My leopard gecko has stopped eating!

[Boa'sUnlimited]

Hey guys

well I am very upset right now, my baby Lilly the leo has stopped eating entirely

Its been about 3 weeks since she last took food. She has lost 3 - 5 grams and is, as of today, 80 grams instead of 83 - 85

She ate half a super worm last week but thats it

Is it because of the winter?

Could she be sick?

I have her hot spot at 92 - 94 (sometimes hitting 95) cold side 75 - 80

I have a calcium dish in with her, and a really shallow water bowl (its like 2 cm high) so that she can easily get water whenever she wants

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Dog Shrink]

Being a female there could be a couple reasons for her not eating. You could check and see if she is ovulating by looking for the pink pads on her belly, she could just be adapting with the winter months as they can tell from the change in daylight, humidity in the ambient air and temperature. Going into shed will make some leos go off feed. She could just be bored with her feed, maybe try something different. I have seen some thread posts where people say that their leo only eats 1-2 supers every couple weeks. Also as they age they sometimes cut back how much they eat. Since they're not in an active growth period they're not using or needing as much nourishment. My Eros just turned 9 mos old and has cut back from 3-4 supers a feeding 3x a week to 1-2 supers 3x a week. She doesn't sound like she's lost that much weight, and as long as she doesn't look like she is losing much weight it is prob. just the natural winter slow down, but if it concerns you that much you might consider a vet appointment just to be certain all is well with her health.

 

[Boa'sUnlimited]

Being a female there could be a couple reasons for her not eating. You could check and see if she is ovulating by looking for the pink pads on her belly, she could just be adapting with the winter months as they can tell from the change in daylight, humidity in the ambient air and temperature. Going into shed will make some leos go off feed. She could just be bored with her feed, maybe try something different. I have seen some thread posts where people say that their leo only eats 1-2 supers every couple weeks. Also as they age they sometimes cut back how much they eat. Since they're not in an active growth period they're not using or needing as much nourishment. My Eros just turned 9 mos old and has cut back from 3-4 supers a feeding 3x a week to 1-2 supers 3x a week. She doesn't sound like she's lost that much weight, and as long as she doesn't look like she is losing much weight it is prob. just the natural winter slow down, but if it concerns you that much you might consider a vet appointment just to be certain all is well with her health.

Yeah I tried super worms, meal worms, crickets, and today I am gonna pick up butter and wax worms and see if she will take those

I cant really check if she has the ovulation "marking" going on because when I try to put her on her back or lift up her tail to get a good look at her belly she squirms and starts freaking the hell out

I am concerned that if I force her to be on her back or lift up her back side to look at her belly that she may drop her tail, she freaks out that much!

I dont think she needs a vet visit quite yet but if she doesnt start eating within the next 3 weeks, or if she starts losing a lot of weight then I am for sure gonna bring her in

Thanks

 

[Dog Shrink]

You're welcome Mike... maybe you can hold her so that her feet are on your fingertips and insted of filpping her directly over on her back maybe you can hold her like she's standing on her back feet just to get a peek at her belly to see if the pads are there. I'm sure you know to be careful with the waxies as they are highly addicting, but honestly to me it just sounds like the typical winter slow down. I've seen posts from some of the more experienced keepers who have mentioned 4-ish months off feed with no ill effects so just monitor her weight and if she seems to be losing a lot then there may be reason for concern. Try not to panic. I'm sure she's prob. just fine. Is this her first winter with you?

 

[Boa'sUnlimited]

You're welcome Mike... maybe you can hold her so that her feet are on your fingertips and insted of filpping her directly over on her back maybe you can hold her like she's standing on her back feet just to get a peek at her belly to see if the pads are there. I'm sure you know to be careful with the waxies as they are highly addicting, but honestly to me it just sounds like the typical winter slow down. I've seen posts from some of the more experienced keepers who have mentioned 4-ish months off feed with no ill effects so just monitor her weight and if she seems to be losing a lot then there may be reason for concern. Try not to panic. I'm sure she's prob. just fine. Is this her first winter with you?

Ill try to hold her like you said and see if I can see anything

Its good to know that she is probably fine, she hasnt lost much weight so I think shes alright

Ill try to not feed her to much waxies, I have heard they are addicting so ill be careful

Im trying not to panic its just hard not to when all of a sudden she just stops eating. But im trying hard to not panic to much

And yeah, this is her first winter with me, I adopted her from a gecko rescue, she has gone through some hard times in the past, a lot of her toes are very small because she has lost a lot of the toes to stuck sheds (From the previous owners ofcourse)

Since I got her she hasnt had any problems up until now, So im hoping that everthing is just fine

im gonna try to not worry so much

Thanks!

 

[Boa'sUnlimited]

Okay I looked and from what I can see I dont see the ovulation "mark"

One thing I wanted to mention, was today I found poop in her enclosure so I know she is pooping

does that rule out impaction?

