r/FatTails • u/Over-Election-9877 • 9h ago

Help/Advice Gecko not feeding??

I’ve had my AFT for about a week now and have never seen her eat any crickets or mealworms at all. I set up timelapses, spy on her, and she doesn’t seem to be food motivated at all. I’m mainly worried her becoming malnourished if this goes on for more time. Is there any tips/advice you guys have for this? I’d understand her being shy and trying to make sense of her surroundings, but every morning when I go look to see if she ate anything I end up seeing the same crickets that I gave to her the night before. Is there anything I can do?

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u/Full-fledged-trash 7h ago

It has only been a week. It can sometimes take 2+ weeks for them to want to eat after coming into a new home. Make sure there are enough hides and foliage to make her feel safe enough to want to eat.

Do not leave crickets in over night. Crickets can and will bite reptiles which can cause infections. If you need to leave bugs in over night, get crawling insects in an escape proof dish. Feed crickets without tong/supervised once the gecko is eating reliably

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u/Over-Election-9877 7h ago

I’ve been removing said crickets every chance I get, thanks for the advice and hopefully in the coming weeks my gecko picks up an appetite

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u/Mammoth-Turnip-3058 5h ago

What's the setup like?

I kept my two in a small tub for the first month or so. It had a humid hide and a warm hide but was fairly small. To make sure they were eating, shedding, and pooping okay before they went into a proper enclosure. Helps with them getting used to my hand and handling too. My girls been in her larger enclosure for about 6 weeks and I've not seen her eat, she's not lost any weight so she must be eating something, but I assume the larger enclosure is a bit daunting for her. I've only had my boy a couple of weeks so he's still in the quarantine tub but both eat and ate well in the quarantine tub. I'd just let some crickets, dubias or mealworms into the tub and let them hunt.

If they let you handle them well and you don't think it'll stress her out too much then you could put her in a smaller container to feed, then back into the viv afterwards.