Feeding how much how often??

I bought a adult male (4 yr old) raptor off a local breeder for $50. He is a big boy about 9inches maybe a little longer. He was always fed mealworms and I don't like them at all.
I got him last weds. Thursday he ate 3 super worms and a large cricket. Yesterday he ate 3 large crickets. Do you think he is eating enough or no?
I just want to know how much and how often do you feed your leos.

Here are some pics of him
http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/a...1271560750.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/a...1271612607.jpg
http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/a...1271612751.jpg
http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/a...1271612708.jpg

All you can eat buffet ;)

My leos have a dish with meal worms in their enclosure at all time, of course I remove them to replace by fresher gut loaded ones but the dish is there at all time.

His tail could stand to be just a little bit more plump, but basically he looks good. My adult female of similar size (she's just a hair under 10 inches in total length and ~75 grams last time I weighed her) eats 3-4 large crickets every 3 days. It sounds like you're doing something similar, so I can't really say anything bad about it. That said, it'll really work out best if you can observe what the animal does and adjust based on that. If you give him 3 crickets and he chomps them all down and is obviously looking for more, give him some more and/or feed him every 2 days instead of every 3. If he's ignoring crickets, feed less and/or space out the feedings a bit more. If you're paying attention, he'll tell you what you need to do. :)

Most of the time he is sleeping, he does get up at night and walk around and climb all over his hides so he gets some exercise but he mainly sleeps.

About his tail size. Should I feed him something different to get his weight up some? I give him crickets and or superworms. Sometime he wants one or the other so I keep both on hand. The super worms are easier to keep by far, they don't make noise or jump out of the container when I try to grab them but I'm gonna still use crickets.

I heard of using wax worms to beef them up a little but I also heard that sometimes they will only eat wax worms and it's hard to get them back on crickets or super worms.

I don't have a scale so I don't know his exact weight, I was worried about his tail that's why I posted pics of him so you can tell me if I need to feed something different or not. I have a bait shop that I can get fresh wax worms from, I am thinking about trying the wax worms but I don't know how many to feed him or how often. He ate Sunday so he should probably eat tomorrow.
I haven't tried to feed him yet today since he's been sleeping.

He is lazy and won't chase his crickets so I been hand feeding them to him. Do you think I should try to get him to hunt? When I put his food in he looks interested but won't strike. He will walk on the crickets or superworms if they are in his way.

I vote 'no' on the waxies. Just keep offering him the crickets and supers, he will put a bit of weight on with a good, steady diet of good, healthy feeders. He is in good shape, not underweight to the point of despair. Just go slow and easy, if he is hungry feed him, if not don't ;)

He was raised on mealworms and I don't think they were properly gut loaded, or he didn't eat enough of them. The last post kinda has me worried lol. I don't want him to be all skinny, I know wax worms are fatty but I don't know if he's gonna plump up just off crickets and superworms when he doesn't even eat that much.

Most pics I see of leos have these big fat tails and his is long and kinda skinny. I just want him to look good and be healthy.
I don't know his weight. Does walmart sell cheap scales that I could weigh him with? I'd like to know for sure his weight. How much do you think he weighs from looking at his pics?

Well he just woke up. He came out of his hide and was staring at his calcium dish. I took the lid off and tried to feed him a superworm. He wouldn't take it.
I grabbed a large cricket and smacked it down on the tile so I can hand feed it to him. He ate 2 large crickets in a row.

I tried a 3rd but he didn't want it. He eventually turned away from me so I stopped trying to feed him. He is awake now and walking around his cage. I out a small bowl inside there and put 3 super worms inside it. I have to watch tho because they can get out of the bowl. I wonder if I should get some meal worms from the pet store gut load them tonight and put them in a bowl and leave the bowl inside his cage?

I have to get more large crickets anyways as I think he is now preceding the crickets over the super worms. What do you guys think?
He just ate Sunday so maybe he will eat every two days instead of three.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Clementine_3

I vote 'no' on the waxies. Just keep offering him the crickets and supers, he will put a bit of weight on with a good, steady diet of good, healthy feeders. He is in good shape, not underweight to the point of despair. Just go slow and easy, if he is hungry feed him, if not don't ;)

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Agreed; waxworms are a *very* rare treat for leos, if even that. Presuming he's otherwise healthy, he'll put on enough weight on a steady diet of superworms, mealworms, and/or crickets. He only looks slightly underweight right now, nothing to be really worried about. As long as you can get him to eat consistently, he should do fine, even if the amounts don't necessarily seem like a lot.