Thanks

 

[Dog Shrink]

Is she on sand for a substrait? If so I think you want to change that to something less dangerous like tile (vinyl or ceramic/porcelain) repti carpet or paper towels/ meat wrapping paper, cut open brown paper shopping bags) just to be safe. If she poo'd that is a good sign that she is likey not impacted but if she is on sand then it is always a possibility that she could impact. She could very well be a bit constipated from lack of eating... if nothing is goin in the GI will go into GI stasis (in most animals) causing constipation and eventually possibly fecal impaction which can be cleared up with some warm soaks and some mineral oil dabbed on her nose to lick off to kind of "grease the tracks". If she is eating a little that is better because at least that way the GI is still functioning. The winter slow down tho is a different story, everything slows down so GI stasis and lack of eating shouldn't be as much of an issue. Maybe to make yourself feel a bit better you could do some reading up on Brumation.

 

[Boa'sUnlimited]

Is she on sand for a substrait? If so I think you want to change that to something less dangerous like tile (vinyl or ceramic/porcelain) repti carpet or paper towels/ meat wrapping paper, cut open brown paper shopping bags) just to be safe. If she poo'd that is a good sign that she is likey not impacted but if she is on sand then it is always a possibility that she could impact. She could very well be a bit constipated from lack of eating... if nothing is goin in the GI will go into GI stasis (in most animals) causing constipation and eventually possibly fecal impaction which can be cleared up with some warm soaks and some mineral oil dabbed on her nose to lick off to kind of "grease the tracks". If she is eating a little that is better because at least that way the GI is still functioning. The winter slow down tho is a different story, everything slows down so GI stasis and lack of eating shouldn't be as much of an issue. Maybe to make yourself feel a bit better you could do some reading up on Brumation.

Yeah I have had her on newspaper since I got her I keep all of my animals on newspaper, besides my pacman frog and savannah monitor

I called the vet before I read your last post and they said mineral oil or vegtable oil. so having only vegtable oil I gave her some of that.

I also soaked her for 15 - 20 minutes in warm water over her Under Tank Heat (to keep the water warm )

I dont think I really had to soak her or give the oil, but shes my baby and I am going to try everything to get her eating again

So I think im going to continue to soak her every few days and maybe give her some vegatable oil once a week.

My parents picked up Butter and Wax worms today so when they get home in a few hours ill attempt to feed here some of those

Ill try feeding them without calcium on them, and then with calcium

Thanks for all the help!! Ill be sure to keep you updated! (ALSO ill be sure to read about brumation! )

 

[Dog Shrink]

You're welcome hon. Just be aware that the more you fret and handle her the more you could stress her out trying to help. The theory of if it isn't broke don't fix it applies here. She did poo so I don't think you need to worry too much about constipation issues just yet. If it isn't goin in it won't be comin out hon. Give her some time to rest and let her be so she can depressurize and I would wait until after dark to try and feed her when it's more of her natural cycle but with as much as you've pestered her today she may not eat simply for that fact alone.

Also I would get her off the newspaper. There's something about the ink that I read in another thread sometime back that can disagree with them. I would go with the plain paper towels for now until she's doing a little better. it's really the only thing I can think of so far that mght be an external reason why she might not be feeling well. Maybe your parents can go to the party store and get a roll of plain brown wrapping paper (the stuff you need to wrap packages in to ship them if you don't use a postal service pre printed box). Even that would be better than newspaper imo at this point. It's just one more factor eliminated that could be causing problems.

 

[Boa'sUnlimited]

You're welcome hon. Just be aware that the more you fret and handle her the more you could stress her out trying to help. The theory of if it isn't broke don't fix it applies here. She did poo so I don't think you need to worry too much about constipation issues just yet. If it isn't goin in it won't be comin out hon. Give her some time to rest and let her be so she can depressurize and I would wait until after dark to try and feed her when it's more of her natural cycle but with as much as you've pestered her today she may not eat simply for that fact alone.

Also I would get her off the newspaper. There's something about the ink that I read in another thread sometime back that can disagree with them. I would go with the plain paper towels for now until she's doing a little better. it's really the only thing I can think of so far that mght be an external reason why she might not be feeling well. Maybe your parents can go to the party store and get a roll of plain brown wrapping paper (the stuff you need to wrap packages in to ship them if you don't use a postal service pre printed box). Even that would be better than newspaper imo at this point. It's just one more factor eliminated that could be causing problems.

Yeah I havent touched her at all for weeks, this is the first time ive held her in more than a month unless I had to clean the cage or whatever

Ill switch her to paper towel asap! Thanks for the heads up

 

[Phish999]

im having the same issue my little gurl who is about 3 - 4 months old isn't eating at all at first i thought it was temps but they are all fine im hoping its winter slow down but its been 9 - 10 days since she ate so im a little worried because my others are eating just fine 1 leo and 2 gekko vitattus she hasn't pooped either ever since she pooped out her shed but still she didn't eat anything im going to pick up a scale on pay day because i think i see some minor tail fat loss but im not 100% sure i just cleaned the tank today and she is roaming around it like crazy now but for the past little while she has slept like a fiend all day only moving to thermo regulate every couple of hours when she was hungry she was normally at her food bowl waiting patiently but she hasn't done that in awhile so i am a little concerned

 

[roger]

Yeah I havent touched her at all for weeks, this is the first time ive held her in more than a month unless I had to clean the cage or whatever

Ill switch her to paper towel asap! Thanks for the heads up

A loss of 3-5 grams is no big deal.u said she was 83 grms? she'll be fine.its winter