Is it possible to overfeed a gecko?

Pixie · 07-14-03, 10:37 AM

I have asked this question sometime ago but I still wondering about the issue....

My youngest leo Pikachu which I got as a hatchling from the April show has a bottomless stomach! It's unreal! I've been told that they will stop eating when they are full but this girl NEVER gets full!!!

She has NEVER ever refused a food item, no matter how much she has just eaten! So far I've been calculating the size of her meals in proportion to her body size: 1/4 to 1/3 of her body size excluding the tail & legs. I figure her stomach can't be bigger than that, am I wrong?

I feed her every evening a good size meal, 3/4" to 1" mealworms, usually 12 to 20 of them and she always gobbles them up in less than 5 minutes. If I dare forget to feed her by 9pm, she is waiting at her food dish staring at me!!! No joke!

Last night I decided to give her a bit of a bigger meal, about 22 to 25 mealies being 1/3 to almost 1/2 of her body size. She still ate the whole thing in less than 5 minutes!!!

Am I feeding her enough??? Should I be offering her even more??? Everywhere I read it says to give them as much as they will eat and they will stop when full but I don't want to overdo it and make her sick...

She is very healthy and has a very nice plump tail for her size. I hope I am doing right by the size of meals that I give her. She also gets silkworms on a weekly basis and will gobble 3 to 4 small ones (1 1/4" to 1 1/2" each) at a time definitely totalling a good 1/2 of her body size!

Her digestion process seems to be very good as well! Like clockwork after every meal, she goes potty and take a pretty big dump!!! lol

Any ideas??? Should I stay on the regimen she is on now or should I offer her more food?

Pixie

P.S. I will take some new pics of her during the day or evening and I will make a small video of her eating, the piggy in action!

Alicewave · 07-14-03, 11:05 AM

Not really but kinda. THey can get obese (I think Seneca may be getting on the side of obese from eating aurora's rejected pinkies). Basically if you start noticing that they hardly move around at all, that means they are getting too fat and lazy and a diet may be an order. Seneca has hit 100 grams or just about so I've got him on only 5 mealies every 3-4 days. He's my only gecko that didn't go through a winter fast so I think that may be contributing to his girth! It's quite a sight though and he will eat anything you put in front of him.

nellie · 07-14-03, 11:41 AM

Only 5 mealies every 3-4 days? Wow!
Am I over feeding mine? I got them as hatchlings in March and I have been feeding them 10 mealies each per day.
After reading Pixie's post, I was feeling really guilty that maybe I wasn't feeding them enough. But now I'm just plain confused!
Is there a rough standard that most people go by?

Alicewave · 07-14-03, 11:56 AM

I'm sorry. I may not have been clear. 5 mealies every 3-4 days is Seneca's DIET cuz he's getting too fat. The rest of my crew I feed as many as they can eat in 10-15 minutes. Or I leave dishes of mealies for them if they are dish trained.

nellie · 07-14-03, 12:07 PM

Oh....I guess I misunderstood. Thanks for clearing that up!

WingedWolf · 07-15-03, 01:16 AM

I didn't think 100 grams was too large for an adult male, I see a lot of breeders advertised as being 150?

Alicewave · 07-15-03, 07:57 AM

Yes but those are giants and are generally longer than Seneca is. It's not really too large, I think it's pretty cool actually. But his gut is HUGE!!! He's also a bit less active at that weight then say closer to 90. I'd love to breed him and get some huge babies but none of my females are big enough to handle him!

geckoguy157 · 07-16-03, 03:15 AM

i wouldnt worry about 100 grams my males are anywhere from 95 to 120 grams(none are tremper giants) are all in perfect health and arnt to fat and if you are trying to make him loss weight feed him crickets not mealworms mealworms are very fatty and at 90 grams i wouldnt put your gecko on a deit

Pixie · 07-16-03, 08:58 PM

Ok, I've decided to officially change her name from Pikachu to Miss Piggy!!! She's just an eating machine!

I fed her tonight a good sized meal, about 15 1" mealies and she gobbled them up in just a couple of minutes like usual. Then she went to lie down so I wanted to see if she was "full". I put 5 more mealies in her dish and she dashed to eat them all up in a few seconds! I'm sure if I would have offered her more she would have eaten them!

I filmed a couple of clips. Once I figure out how to load them up on my site I will post the link here so you guys can see the little monster in action!

Right now I plan on giving her meals according to her size and not her appetite. Am I right in doing this? She looks perfectly fine now but I don't want to make her overweight unnecessarily or sick from too big of a meal.

Would love to get some input!

Pixie