For example, my girl put on her last 15 grams (from 60 --> 75 grams total weight) on a diet of 3 crickets every 3 days, and she didn't necessarily always eat all 3. It's not like we're talking about warm blooded animals that need a ton of food just to maintain body weight here.

:)

The guy only fed him mealworms and I don't think he got enough of them. I mean for being 4yrs old he should be bigger then he is. I have another question now. I had his tank setup with tile. I out playsand under the tile to keep them from rocking. I had gaps inbetween all the tile so I used playsand inbetween the tiles to fill in the gaps.

The play sand wasn't at the surface of the tiles, it was under it. Well he pooped today and had a small amount of playsand in his poop. I immediately freaked out and took him out the cage. I took out all the play sand, I put down one piece of newspaper to keep the tiles from making that grinding noise.
I shoved all the tiles to the front and to the right. So now I have a 1/4 inch gap in the back all the way across and on the left side from the back to the front. The only reason why I used playsand was so I didn't have these gaps.
He has a calcium dish full of calcium all the time in his cage, I don't understand why he ingested the sand. It makes no sense to me. He doesn't hunt I hand feed him every time.

He's not impacted at all, his tummy is nice and soft and I can move my finger around his belly. It's hard to explain really but I know he's not impacted and he had a real little amount in his poop. I'm just tripping out because the sand in his poop. I'm gonna monitor his poop for the next few times and see what happens.

It's bad enough I feel bad for him being a little skinny, now he had sand in his poop. I'm sure he'll be fine I just freaked out big time about this. Man I feel like a bad owner. I didn't have him only on playsand ya know he had to of put his face down in a gap of the tile and licked the playsand.

I don't know why he did it but it's my fault for using the playsand. I'm really down right now. I didn't even consider him doing that when I tiled the tank. If i would of thought he'd lick the sand I would of never put the sand in there. Go ahead and get me guys for using sand. I have the BBQ ready to go someone needs to start it with a flame.
I feel like such a bad owner even tho he barely had any sand in his poop

He's awake right now and being active he's walking around and climbing on stuff. I just feel bad about it, I don't think that he's impacted. If he had a impaction he wouldn't be moving around would he? You could never tell he ate any sand from looking at his body.

Calm down and breathe :)
He's fine. A little bit of sand will pass right through, no worries.
I know what you mean about tiles and cracks, I ended up just using one 12 x 12 tile on the warm side and have paper towel for the rest of the tanks. It's just easier and with all the 'stuff' in the tank it doesn't look horrible (or I've gotten used to it). I'm all about easy and safe so that works for me.

Chill, dude!

Underweight, a little but I have seen far worse. A couple things alarm me. First the tupperware hides. Being nocturnal, you should probably use a hide that blocks out the light. Some people might not agree with me, but would you like to sleep with the lights on ALL the time?

Also, you talk about how you feed. Superworms and crickets are just fine. If your leo is four years old and won't hunt, then he might be blind. Maybe he's just really lazy or tired. I suggest getting SMALL mealworms or supers. Put about 20 in that feeder dish you have (make sure there is no calcium in it, use a small jar lid for calcium dish). When you feed crickets, put about five in the tank and let them stay in the tank for 15 minutes. If you notice they are all gone before the 15 minutes, add a couple more. If there are any left over, remove them. Leo's HUNT. They don't eat dead/still things.

Your tank is 90% better than most I see for leo's. I personally wouldn't worry about the play sand. Your temp in the pics say 93 F. Is that pretty constant? You may want to bring it up to about 95 F and see how he reacts.

Keep us updated. Your leo is far from deaths doorstep so relax.

When I got him I didn't have alot of cash left because I bought all his stuff at once then I bought him so i didn't have a extra $20 to my name I had to provide something and that's what the old owner kept him in. So I tried it.
Do you think I should use the exo Terra cave hides? If so what size will be good enough for him? I think they come in small medium and large. He's only in a 20gal tall so indont know how much room the hides will take up butninwill get new hides today.

I have to go to the pet store today anyways and get some mealworms and crickets, tongs for feeding and i will pick up some hides for him.
What size cave hide do you think will be ok for him he's pretty long.

Do you think that just feeding him gutloaded crickets mealies and superworms will pick up his weight? I have no problem getting wax worms that's why I brought that up. I can give him a couple here and there I just want him to look big and healthy. I'm ok now about the sand.
I read a article on the vmsherp site that says they give their leos a bowl that has calcium powder, sand and crushed up eggshells all the time to help with digestion so I think he may of licked the sand to help digest his food.

