not sure if this is for me

[kaikorcha3]

So im back again another day another worry. I put a lot of thought in before I got rango the leo . She was a gift for my son but was also a family pet. But it so much stress and hard work I feel drained. Shes not eating now after the initial heating problems (now the tank sits between 30 and 33 on the warm side).
She has gradually just stopped.eating and we barely see her . We haven't been able to handle her as she avoids our hands when we Tried laying them.in the tank she just sniffs us and goes back to her hide.

She ate a mealworm last night we think cause it dissapeared when it went in her hide but we found it dead this morning with a chunk out of it so I'm assuming she had been sick.

I'm at a loss of we cant hold her we cant check her I don't want to stress her if she is sick . Or is she just about to shed ? I don't know, she was in her moist box over night as normal and she pooped yesterday.

since we got her two and half weeks ago shes Probably eaten 8 crickets and 3 mealworm ( we try keeping it dark and quiet so not to stress her but we have to keep going in to fish out the uneaten cricket's

Any thoughts ?

 

[crazylizardlady]

She may just be stressed from all the changes and need sometime to adjust. Give her a few days they can go quite a while without eating with no ill effects. When they get ready to shed they turn sort of whiteish. Its also normal for them to go off food before shedding, so that is a possibility. Just give her some time and see how she does.

 

[kaikorcha3]

I keep worrying she's just not eating . Im sure she will be fine but its all the worry and I've read people saying theirs didn't eat for months I think I would have a breakdown by then.
My son is being so patient with her keeping his room quiet and dark and ensuring she has water etc its me doing all the worrying its like having a new born baby all over again. :/ I have left her a little dish of meal worm . So I will check her again tomorrow see how she is

 

[kaikorcha3]

Oh and to add to all my stress I found a cricket .... in my kitchen (

 

[crazylizardlady]

Oh and to add to all my stress I found a cricket .... in my kitchen (

Crickets tend to escape pretty easily, look into Dubia roaches if you want easy feeders. They cant climb, dont breed in temps under 85 so they wont infest your house if they do get loose, and they dont smell like crickets do. They look more like beetles than roaches as well so they arent so gross. Im sorry your having a hard time with her try not to stress too much she'l come around. I have a leo that I got back in August that has eaten maybe 10 roaches in the entire time Ive had him. He still doesnt eat much but he comes out and is more relaxed and social now than he was. She'll get there.

 

[acpart]

I went back to your original post to look at the picture of your gecko. She looks like an older juvenile and is a good size with a nicely proportioned tail. People who own mammals like cats and dogs are used to the idea that they eat regularly and can suffer if they don't eat. That's because mammals are warm blooded and need calories to burn to maintain their body temperature. I have around 40 leopard geckos and can tell you that both the adults and the juveniles run the gamut from being starving every day to not eating for MONTHS! Keep offering food and try not to worry whether or not it eats unless the tail starts getting visibly smaller. I think it's good to refrain from handling it for a few weeks, but personally (just my opinion) I don't think it makes sense to keep everything very dark and quiet. The gecko should be able to adapt to your family's lifestyle. Of course, I was also the kind of parent who got my infants used to the regular rhythms of the family instead of keeping the household quiet and dark, so I guess it carries over to my reptiles. In all honesty, some geckos like to watch people and sit on their owners' hands from the beginning, some never do, and some loosen up after awhile. Try to be patient, remember that these are very hardy animals, and enjoy him.

Aliza

 

[kaikorcha3]

Thanks guys . I've decided to just relax and see what happens me worrying wont make her eat. ill just offer her something everyday. I think your right about her getting used to different sounds of the house I will give it a try. Thankyou x

 

[kaikorcha3]

So we are now on day 9 of not eating and I'm beginning to get very worried about her. She isn't interested in food at all.
I even tried a wax worm and she still didn't bother . At what point should I take her to the vet ?

 

[Neon Aurora]

Unless she is rapidly losing weight, I still wouldn't be terribly concerned. I got my newest addition over a month ago and he is still not eating yet, but he is fine.

Also, it's fall now so many geckos are going off food.

 

[discoverlight]

I have a few posts here about one of my females that didn't eat for 4 months, a whole 1/3 of the year.

They go kinda 'off food' for the winter time, so if your ambient house temperature is dropping a bit, they'll feel it and go into that state. Another possibility could be parasites? Your gecko can catch them eating infected feeders (not all shops carry very hygienic feeder rooms). You'd see a change of feces though, such as diarrhea and green poop, even blood sometimes if it's parasites.

Don't worry too much about it, only start to worry if the gecko starts losing weight really fast, if they stay a constant weight and they don't eat, then theyre just chilling for a while. All gecko owners get stressed when their geckos don't eat, it's something we get used to and learn to wait it out and/or try to figure out the problem.

 

[kaikorcha3]

She doesn't appear to be loosing weight reallyshe is only young . I will wait it out some more thanks

 

[kaikorcha3]

so we are on about day 13 of not eating i think here is a picture of her last night she is allowing us to pick her up and i weighed hr she came in at about 14g.
this seems really low considering she should be about 4 months old . would you suggest a vet visit or shall i try some repto boost see how that goes . I've upped the temps a little bit from 28-30 to 30-33 and she has been a little more active since, laying in the hot area at night which she had stopped doing, she isn't pooping but has been producing urate every other day or so . Any suggestions would be great .

