how long before I worry?

My new baby leo's I brouhgt home on sunday still wont eat.:( I'm not even 100% sure they have drank any either. I can't watch them 24hrs a day but I know know what I have offered them to eat they haven't eaten not one thing. I've tried crickets and mealies. Not sure what to do now.:confused:
Thanks,
Briana

One of my baby leo's that I brought home wouldn't eat, and died about a month after I purchased her..
I was assist-feeding her phoenix worms occasionally in hope it would keep her alive, but it may have caused her more harm than good.

:[ Try putting small mealies in a very shallow bowl so you can leave them in the cage without them hiding under the substrate.. Thats what I do now, and it's much easier to feed.

Yeah thats what I did with my leos when I had them. I just left a bowl with some mealies in it and ocassionally offered crickets and other goodies. THey never ate right when offered either.

What is your cage set up like? Substrate, temps on hot end cool end, hides etc? Pics would be very helpful for me also. The stress of being in a new environment would obviously cause them not to eat right away. If they have parasites would cause this. Husbandry could also cause this. I personally would weigh my leo's and when they start losing weight is when I would worry. If you can give me some info on your set up and some pics we can see if it is good or if we can improve it :gj:

They are in a 10 gal 1/2 height tank with sand(i know, i know, I'm going to catch hell for that one) they have 3 hides 2 on warm side and one on cool side. the one on the cool side is the one with damp vermiculite for the humid hide. They have a very shallow water dish on the cool side of the tank. Only heat is a UTH. I don't have themometers in with them but I would venture to guess that the warm side is a good upper 90's since the sand is warm to my touch. They do come out of their hides and move around and I know that they are going to the bathroom atleast 2 times each. I've offered canned crickets and canned mealies but they are not interested. No place in my area will have live stuff until next week(orders are every other week). I did weight them the day I got them(sunday) and last night their weight was still the same so they haven't started loosing weight yet. I'll try to get some pics of their setup and post them.

here is there setup. right half is the warm side of the tank.
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/g...b/CIMG1180.jpg

Okay, since you already know the sand is a bad idea for baby leo's I will only ask why you want to use it :D I would also buy a temp gun so you definately know the temp of the surface area of the warm and cool side. And the fact that you are stuck using canned feeders is DEFINATELY not helping you or them out right now (sounds like you already know that too though). Once you get some live feeders in there that will help a ton. I would also change your moist hide to something at least opaque to help them feel more secure when hiding in there. Most people put one hide on the hot end, one in the middle and one on the cool end (not how my set up is). You have the right idea going on there though :gj: Once you get your live feeders you will probably have WAY better luck :gj:

Try, live feeders like it was suggested in the previous post, make sure that u have at least 1 opaque hide on each side of the tank(cool and warm).

If you can, try a smaller enclosure (only if you have one) sometimes baby leos can get stressed out with too much room (sometimes).

If you get live feeders (crickets,mealworms etc.) try the "shake and bake" method with calcium powder. Also, you can try wax worms or butter worms (live).

But it is important to make sure your temps are good

i used the sand because it's what I already had set up. I feel like the uth would make a thinner substrate(ie. newspaper or papertowels) too hot for them since it feels pretty darn warm to be going through about 3 in of sand! The bell albino doesn't mind to much that the humid hide is see through, she(hopefully) spends about 1/3 of her time in there. I went to 3 stores today in my area looking for live feeders with no luck. I hope they either start eating or can hold out til next week. I just went and looked at them and they are both out of the hides wandering around the tank, so I know they are exploring around

I got my 2 older leo's from the same breeder I got these 2 from and i also had to wait a couple of days for them to start eating when i got them, but I don't remember it being this long. They are super eaters now. The female has been eating like crazy, sometimes 2 times a day but she is also gravid so that might have something to do with it! She is starting to slow down her eating so I believe she should be laying soon!! The waitig is horrible!

Thanks for all the help and info

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Snoopybdb

i used the sand because it's what I already had set up. I feel like the uth would make a thinner substrate(ie. newspaper or papertowels) too hot for them since it feels pretty darn warm to be going through about 3 in of sand! The bell albino doesn't mind to much that the humid hide is see through, she(hopefully) spends about 1/3 of her time in there. I went to 3 stores today in my area looking for live feeders with no luck. I hope they either start eating or can hold out til next week. I just went and looked at them and they are both out of the hides wandering around the tank, so I know they are exploring around

I got my 2 older leo's from the same breeder I got these 2 from and i also had to wait a couple of days for them to start eating when i got them, but I don't remember it being this long. They are super eaters now. The female has been eating like crazy, sometimes 2 times a day but she is also gravid so that might have something to do with it! She is starting to slow down her eating so I believe she should be laying soon!! The waitig is horrible!

Thanks for all the help and info

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all UTH's are too hot , that's why you use a thermostat or dimmer switch to regulate the heat, dimmer switches are made very easially, there's tutorials on here and on the net i've made several and they're very low cost, i think the only exp. part was the 6ft ext cord, and that's only like a few bucks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jrosen123

Try, live feeders like it was suggested in the previous post, make sure that u have at least 1 opaque hide on each side of the tank(cool and warm).

If you can, try a smaller enclosure (only if you have one) sometimes baby leos can get stressed out with too much room (sometimes).

