well before suddenly stopped eating. . It is estimated that many novice players who are raising leopard geckos for the first time are extremely anxious because of this situation: Will my little cub starve to death?

Don’t worry, this article will tell you about leopard geckos’ food refusal.

01

Listen to the popular science first

First of all, we must establish a The most basic understanding: Reptiles are different from people. They do not need three meals a day and will not starve to death just because they don’t eat for one or two days. This is because reptiles are cold-blooded animals. They can only absorb heat from the environment to help them digest food, so their digestion ability and speed are much lower than that of mammals. Taking leopard geckos as an example, the normal feeding frequency is once every 2-3 days, and they will store the fat they consume in their tails. Generally, healthy individuals will not starve to death because of a few meals. .

The purpose of establishing this basic understanding for everyone is to appease everyone's anxious mood: your little cub will generally not starve to death easily, and we have enough time to deal with the situation of refusing to eat.

02

Check the temperature

Let’s talk about the reasons why leopard geckos usually refuse to eat. They are simply not enough temperature, inappropriate environment, and insufficient food. Like to wait. The breeding environment should be kept divided into hot and cold zones. The temperature in the hot zone should be around 30 degrees. In particular, remember to adjust it according to the local temperature. When food refusal occurs, check the temperature as soon as possible.

03

Check the environment

If the temperature is OK, then check whether the breeding environment is suitable: leopard geckos are not raised like many lizards The bigger the environment, the better. On the contrary, the size of the leopard gecko’s breeding environment should not exceed three times its own body length, otherwise it will easily refuse to eat due to nervousness. In addition to the size of the environment, the choice of bedding material is also very important. Many friends choose sand crawling as bedding material because they think that leopard geckos are native to the Gobi environment. However, for young seedlings, sand crawling is very easy to accidentally eat and cause intestinal obstruction. This will prevent them from eating, so it is recommended not to use crawling sand as a bedding material.

04

Food Selection

The next step is food selection: leopard geckos are usually fed mealworms, but just like people, they can also be picky eaters. , some individuals just don’t like to eat mealworms. If you just feed them mealworms, they will starve and refuse to eat. So a variety of food is very important. Try a lot of mealworms, small dubias, crickets, etc. and try to find the food your little gecko likes to eat. Since we mentioned crickets, let me say something extra. Crickets, grape honey, etc. are very suitable foods for leopard geckos to eat, but they will be picky if they eat too much delicious food, so if you don’t want to raise crickets, it is best not to feed them often. These.

In addition to food choices, calcium powder and vitamin supplements will also affect their appetite. Believe me, calcium powder is definitely not a delicacy for these little things, especially the little seedlings who will run away from food stained with calcium powder and vitamins, so you have to trick it. Dip half of the mealworm in calcium powder and vitamins, and then use the other half to touch it. This method has been tested by myself and is accurate.

05

Seasonal food refusal

In addition to the above, the following Let me tell you about the most troublesome and best solved reason for food refusal: seasonal food refusal.

Let’s popularize a little science first: Every living thing has a biological clock in its body. For example, if you sleep during the day and get up at night, although you can sleep for 8 hours or more every day, your body will still have various problems over time. This is the biological clock at work.

The same goes for reptiles. Hundreds of years of wild life experience tells them that the weather in March and April is unstable. It may be 2 or 30 degrees today and a late spring cold down to 0 degrees tomorrow. So it is very unwise to eat hastily at this time (remember what we said above about reptiles absorbing calories from the external environment). In addition, some adult individuals (age above 1 year old) also start to have a romantic interest at this time. They only think about reproducing and growing their family every day, and have no thought of eating at all. So what should you do when faced with this situation? It's simple, don't eat and stay hungry. Anyway, there is enough fat in the tail for them to waste, so even if they are hungry for 1 or 2 months, it is not a big problem. Wait until the weather stabilizes and starts to warm up before resuming eating. And because of the biological clock, even leopard geckos that have been artificially domesticated for so many years will start to protect themselves at this time due to the biological habits engraved in their genes, even if they are kept at a suitable temperature throughout the year. Refusal to eat (except, of course, some natural foodies, who eat fiercely all year round). This is why you obviously have no problem with the environment, but suddenly they start not eating.

So if your leopard gecko does not show signs of lethargy (for example, it cannot open its eyes, its limbs are weak, and it is lying on the ground), its tail remains strong, and its spine does not protrude significantly, then it is Most likely it's just a seasonal food refusal. What to do in the face of this situation? Don't do anything, just wait and wait for it to start eating naturally. This is the reason why seasonal food refusal is the most troublesome and the easiest to solve: the headache is because it is completely impossible to intervene manually, and it is easy to solve because it does not require manual intervention. All you need to do is stabilize your anxious mood.

What should you do if you suffer from listlessness, toothpick tail, protruding spine, loose stools or even green stools? Hurry up and send it to a specialized reptile pet hospital for examination. This is not a situation that you can solve at home by tinkering.