What am I missing , advice needed

[Angel]

I rescued a female leo a few weeks ago she is suppose to be 2 years very thin. was told she came with everything however everything included a tank no uth no heat source no hides ect.
she ate great the 1st few days and since then has slowed down and now this past week has completely stopped. she sleeps non stop.
her set up is as follows:
1 humid hide with paper towel
3 dry hides
calcium dish
water dish
food dish- fed mealies, supers, and crickets (been holding oncrickets as she isnt eating and they are hard to catch afterwards)
her temps on the hot side are about 90-92

She has been to the vet recently came out clean.
weighed her today she is 18.3g I have been adding liquid calcium to her water but havent seen her at the water bowl (she may be drinking when im asleep dont know but she isnt eating as i count her mealies)

she is on papertowel. Any advice why she isnt eating or what i can try please , very much appreciated. I have used the search but the answers i find in other posts are things i have tried or doing.:main_huh:

 

[greenhousegecko]

There are a lot of really good resources out there that will help you get your Leo's cage set up right. Really basically you need a warm side, cooler side, hides throughout, calcium powder, food, and water. The heat should be provided by a UTH and can be supliment with a light. Leos need the belly heat to digest their food, but most people will suggest against heated stones because the Leo can burn itself.

Google Ron Tremper, he is a fairly famous leo breder and has an easy to understand care sheet.
All the best!

 

[Angel]

thanks but i went over my set up in my post i have the warm side at 90 - 92 degrees with a uth, calcium bowl, food , water , 3 dry hides , 1moist hide.

Im looking for anyone with advice on getting her to eat she is verrrrry thin 18.3g at 2years old (or so was told she was 2) vet doesnt know whats going on as her fecals have come out clean and its not impaction. she just wont eat.

 

[KelliH]

That is extremely small for a 2 year old leo. Very sad. Good for you for rescuing her.

Sometimes leos will slow down on their eating. I hate to say it, but she could be ovulating. Even though she is WAY too small to breed, at two years old she is mature. When you look at her tummy do you see any pinkish colored circles (about the size of a pea-marble)?

 

[Angel]

there are actually pink and blue spots on her belly, does that sound like ovulation, if so will she just return to normal after awhile.she is in the tank next to my male and I forgot to cover it up and they were at the glass checking eachother out he was shaking his tail but that was over a week ago I have since covered it up with paper (didnt want to stress her out so soon after getting her) I will try to get a better look at her belly later she was squirming too much , hate handling her feels like she will break serious she is tinnny, my 8 month old is 41.6 g makes him look like a giant

 

[LizMarie]

there are actually pink and blue spots on her belly, does that sound like ovulation, if so will she just return to normal after awhile.she is in the tank next to my male and I forgot to cover it up and they were at the glass checking eachother out he was shaking his tail but that was over a week ago I have since covered it up with paper (didnt want to stress her out so soon after getting her) I will try to get a better look at her belly later she was squirming too much , hate handling her feels like she will break serious she is tinnny, my 8 month old is 41.6 g makes him look like a giant

Pictures would be nice.. When my female ovulated she had a small red spot like in the pit of her stomach and I actually saw the eggs later on on either side. The blue spot makes me a little worried especially since she's hasn't been eating and is so small.

 

[Angel]

i will try to get her calm and take some pics I agree the blue makes me nervous too not a good color on them, it looks like your veins do in your wrist its not really a spot its more like lines.

 

[aslchick1]

My leo, Saphira will be 2 at the end of January. She is about 40g and too has the blue on her tummy. It has been this way since I got her though so I'm not worried. What substrate do you have yours on? I started Saphira out on the calci-sand, but then got nervous that she was getting impacted, so I changed her to blended up alfalfa pellets (I blended them in the blender to sand consistency). She has done great with this. It also conducts the heat perfectly from the UTH. I would say the hot side it a bit on the warm side. I try to keep it at 82-88 degrees.

As far as the eating, from personal experience, Saphira is fond of eating the mealworms when I put them down in front of her on the substrate with some tweezers. She usually won't eat them from her dish because they aren't moving around much and so I don't think she recognizes it as food. She also gets really excited about crickets. To help yours gain some weight you might consider some Waxworms.