If you get live feeders (crickets,mealworms etc.) try the "shake and bake" method with calcium powder. Also, you can try wax worms or butter worms (live).

But it is important to make sure your temps are good

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Unfortunately there are no live feeders to be had at any stores in my area until next week.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shadraak

all UTH's are too hot , that's why you use a thermostat or dimmer switch to regulate the heat, dimmer switches are made very easially, there's tutorials on here and on the net i've made several and they're very low cost, i think the only exp. part was the 6ft ext cord, and that's only like a few bucks.

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Thanks, I'll have to check into doing this. Although the UTH I have on my older leo's tank doesn't get all that super hot. Def not as hot as the one on the smaller leo's tank. Just a brand difference I suppose.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Snoopybdb

Thanks, I'll have to check into doing this. Although the UTH I have on my older leo's tank doesn't get all that super hot. Def not as hot as the one on the smaller leo's tank. Just a brand difference I suppose.

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You do not know since you do not measure your temps, you MUST know your temps you also MUST control your UTH (regardless of the brand) it will help you maintain proper temps and avoid overheating which could lead to burns.

Any heating source can overheat even those that technically do not get higher than 95 (which is false anyway since given the right condition they can achieve much more than that)

Control your heat source is VERY important you can do that with a thermostat or a lamp dimmer as previously suggested http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...-WH&lpage=none

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As for live feeders if you cannot get a steady supply locally you might want to order them online or breed them yourself. (I breed mealworms and it is very easy and low maintenance - I do not feed crickets)

Here are 2 suppliers you might want to check into

http://armstrongcrickets.com/shop/

http://luckylurecricketfarm.com/Stor...rtmentList.asp

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Deborah

You do not know since you do not measure your temps, you MUST know your temps you also MUST control your UTH (regardless of the brand) it will help you maintain proper temps and avoid overheating which could lead to burns.

Any heating source can overheat even those that technically do not get higher than 95 (which is false anyway since given the right condition they can achieve much more than that)

Control your heat source is VERY important you can do that with a thermostat or a lamp dimmer as previously suggested http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...-WH&lpage=none

---------------------

As for live feeders if you cannot get a steady supply locally you might want to order them online or breed them yourself. (I breed mealworms and it is very easy and low maintenance - I do not feed crickets)

Here are 2 suppliers you might want to check into

http://armstrongcrickets.com/shop/

http://luckylurecricketfarm.com/Stor...rtmentList.asp

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You know, I hate to take the chance of makeing this thread take an ugly turn, BUT....I don't like your tone with me at the begining of your reply post(if a post can have a tone). The way it's worded is like you are trying to talk down to me as if I'm some idiot. When your first words are "You do not know...." is seems you are really saying"DUHH you idiot" (I've read other threads were you have been very rude with some posters, so I feel this is typical of you) We can not all be experts at everything and that's what I thought this forum was about. A place where inexperienced people can look for answers to their questions from more experience people without being made to feel like they are dumb. Maybe I'm wrong! In the future maybe you should think about HOW you are saying things to people. I've always said "It's not what you say but how you say it".

That being said, thank you for the info on the feeding sources.

You read too MUCH in my post what I wrote is just what I meant you do not know your temps since you do not measure them and I stress how important it is to measure them and controll them whether you do it or not is YOUR choice.

Now if you think there is any else than advice for the well being of your animal in my post than it is YOUR interpretation, but than again this is the internet.

If I wanted to say "you idiot" trust me I would say it so again you can interpret my post the way you want to interpret it is YOUR choice and YOUR interpretation

Anyway I am done here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Snoopybdb

You know, I hate to take the chance of makeing this thread take an ugly turn, BUT....I don't like your tone with me at the begining of your reply post(if a post can have a tone). The way it's worded is like you are trying to talk down to me as if I'm some idiot. When your first words are "You do not know...." is seems you are really saying"DUHH you idiot" (I've read other threads were you have been very rude with some posters, so I feel this is typical of you) We can not all be experts at everything and that's what I thought this forum was about. A place where inexperienced people can look for answers to their questions from more experience people without being made to feel like they are dumb. Maybe I'm wrong! In the future maybe you should think about HOW you are saying things to people. I've always said "It's not what you say but how you say it".

That being said, thank you for the info on the feeding sources.

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YEAAA!!! I found some live crickets today at a local store and brought them home for the babies. I put some in and 1 of the babies ate 2 almost as soon as I put them in there. I didn't see the other on eat, but i left the rest in to give them some time with them.

live food...if they don't see it move they won't eat it...at least for your guys...I did once do the whole tying the crickets leg to a string thing (i was 15!)...and it worked...its a bit risky only because you have to tie it the right way so they won't eat the string...

I think i'm gonna get it for posting this...

I would reccomend keeping them on live food to help them eat better, you can always order off line a lot of places deliver live for cheap(you'll have to store them but you'll have them for a while. I can get 250 from my sourse for around $10 shipped and get them in 3 business days.

Another thing is if you know sand is so bad, get them off of it. Buy a dimmer and get some good substrait if you dont want them to become impacted and die from another reason. feeding them on sand is one of the best ways to get impacted b/c they arent accurate with catching crickets and get sand in they're mouth most of the time when eatting the live crickets