Reptile Forums banner

Replacing uneaten food?

901 views 29 replies 8 participants last post by  Kimora 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello my crestie loki is only a week old in our house.. He seems happy but i dont think hes eating, i have read that it could take them a while to settle in and get an appetite back. I know he did eat as the place i got him from had hafl eaten food bowls.

I think he may be nibbling at the jelly, but not entirely sure. I put a tiny bit of rapashy on his nose and he did seem to lick that and enjoy it.
Anyway ive been replacing the food say every 2-3 days and using smaller amounts, but he's not touching them as far as i can see and i see no poo..

Do i have to replace the repashy and calci dust if hes not touching it?

I replace the water bowl every 2 days, but ive seen him drink the drops off the leaves.
Cheers
 
#2 ·
Hello my crestie loki is only a week old in our house.. He seems happy but i dont think hes eating, i have read that it could take them a while to settle in and get an appetite back. I know he did eat as the place i got him from had hafl eaten food bowls.

I think he may be nibbling at the jelly, but not entirely sure.

Anyway ive been replacing the food say every 2-3 days, but he's not touching them as far as i can see and i see no poo..

Do i have to replace the repashy and calci dust if hes not touching it?

I replace the water bowl every 2 days, but ive seen him drink the drops off the leaves. I put a tiny bit on his nose and he did seem to lick that and enjoy it.

Cheers
I think it probably is eating but they eat such small amounts it is often hard to see. If it was mine I would remove the jelly, it contains nothing but sugar which is neither use nor ornament to a crestie except to make it fat. They are ok for a treat but I would wait until it is eating proper food first.
As to the Repashy, change it every two days and just put in enough to cover the bottom of the dish and you will be able to see little lick marks. What are you doing with the calcium dust? That don't generally lick it it is meant for live bugs to dust them .:2thumb:
 
#4 ·
I think you will find it will get all wet as you spray , or at least get dripped in . It is unusual for a crestie to lick calcium from a bowl but it up to you if you feel its a benefit. Good idea to remove the jelly :2thumb:.
I would also try adding a little honey to the food, they really like their fruit to be sweet :2thumb:
 
#30 ·
All the advice has been pretty sound so there is little to add :) as the others say, the jellys are a waste of space : victory:

I think you will find it will get all wet as you spray , or at least get dripped in . It is unusual for a crestie to lick calcium from a bowl but it up to you if you feel its a benefit. Good idea to remove the jelly :2thumb:.
I would also try adding a little honey to the food, they really like their fruit to be sweet :2thumb:
As some know, i always have a milk lid of calcium in my setups at all times and have witnessed all four lick from the bowl of there own accord...mainly my gravid female, but both mature males and juvie female will have a sniff about. : victory:

If you add calcium make sure it's pure calcium with no D3 as they can overdose on D3, D3 will be in their food in the correct amounts and they also get it from UV so no need to have it in the calcium too.

Change the repashy every 2 days, as it starts to sour and go mouldy, you might have to add a little more water to it on day 2 if it has dried out a little.
What Jebb said. plain for the bowls.
when dusting livefood and using a UV light then plain calcium is needed. If you are not using a UV then use a calcium with added D3 for dusting. : victory:

It's not common practice to keep a bowl of calcium with cresties although I have heard it used with egg laying females. Just because it's not common practice doesn't mean you can't keep at it, however, calcium will need to be regular removed and replaced fresh.
Also make sure to keep your calcium, nutrient supplements and CGD in the fridge to extend shelf life.
Normally i replace once a week and only place a quarter of a teaspoon per lid. I would also remove on misting (I remove all bowls at misting :) ).

Yours is probably still settling in though so don't panic just yet :)

Like others have said, you can try pureeing fruit (avoid banana and citrus) into the CGD, try mixing them, some geckos like there food a little *riper* so may eat on the second night or possibly a third at a push. There are also loads of CGD's to try. Geckodiet.co.uk supply's all the available (for the UK) manufactured CGD's.
Mine won't touch Repashy, love clarks (though one will only eat one flavor!) and will be trying pagnea fruit mix tonight.

Side note for OP on gutloading crickets...i use a bit of carrot, a mit full of washed dandelion leafs from the garden, bit of apple and ANY left over CGD (i sometimes use oats too with this), therfore...no wastage! and i do this every 2-3 days. I do this regardless of if the shop has gutloaded and i wait at least 24hrs of knowing they are eating what i have given before offering :)
 
#6 ·
try puree'ing up some pear or mango and mix a bit with repashy thats what i did with mine at first they now eat pure repashy
 
#11 · (Edited)
The Repashy left out should be replaced every 36 hours, I believe it may say this on the packet itself as it will start to mould.
You are unlikely to see large amounts disappear with such a young crestie but if concerned you can try spoon feeding but don't force it. Likewise I would avoid putting any on their nose in case it stresses them unless they are loosing weight.