He may have a vision problem I don't honestly know. I have dumped 12 crickets in his tank at once before. He was interested he looked around and walked around while they were in there but he wouldn't strike at them. I watched him for 15 minutes and he never ate any of them.
He was always fed meal worms so he had never seen crickets before. Maybe he just needs to get use to them. I would rather him hunt his food then me feed it to him but my main concern was him just getting food in his belly.

Keenex box will work for a hide. Cut the bottom off and put a hole on one side and another on the other side. The hides at the pet store are fairly expensive. I do happen to have two hides in my viv from the petstore, but that's before I knew I could just make some. Also, after adding the tile and background to my viv, I think the store bought hides are more eye appealing.

The only time I know a leo will starve itself is when the temps are not correct and can't digest or when it can't find food (blindness). I guess there are other health concerns that could cause a leo to fast, but lets not talk about that at this point.

The exo Terra reptile cave in medium size measurs 9x6 or 8x5 I can't remember and it's $7 a piece. Do you think those are fine for my Leo? I would rather have nice hides then tissue boxes as the tank is seen by everyone who comes over and it will look alot better.

His temps are good so that's ok. I'm gonna get some mealworms for sure so I can leave them in his tank all the time so when he's hungry he can just eat them. I'm gonna pick up more crickets too since he does eat them alot more then the super worms plus I have about 9 superworms left.
What do you think about the wax worms? I know they are fatty and I'm not trying to base his diet off of just those. I just want to put a little weight on him.

I think he will do better with the cave hides becUse as you said they are dark and maybe he will feel more secure. I just hope that when I put them in he doesn't go off eating. He should be less stressed tho as it's dark and he should feel even safer.
I can't find the cave hides in a large locally, I wanted to compare the two at the pet store so I can judge what to get but the medium dimensions are larger then the hides he currently has. I'm getting ready to leave now so please let me know if you think I shouk try the wax worms as I can get them at the pet shop while I'm getting hides mealies and crickets.

Those hides will be fine. I am not sure if I wasn't clear in my last post...as far as I know, the only things that would stop them from eating would be incorrect temps and blindness. From my research and reading on other forums, they don't get stressed like snakes and turtles to where they will starve themselves.

He was only fed mealworms and indon know if they were prorperly gutloaded but I'm guessing not due to his size. I'm gonna get those cave hides now, getting 2 of them. He hasn't had crickets so maybe I will just have to hand feed him with tongs. It's fine i don't mind and it doesn't take long to do. I'm just worried about his weight. I want him to bulk up a little I know his tail could be alot fatter. He should bulk up from eating the crickets and worms since I gut load them good.
I give them oatmeal, carrot, potatoe and apple slices. I've never gutloaded before but I'm trying and I think I'm doing ok. I try to have a nice enclosure and to keep him happy and not stressed. I only take him out when he wants to come out. He will climb on the tank and stare at me. I put my hand in he climbs on then he comes out.

Well off I go. I'll post pics of the setup when I get back so you can see with the hides and mealworms dish in there. I put his calcium in the cap that it came in so it takes up less space.

That was a quick $20 lol. I got him 2 of the medium exo Terra reptile hides, 100 mealworms, 12 large crickets, 18 wax worms, and a pair of feeding tongs. They only had the wax worms in a container of 18 they didn't have smaller sizes so I'm sure most of these are gonna die off.

Now for the mealworms and wax worms being gut loaded. I put carrot pieces and oatmeal in the containers with the crickets, meal worms and the wax worms. Do the mealworms or wax worms need to go in the fridge or can I leave them out like i do the crickets and the super worms?

I put his new hides in and took the old ones out. He has plenty of space inside them to lay down. I got the medium ones and they are 9x6 so he fits as he's only 9 1/2 long. He should like them as it's dark now, plus it makes his tank look alot better then the rubbermaid containers.

He just got up and came out of his new hide. I figured what the heck i will offer some food. I showed him the food bowl with the food in it but he turned his head. I grabbed the tongs and he ate that way. He ate 2 large crickets I tried again but he turned away. I grabbed a wax worm and he was on that thing like flies on stink. He's never had them before but he gulped it down.
I tried a super worm and he refused. I tried another large cricket and he ate it. I gave him another wax worm and he took that too.
So he ate 3 large crickets and 2 wax worms today.

He was more in attack mode then I have seen him be. Maybe he just wasn't eating enough and he was really hungry today. This is two days in a row that he has ate. I left the bowl in the tank with 12 dusted mealworms in it. So maybe he will eat those too. It seems like he's getting on the ball now and he's gonna start eating right. No more wax worms til next week for him. I'm gonna try to just give him one or two a week until he gets his weight where it should be. I'm surprised he turned down the super worms. When I grabbed one with the tongs it was all over the place.