thin after egg laying

[Pookie]

I know that housing a male with just one female is stressful for her and I'm working on getting another female. but for now i have this question. My female has laid eggs in the past (although i've never incubated them) and since the last time she laid, she's been very thin and almost lethargic. She normally looks this way for a few days after laying but it's been a few weeks now. She has horrible aim so crickets aren't the easiest for her to eat but she's eating mealies out of a dish no problem. She's still not gaining her weight back. Any suggestions?

[xiola]

silk worms and wax worms

[Pookie]

what about super worms??

[xiola]

Only if you squish the heads but i find that leos prefer silks and wax, also in the leopard gecko manual they recommend give females pinky mice during the breeding season to keep their weight up.(but mine wont take them)

[clint545]

Pinkies bulk them up pretty good but like xiola said, some eat them some don't.
Give the silks and waxs a try too, but not too many wax, as too many can be addictive and unhealthy!

[Pookie]

ok i'll try pinkies and silks...it's hard to find silks around where i live i'd have to order them! thanks

[Pookie]

ok the silks worked well. but why would i have to squish the heads of superworms?

[xiola]

Because they bite

[Pookie]

do they bite while they're trying to eat them? or bite them inside their stomachs after they swallow them? Just curious.

[DragnDrop]

There's no need at all to crush their heads or cut them off. That story is a myth, honest.

If you feed an insect of appropriate size to a healthy gecko (or whatever), it's not going to
chew it's way out of the gecko. This is a myth, it shows up every so often on every forum. If
you feed the proper sized mealworms, zoophoba and other bugs and wormy things to a healthy herp,
you won't have to worry about finding it has chewed it's way out. Have you ever watched a
leopard gecko eating a mealie or zoophoba? They usually aim for the head, and chew it first.
Once the head is crushed, the worm has no desire left to eat it's way out of the diner's body.
Even if they don't grab the head first, the body gets enough bites taken out of it and enough
puncture wounds to kill it. Once inside the stomach, there's no air, just digestive juices ready
and waiting to do their thing. Once the body has been chewed, mangled and otherwise mutilated
and swallowed, the insect doesn't have much desire left to chew it's way to freedom. Mealworms,
superworms and all those others can't hold their breath - they have no lungs so there's no way
they'd survive for long inside. You can prove that by putting a mealworm in water, see how fast
it dies. Even crickets don't live long in a water dish, imagine how well the bugs and worms
fare in stomach acid, pH around 2.0 or 3.0.


The old wive's tale about mealworms chewing their way out of the gecko have been around for
ages. The only way it could happen is feeding them to a near dead animal that didn't have the
strength to chew or bite them enough, and died right after the meal. Most likely it started with
a worm finding a dead body and taking advantage of a free meal by burrowing INTO it. Mealworms,
zoophobas and crickets are a staple diet even in the wild. As far as I know, no one goes around
chopping mealworm heads, crushing cricket mandibles etc.

Remember there are no Faeries running through the wilds pinching insect heads off for the herps.




(Of course there aren't Faeries doing that!! The real truth is....

Little rabbit Foofoo
Running through the forest
Finding the Zoophobas and
Pinching off their heads .........


(I just had to. sorry )

[Pookie]

Thanks Dragndrop! I was thinking that same thing while reading about the "so called" problems with superworms. I know lots of people who feed their gecko's superworms and mealies and never had a problem but my curiosity got the best of me! Thanks for clarifying.