Sudden Health Issue

[leoman5654]

About a month and a half ago, I took on two juvenile leopard geckos from a lady that had gotten them for her daughters, but the girls didnt want them anymore. They were both very underweight, on sand, and she said she was only feedig them about once every other week. They were both too unhealthy to eat crickets because they couldnt catch them. Therefore, they have been on mealworms. In the time I have had them they have both doubled their weight and look completely healthy. However, in the last two days one of them has been creating weird poos. It looks like a clump of mealworms. There is no digested part to the poo. I hope it is nothing too serious as they have made tremendous recoveries. Thank you for your time and help.

 

[tlbowling]

About a month and a half ago, I took on two juvenile leopard geckos from a lady that had gotten them for her daughters, but the girls didnt want them anymore. They were both very underweight, on sand, and she said she was only feedig them about once every other week. They were both too unhealthy to eat crickets because they couldnt catch them. Therefore, they have been on mealworms. In the time I have had them they have both doubled their weight and look completely healthy. However, in the last two days one of them has been creating weird poos. It looks like a clump of mealworms. There is no digested part to the poo. I hope it is nothing too serious as they have made tremendous recoveries. Thank you for your time and help.

Maybe its not poop...could be regurgitated meal worms, what is your hot side temp? If it's not warm enough they cant digest and will regurgitate them. Also how much are you feeding them? Sometimes if they eat too many they regurgitate too.

 

[ZooKeeperKarin]

I had a female that lost a lot of weight laying eggs. I separated her out and fed her mealworms (she was on crickets for awhile as a juvi). She was doing okay until she began to have undigested mealworm poop and also regurgitated them. I switched her back to SMALL crickets, even though she's full grown and she's doing better. She still turns her nose up to mealworms... my only gecko on crickets.
Maybe since they are doing better now, try switching them to crickets? I would go with smaller sized ones.

 

[leoman5654]

wow that makes a lot of sense. I have been feeding them more and more lately because I figured they would stop eating from their bowl once they were hungry. I guess I am just used to my beardie who is like that. Thanks Guys. I am relieved it is nothing too serious. The temps are fine. They have been eating like 30 mealworms a day which I guess is causing it to regurgitate. How much should i feed them to avoid this?

 

[prettyinpink]

WHOA! 30 mealies a day, they must be chubby. How old are they though? Usually we give youngins as much as they want but it looks like your guys are the ones that love their food too much! Wish I had that.

Ten mealies every other day, or five mealies each day should be good...for adults that is. Or about 3 supers every other day. Some people just go based on how much they can feed without getting them to regurgitate, so you can try that. But 30 mealies is a lot!

My beardie will eat until I stop feeding him *lol*

Hope this helps!

 

[sausage]

the shells of the wealworms is quite hard to digest at the best of times lol defo try them back on softer foods like crickets and a few waxies as a treat and see if poo returns to normal. (you can place your crickets in the fridge or freezer for a short time before feeding as this stuns them and slows them down)
if nothing changes then as said before: your hot spots might not be hot enough or...... it could be a gut parasite
just keep a good eye out for any quick weight loss.

 

[tlbowling]

wow that makes a lot of sense. I have been feeding them more and more lately because I figured they would stop eating from their bowl once they were hungry. I guess I am just used to my beardie who is like that. Thanks Guys. I am relieved it is nothing too serious. The temps are fine. They have been eating like 30 mealworms a day which I guess is causing it to regurgitate. How much should i feed them to avoid this?

30! No wonder they are puking! Yea, cut WAY back, I feed my big guys 2-3 supers everyother day, and for the bigger ones that eat mealies, maybe 8-10, and the little ones get 3-6 depending. They all have belly heat that varies from 88 to 95.

Yea, I think you just need to cut back on the amount

 

[leoman5654]

thanks a lot guys. Since I started cutting back they are fine. They are not fat because they were so skinny when I got them but I will try to make sure that they dont get fat now that they are approaching a healthy weight.

 

[Dog Shrink]

One of the problems here is you're taking basically emaciated leos and stuffing them full. Please read about re-feeding syndrom. Google it if you can or search the forum (I know I've mentioned it in detail on a couple other threads), also I would suggest cutting back to no more than 10 mealies individually fed to each leo on their own so you can monitor how fast and how many they eat or switch to supers and feed 3 maybe 4 3x a week if the leos are more than 6 mos old. Feeding crickets scares me because of the amount of parasites that can live on/in crickets. I wouldn't want to risk introducing that to leos that are already immuno compromised because of being emaciated. I would rotate a couple of wax or butter worms once a week (mo more than 2 for each leo and only if they're eating the majority of their staple feeder), or if you can afford a little higher food bill phoneix or silk worms as a regular rotation into the staple regimen to keep interest in eating and a good balance of fat to protein during their recovery.