Try mixing up with the two different flavours of Repashy and the Clarks CGD to help encourage appetite with a bit of variety. Also make sure to give a range of suitably sized live food that has been gut loaded and dusted beforehand. It's easy to tell if a crestie is eating then plus the live food is required to grow at a normal rate and offers some exercise.

As others have said the jelly is a treat but honestly not really suited to cresties and provides no nutritional benefit. I'd avoid wasting money on these in future and try different treats instead such as Waxworms or Calciworms.

It's not common practice to keep a bowl of calcium with cresties although I have heard it used with egg laying females. Just because it's not common practice doesn't mean you can't keep at it, however, calcium will need to be regular removed and replaced fresh.
Also make sure to keep your calcium, nutrient supplements and CGD in the fridge to extend shelf life.
 
#12 ·
If you add calcium make sure it's pure calcium with no D3 as they can overdose on D3, D3 will be in their food in the correct amounts and they also get it from UV so no need to have it in the calcium too.

Change the repashy every 2 days, as it starts to sour and go mouldy, you might have to add a little more water to it on day 2 if it has dried out a little.
 
#13 ·
The Repashy bottle says to replace every 36 hours, although I replace it on the evening of the third night I.e. 48 hours, but he won't have eaten all day.

In the first month I fed him by hand, mixing in some fresh squeezed juice. I put a bit on the end of a straw. One he eats out of the bowl and I can clearly see his licks, but this was not always the case.

For a small crestie a couple licks is probably fine for one day.

We have all been through this!!
 
#14 ·
I took out the jelly pot and replaced that with the repashy bowl so if hes going there for jelly he wont be confused by nothing there.

Ive also mixed a small amount of honey to make like a thick syrup texture. When offered on the end of a spoon, he did lick it twice :)

So happy hes had something just need to get him to self eat lol
 
#16 ·
ahh

not yet ive only had a week and atm im putting off live food as I'm worried about them.. is there anywhere where you can get small portions of small locusts like 3-5 a pack ?
 
#18 ·
my missus doesnt really want live food in front room, and im also worried about them escaping and freaking my girls out...!! lol

is there a anti escaping way of doing this..:lol2:

p.s 20 look like they'll overun the viv
 
#19 ·
Taping up the top of the Exo Terra by the cable entry points makes them pretty much escape proof. They may still be able to escape from the vents at the front but I've never seen it happen before.

Well you don't add in the whole tub. Rather keep them in either in a keeper/RUB or the box they were bought in and keep them fed (with locusts you also have to keep the temperature up being desert critters).
When they are properly gut loaded around 24 hours after feeding then remove a couple, dust with nutrients and calcium then release into the viv. If there are any survivors the following day remove these. Locusts, while not to the extent of crickets, can bite your gecko as it sleeps during the day.
 
#20 ·
lol its the removing and picking up that bothers me, i dont like bugs really, thats y i got a crestie.. thought they didnt need to eat them.. :(

can u get them pre gut loaded?
 
#21 · (Edited)
give your crestie time to settle in before worrying he is not eating enough.

Locusts will be far to big, you will need to start of with the correct size of crickets, no bigger than the distance between their eyes, buy some repashy cal+ to dust them before adding them to his viv.

Add about 5 every 2-3 days, you will need to gutload the crickets, this means feeding the crickets good food that your creatie will use when it eats the crickets, apple, cucumber, fruit, carrots etc etc or you can buy Bug Burger from repashy if you prefer a premixed food.
 
#23 ·
crickets allow your crestie to do something in the viv, hunt and move around, just sitting in the viv will not exercise him and be a bit boring.

as said tape up the back, a strip along the back holes will do it.

You can feed calci worms and silk worms and roaches but you should also feed crickets to be fair to the animal.

wax worms are very fatty so you can not feed those a lot, the odd one for a treat.
 
#24 ·
do crickets jump, i thought locusts couldnt get out of small gaps where crickets can?

i cant get him to eat the normal food yet how am i gonna get him to hunt bugs lol :
 
#27 ·
he's a wild animal, most love bugs, do you think they have a repashy tree in the wild :whistling2:

locusts don't move much and are a lot bigger than crickets, crickets come in all sizes, locusts start quite big, mine did't like locusts, they didn't move so he never really bothered with them, get yours on crickets he will love them.

The post above that said their crickets come gutloaded, they may do but with what? and once they digest that food within one day they will need gutloading again or they will dry out, you might as well feed a bug with a full stomach than one that ate 5 days ago and is as dry as a cream cracker.
 
#25 ·
You've already been told all of this about bugs. You can get small locusts, but small crickets are smaller and better for his size (about 3rds) Yes crickets can jump, yes a few will escape, as my crestie is living in my bedroom he's hardly getting any crickets at the moment, but once back in my own place he will be getting more. most crickets come pre-gutloaded (well mine do)

Its very unlikely your little loki will go for worms, but he may. when mine was the size of yours he much preferred chasing crickets to eating repashy.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top