Fattening up female tails

[MartinW]

What's the best way to fatten up a female's tail? I feed my geckos mealies and crix. The pet shop I go to sells silkworms and pinky mice and I think they sell waxworms too. Is pinky mice the best for this? What's best after pinky mice?

Thanks:)
Martin

[Zoe]

One small pinkie mouse is fine for an adult female.

Silkworms would also do a great job, because they are fine as a staple diet, nice and fatty, and most leos love them! (some will not eat pinkies).

Make sure the pinkie is alive, by the way :]

Zoe

[MartinW]

Are you serious when you say make sure the pinkie is alive?? I know they have to die some way when feeding to lizards, but it just seems kind of harsh feeding a live pinky to a gecko, plus, the pinkies at the pet shop are frozen. I guess if it's important to the gecko and I can find them I'll feed live ones.

[Zoe]

Well, the gecko won't realize it's food unless it's moving and alive.

A pinkie at that age is relatively unaware... while it isn't exactly a pleasent feeling to be eaten alive, they die quickly in the gecko's jaws.

If it bothers you, just feed silks, they work really well too!

Zoe

[nicola_boulton]

i feed my leos frozen pickies actualy, it is possible. :D But not all leos will, if u can make ur leo open its mouth then it shudnt be a problem, u can just put it in. But as Zoe says if u dont like the idea still just feed it silk or wax worms.

[drewlowe]

Actually its better to feed frozen/thawed pinkies if not you get the possibility of battiling with worms or bacteria. Go out and buy yourself a pair of tongs and wiggle it in front of them and it may take you a while to get them to eat pinkies it took me 3 or 4 separate attempts on different days to finally get mine to eat pinkies.

Wax worms are great for fatting but do not over feed or have them as a stable diet.

And as feeding silkworms they are a good stable diet.

Hope this helps and martin go to the other post for the explanation of my leos getting worms for more information.

[Tim and Julie B]

Never feed anything live. All you need to do is use a small pair of tongs and dangle a f/t pinkie, dipped in calcium, above the leos head and they will gladly gobble it up. Just remember, not all leos like pinkies. This is what works best for me: I feed my leos crickets as a staple food item. They get them every other day, dusted lightly with a multi vitamin. I feed them enough so that they no longer hunt them down and seem full, removing any extras from the cage. Once a week they also get about 5-10 mealies each. I give my laying females pinks every two weeks or so, depending on their weight loss, dipped in calcium. They also get some treats every couple of weeks, like 5-10 small wax worms, and I always provide them with fresh water that I empty and fill daily along with a small dish of calcium. So far my females look great, except for the occasional thinning tail, but a good diet for a week or so after they lay eggs and they're back to normal. I sure hope that this helps, and I have heard great things about silk worms combined with crickets as a staple diet. I would like to try them myself, but they are harder to get out here in the west. :D

[Alicewave]

Yup, if a Leo is gonna take a pinkie at all, just wiggling around a frozen/thawed one should work.