 

[kaikorcha3]

So we went to the reptile specialist/vet today and he looked her over . Said he has no idea why she wont eat there are no visible signs of illness no swellings etc her mouth is clear. He said she's Underweight but ages her younger than we thought he says 2 months . Couldnt do a Fecal sample as she doesn't poop. He didn't give her anything because he said she appears healthy just thin :/ he basically told me if she doesn't eat in the next two weeks to euthanise her . He said some just fail to thrive.
I dont want to just give up on her but she wont take any food at all even when its put right on her nose she just licks it and turns away . Any help right now would be good he has offered in a week yo take her in for the day to do tests but he said it wouldn't be good for her and would stress her more.

 

[Samyb24]

Have you tried varying the food? I find my little guy goes crazy for a wax worm every now and then. And they are SUPER loaded with goodness. Maybe a treat like that would spark interest?


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[crazylizardlady]

So we went to the reptile specialist/vet today and he looked her over . Said he has no idea why she wont eat there are no visible signs of illness no swellings etc her mouth is clear. He said she's Underweight but ages her younger than we thought he says 2 months . Couldnt do a Fecal sample as she doesn't poop. He didn't give her anything because he said she appears healthy just thin :/ he basically told me if she doesn't eat in the next two weeks to euthanise her . He said some just fail to thrive.
I dont want to just give up on her but she wont take any food at all even when its put right on her nose she just licks it and turns away . Any help right now would be good he has offered in a week yo take her in for the day to do tests but he said it wouldn't be good for her and would stress her more.

She still looks ok to me in your pictures. I would give her more time, 3 of mine have gone off their food for about 2 weeks now since the weathers changed. How are you trying to feed her, like hand feeding, tongs, bowl? For mine that have issues eating I feed out of an escape proof mealworm bowl, Ive found that often times they just wont eat in front of me but leave a bowl of squirmy worms in with them and they usually clean them up in a day or so. If the vet cant find anything wrong then shes most likely not eating due to stress or season changes. I would avoid wax worms for now as they can get addicted pretty easily but you could try dubia roaches, superworms, or crickets if you want to try changing up the food a bit, keep an eye on her if you do this as crickets and roaches crawling on them or chewing on their toes will stress them more.

 

[kaikorcha3]

i've tried feeding by hand and leaving worms in still no go . shes been over three weeks now with nothing . she is still drinking and coming out at night to lie over on the warm side . I've added a bit of avipro to her water on advice of the vet to see if it helps . here is a picture i got of her yesterday drinking (the bowl looks like a huge lake next to her :/) . i am going to weigh her again if i can tonight to see if she has lost any more weight she was 14g last time.

 

[Neon Aurora]

Since she has stopped eating, has there been a period where you left her alone completely?

She looks okay to me, really. Not unhealthy at all. If I were you, I would not weigh her tonight and spend a week or two where you don't bother her at all. Don't move her hides, don't pick her up even to weigh her. Just do the required stuff like cleaning her water bowl and offer some mealworms in an escape proof dish each day. Make sure she has calcium available and proper heating.

 

[kaikorcha3]

We go in there to change her water and mist her moist hide and also to catch crickets. we ussually do this early while shes in her hide so we dont disturb her. that's really it we don't try to handle her unless shes going to the vet which was last week.

She seems to feel more secure now coming out as i've added more cover for her and she will lie in the middle of the warm side even when she can hear voices etc in the room but we barely bother her , i'm not sure she knows where her mealworm dish is which is why i've been dropping crickets in but i have got some dubai roaches now to try her with. i'm hoping to add these to the bowl instead as once mealies are in there they don't move about much to catch her attention i am hoping the roaches will but not escape so i don't have to go looking for them. i have no kids this weekend so the upstairs will be nice and quiet for her ..

oh she has calcium available and temps are set a little higher than usual 93-95 as shes more active when they are at this temp and the reptile vet advised it while she is off food .

 

[Neon Aurora]

Hi, I hope you still check around here. I don't know why I didn't mention this before. If your gecko is being really stubborn about not eating, you can induce a feeding response. I actually just did this in my male I got over a month ago who just refuses to eat on his own. What you do is take the gecko and gently (yet firmly) hold it in your non-dominant hand. Make sort of a ring with your fingers and thumb, with the gecko sitting comfortably on in that ring on your hand. Take a pair of tongs (tongs are important, as geckos often bite when you do this) and a mealworm. Using the tongs, poke the mealworm around the geckos mouth. This often times aggravates the gecko and causes it to bite. If the gecko bites the worm, it is very likely to just swallow it (I've seen really sick ones spit them out, but healthy ones normally don't). If you're having trouble getting the mealie into the gecko's moth, you sort of harrass the mouth until the gecko "hisses" (when it opens its mouth and leaves it open as a threat). Stick the mealworm in when the gecko bites down it is likely to eat it. After a couple sessions of this, geckos often eat on their own.

 

[kaikorcha3]

At the moment she is under the vet and recieving injections of antibiotics because she lost more weight down to 11g and still wouldn't eat. Even after trying the worm around the mouth thing. She was given some slurry a few days ago but it appears that whatever goes in comes back out undigested.
Vet says to offer food and see if she takes it after a few days on the antibiotics we are trying to just leave her be in between vet visits.