Eating...rather, not eating

5

500kpn

Guest
Ok, I have been lurking, searching, reading the posts here. I have an almost 2 (20 months I think) normal morph female leopard gecko. She has always been a big eater. Mealies always offered in her dish, feeding supers (1 at a time with tweezers as those buggers got out of 3 different dishes I had) and crickets. Sometimes fed during days, other times she has eaten all three in one day. Averaged about 8 mealies a day (every day) 1 to 3 supers and just a few crickets. Well, a month, yes, a month ago she stopped eating. Just quit over night. One day she was eating and pooping fine and the next nothing. I wasn't worried at first because I know they can go off food for no reason, go off food during ovulation and just plain old dont eat. So, I didn't get a fecal done on her. Now she's only pooping a small Small amount of solids but is still producing urates. (which are normal color, no change with that) Called my vet and she said that since she has nothing to go on (no poop) a fecal would be pointless. I did get her to eat 2 mealies yesterday but I think she ate them only because she was frustrated with them because I was holding them with tweezers close to her. I just dont even know what to do with her anymore.
Here is a run down of her set up: Warm side a constant 91 degrees (has been all her life) heated with an under tank heater, measured and maintained with a thermostat Cool side is low 80's. She has 4 hides. A half log on a ledge, a cool hide, a warm dry hide and a moist hide. I clean her cage every week and deep clean it monthly. A water dish filled at all times. She has always been alone, has not been with any other geckos since I got her from the pet store at 2 weeks old. Her supplement schedule includes: Calcium dish at all times, supers and crickets dusted with calcium, Calcium with D dusting 2x/wk, and a multi-vit 2x/wk. Her coloring remains bright (except during periods of shed) eyes clear without discharge. No spots felt or visualized on her underside to indicate abdominal problems. Her behavior has been normal, active, climbing on her ramp, wall and upper levels. She will crawl onto my hand to come out of her cage, and either crawl around where I set her or sit on my hand/arm. Her tongue appears normal, pink moist when I see her licking. I just dont know what to do or if I should even worry. She has a FAT tail, always has and doesn't appear to be changing. Any adivce would be appreciated. Thanks for listening!
 

GeckoGathering

GrizLaru
Messages
4,323
Location
Indiana
Not Eating.....Guess there's no poop to clean out.

500kpn said:
Ok, I have been lurking, searching, reading the posts here. I have an almost 2 (20 months I think) normal morph female leopard gecko. She has always been a big eater. Mealies always offered in her dish, feeding supers (1 at a time with tweezers as those buggers got out of 3 different dishes I had) and crickets. Sometimes fed during days, other times she has eaten all three in one day. Averaged about 8 mealies a day (every day) 1 to 3 supers and just a few crickets. Well, a month, yes, a month ago she stopped eating. Just quit over night. One day she was eating and pooping fine and the next nothing. I wasn't worried at first because I know they can go off food for no reason, go off food during ovulation and just plain old dont eat. So, I didn't get a fecal done on her. Now she's only pooping a small Small amount of solids but is still producing urates. (which are normal color, no change with that) Called my vet and she said that since she has nothing to go on (no poop) a fecal would be pointless. I did get her to eat 2 mealies yesterday but I think she ate them only because she was frustrated with them because I was holding them with tweezers close to her. I just dont even know what to do with her anymore.
Here is a run down of her set up: Warm side a constant 91 degrees (has been all her life) heated with an under tank heater, measured and maintained with a thermostat Cool side is low 80's. She has 4 hides. A half log on a ledge, a cool hide, a warm dry hide and a moist hide. I clean her cage every week and deep clean it monthly. A water dish filled at all times. She has always been alone, has not been with any other geckos since I got her from the pet store at 2 weeks old. Her supplement schedule includes: Calcium dish at all times, supers and crickets dusted with calcium, Calcium with D dusting 2x/wk, and a multi-vit 2x/wk. Her coloring remains bright (except during periods of shed) eyes clear without discharge. No spots felt or visualized on her underside to indicate abdominal problems. Her behavior has been normal, active, climbing on her ramp, wall and upper levels. She will crawl onto my hand to come out of her cage, and either crawl around where I set her or sit on my hand/arm. Her tongue appears normal, pink moist when I see her licking. I just dont know what to do or if I should even worry. She has a FAT tail, always has and doesn't appear to be changing. Any adivce would be appreciated. Thanks for listening!

I just wondered, you mentioned nothing about weights. Do you have a scale?..almost a must. Well from experience from worry on one of mine. I had a male not eat on his own for 8 months. I worried my u-know off for most all of the 8 months. He started at 123 grams.....dropped to 109, looked good, acted good, took some force feeding but objected to every worm I manage to get in him(which weren't many).......one day he started eating. first meal he had on his own he ate 30 wax worms. Got and maintained his weight about 120 grams..................What I'm getting to is, it sounds as if
you are describing a healthy gecko. Just one on a hunger strike. Anything upset it recently? Some thing change? Anything you can think that might have stressed it out. That's what mine was from. Most important to monitor its weight......Did it eat a shed recently?. Might try a wax worm or two or gut a meal worm and let it lick it from your finger. These repeats to near eating may stimulate the process again. .Please don't let a Vet try to force a stool sample. I had one drop a tail do to that procedure....take care. HJ
 

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