My baby Nova has been acting weird. She hasn't eaten in a few days. My dad has been taking care of her since I've been at college and she has been just fine, and when I got back, I bought her some crickets as a treat because she is on a staple diet of mealworms. She seemed to have forgotten what to do with them because she just left them alone and didn't show any interest in eating them lol. So after a day or two I took them out. And for a few days now, she has pretty much stayed in a hide on the cool side of her 10 gallon tank. I put her on the warm side today to clean the paper towels on the cool side and she started lifting up her tail and trying to like lick it, and she seems to have really strange stiff movements with her back legs. My first thought was impaction, but she has tiles and paper towels as her substrate. Any thoughts? could it be from the mealworms?
Weird movements?
- Thread starter IslaReina
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marauderhex
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Mealworm exoskeletons *can* cause impaction. I accent can because it's fairly rare, but not impossible. Try adding electrolytes to her water, zoo med makes some, or you can just use unflavored pedialyte (which is sold at almost any drug store or walmart). If you can, try raising the temps in the tank a couple degrees on both the warm and cool sides. If that doesn't show improvement in a week or so, a vet visit might be necessary. The vent licking might be if her tank is too dry and she is having trouble passing some excrement. Make sure her moist hide is actually moistened, sounds simple, but it is easily missed.
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marauderhex
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Sure thing, glad to be of some help.
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