Liquid Diet

[Eric1969]

My Sparky has been on a liquid diet for week now. He stopped eating any crickets and mealworms almost 2 weeks now. He went to the vet last Tuesday and put him on some kind of powder mixed with water diet since he has not had any interest in his insects. He has not gone to the bathroom in a week now, but he also has not ingested much since it is hard to get him to eat the liquid from the vial. I also put paper towel in his tank, since I used to have sand. I wonder if the paper towel freaks him out since he never had it before. he did shed and eat his skin the other day, and I give him 5 minute warm baths almost every day. I worry he is getting back up inside... Any suggestions. His followup vet visit is not until monday.

 

[chazthaking2]

What is the temp in the cage, also what kind of hide does it have? My suggestion if those two things are adequate is to try a different meal, have a variety of foods available. I had a gecko that didn't eat, grew bulges over his eyes and was on the verge of death it almost seemed. I keep his temps and his water constant and now he eats everything in sight. Just have patience.

 

[Eric1969]

His temps have been in the low 80's since I got him almost a year ago. that is the set up the previous owner always had him on. A UTH and basking light on the one side and no heat at all on the other. I removed part of his paper towel last night and He actually went during the night to the bathroom on the sand part. I had this feeling in the back of my mind he is stressed out over the change of his substrate, or it is a coinsident....

 

[Adinar]

His temps should be up to 90-95, this will help promote good digestion.

We had the same issue with a baby aft when he first came home becasue we were using a heat lamp. He wouldn't go to the bathroom for a week-week and a half at a time, but was eatting normally. We got rid of the lamp and got him a uth and got those temps boosted. It took him a little bit, but it fixed everything. Just make sure you have something down more than just a papertowel over the uth when you turn it up. Get a reptile carpet or even put a piece of cardboad over it so he's not directly on the heat.

Also, if you're worried about impactation give him a bit of olive oil on the nose and let him lick it off. Helps almost like a natural laxitive.