Male Hasn't Eaten in Weeks!

[TwistedTruth]

I always read that females quit eating for a number of weeks. Nothing about males ever spontaneously not eating anymore.

So, I've seperated them incase of sickness or bullying. I've sertilized both cages in case of sickness or parasites. He hasn't eaten ANYTHING I've dropped in. I bought chicken baby food and have a "bird feeding" syringe in case the option boils down to force feeding.

Now, not only is he not eating, he's been in his tree/hidey hole for 5 days.
Am I doing something wrong? Is he sick?
I asked my cousin who had a male leopard gecko before me and she had relatively the same problem. But he died. And I'd rather not have that...

In case you're wondering why I haven't taken him to a vet, it's because I'm extremely low on cash and the nearest exotic vet is over 2 hours away.

I have pictures if you need to see them.

 

[ariana]

pics would be good.
and what are the temps?
substrate?
whos he been housed with?

my male is on a hunger strike atm too. but he hasnt lost any weight so im not worred.

 

[TwistedTruth]

Temps are 80 on cool, 87 on hot/moist side.
Substrate is tile.
He's been housed with the female I got him with. I seperated them, incase of bullying.

He stopped eating and shed once since then. I'm not a hundred percent sure he's lost weight, as I don't have a scale. I plan to get one and monitor it.
He finally ate two superworms today, after syringing chicken into him yesterday... Maybe he needed appetite stimulation? I'm not sure. But two is better than nothing.

I'll upload pictures tonight.

 

[Riyo]

You might want to bump up your temperatures... I keep mine between 95 - 97F on the warm side and they all eat great and are super healthy.

Don't freak out yet, they're built to go periods of time without or with little food. If he's already skinny then it's a problem but if he's healthy then he should be fine.

 

[TwistedTruth]

I got pictures of him today. He's not skinny, but he's not active either. I guess that's what was concerning me. They both went through a hibernation stage in the winter, but it seems like he hasn't came out yet.

I'll be up'ing his temperatures today and monitor the next few days to see if that helped. Thank you for your advice! I really appreciate it!

 

[JordanAng420]

First off, he looks pretty healthy...nice, normal looking male leopard gecko...it's good that you are trying to fix the situation before it becomes a physical problem for him :main_thumbsup:

I second that you might need to up your temps, but are you using anything underneath the tank to heat the substrate on on the hot side, or are you strictly using the overhead lamp? That might be part of your issue think about getting an UTH or heat tape for underneath the tank.

I'm sure you know this, but it looks like it's time to give the water dish a good scrubbin'!

Also one thing you might want to think about is making the moist hide spot more covered....they generally like them better and use them properly when it's darker...for some reason mine didn't like that they could be seen through the plastic...yours might be different though, just a suggestion.

 

[TwistedTruth]

Good, good! I'm glad. I'm the only one I know around here that has geckos, so I never have anything as a good size reference. (Everything either looks monsterous or tiny on pictures online... Haha.)

I've been strictly using the overhead lamp lately. I was planning on putting on a UTH to boost the temperatures. Seems like I'll probably have to get a new one. (Sister is having surgery today, dad left for work = no car yet.)

The dish definetly got scrubbed after I took the picture. Thanks.

Ohh, I haven't thought about that actually. Makes sense, I had greenery in there earlier. I'll just put it back in. Thank you much!