If anyone knows how to fatten female leopards up quickly after laying, any info would be greatly appreciated, Thanks Rafiki
Well, a lot of people suggest a pinky. I've never given pinkies to ours (Cheri won't let me feed mammals to a reptile, heh), but you could also drop one or two waxies in too. For ours, we don't do anything outside of what we normally do, except feed more of the same. We always leave a bowl of mealworms in the big tank for the females. It's weird, neither of our males touch mealies, but both the females love 'em. The girls usually polish off a bowl of 30 or so mealies every couple of days, then we just replenish. So even if they run out of crix, the mealies are still there for 'em. After Hershey laid her last (infertile) pair of eggs, her tail got really thin, now it's big n' fat again.
The pet store here rarely has wax worms that are alive and the girls don't like pinkies. I feed all meal worms, well it's not working, i fed everyday and the girls are down to about 35 grams each, started out the season at 50 grams. They are still trying to lay even tho they have been away from the male for 3 months now. I have 1 fertile egg incubating, it's 10 days old, i need more advice, Thanks Rafiki
How about superworms? First time I showed those to our females, both of 'em nearly bit my fingers off!
We feed 'em live to the leos and the dragons. The myth that you have to kill them or crush their heads is exactly that, a myth. Both our leos and beardies WELL chomp down on the superworms and have a good chew before they swallow them. Even if they made it down to the stomach alive, they'd soon be goners in the stomach acid
Oh yeah... avoid "King" mealworms... These are the regular mealies that have basically been pumped full of steroids to make 'em bigger. They're ok for birds (the reason they were initially created), but can play havok with reptiles from what I've read.
Fat isn't necessarily a good thing when attempting to bring a reptile back to a nice healthy weight. It's not something to be rushed, or could cause severe liver, and other, problems.
Since King Mealworms are full of steroids wont that kill the birds since steroids are like bad drugs? Or are the birds imunne to the drug?
Birds have a very differeny physiology to reptiles. The King mealworms were originally developed for birds, but have somehow managed to sneak into the reptile foods at more pet stores. avoid them at all costs. Regular mealworms and superworms are the best. Supers being better (less surface area for the amount of goodness they contain.