Has your leo been pooping regularly? If not at least once every 5 days then I would say it might have an impaction started. This can happen from sand, crickets that are too big for them (the exoskeleton being too hard...literally...for them to digest), etc...

Hope this helps some.

 

[Angel]

yeah the blue doesnt look like lumps or anything and i would of figured they would have shown on the xrays, she is pooing twice today since i cleaned her tank.she is on papertowel as her size i didnt want to put her on anything else eventually she will go on a natural fiber carpet i use with my others.
she gets mealies and crickets and just bought supers but she hasnt touched them yet as she hasnt been eating.
she did however take a huge poop today like the size of her head way bigger than my others do and she perked up quite a bit after was walking around alert and even went and took a long drink from her water , maybe she was uncomfortable due to the size. she is back sleeping again but this is normal they usually get active in another hour or two so we will see if she eats at all tonight.

 

[Jama]

in addition of her lack of strength due to her weight, she could be slowing down her activity due to the season of the year. You are about to beggin winter right?
keep her on calcium all the time, rubb a little bit in her nose so she can lick it.
just an opinion...

 

[gitrdone0420]

My leo, Saphira will be 2 at the end of January. She is about 40g and too has the blue on her tummy. It has been this way since I got her though so I'm not worried. What substrate do you have yours on? I started Saphira out on the calci-sand, but then got nervous that she was getting impacted, so I changed her to blended up alfalfa pellets (I blended them in the blender to sand consistency). She has done great with this. It also conducts the heat perfectly from the UTH. I would say the hot side it a bit on the warm side. I try to keep it at 82-88 degrees.

As far as the eating, from personal experience, Saphira is fond of eating the mealworms when I put them down in front of her on the substrate with some tweezers. She usually won't eat them from her dish because they aren't moving around much and so I don't think she recognizes it as food. She also gets really excited about crickets. To help yours gain some weight you might consider some Waxworms.

Has your leo been pooping regularly? If not at least once every 5 days then I would say it might have an impaction started. This can happen from sand, crickets that are too big for them (the exoskeleton being too hard...literally...for them to digest), etc...

Hope this helps some.

Sandi, I keep my hot sides between 95-98*F A lot of people on here will agree that this is a great temp for a warm side. 82-88*F is without a doubt wayyyyy too cool. I would up your hot sides just a little =] Probably wont make too much of a difference, but it should help for good husbandry at least.
I also will suggest to stay far far away from anything with sand-like consistancy... this includes grouded up alfalfa pellets... If you are worried about impaction, putting her on anything sand like will not help. You are on Papertowels, as you explained in your original post. This is fantastic =] :main_thumbsup:

yeah the blue doesnt look like lumps or anything and i would of figured they would have shown on the xrays, she is pooing twice today since i cleaned her tank.she is on papertowel as her size i didnt want to put her on anything else eventually she will go on a natural fiber carpet i use with my others.
she gets mealies and crickets and just bought supers but she hasnt touched them yet as she hasnt been eating.
she did however take a huge poop today like the size of her head way bigger than my others do and she perked up quite a bit after was walking around alert and even went and took a long drink from her water , maybe she was uncomfortable due to the size. she is back sleeping again but this is normal they usually get active in another hour or two so we will see if she eats at all tonight.

You sound like you are doing everything great! Pooping is obviously good, and like everyone said, she may have stopped eating due to weather or ovulation. If you post pics (Which I know you said you would do) of her belly, we will try to help you out with whether or not she is ovulating.
I saw pics of her when you posted them awhile ago and I am very glad you rescued her! She looked so sad, but like I said you are off to a fantastic start and I think your setup sounds great. She will not get better overnight, it may take a little while so just be patient and keep offering her food as long as she is pooping =] Good luck!

 

[LizMarie]

Angel did you weigh her when you first bought her home? I would suggest weighing her more frequently maybe once a week to see if she's actually gaining weight. I rescued a little male aft a few months ago that was around 7 years old and people thought it was a hatchling/juvie because of how skinny he was. He has put on weight but VERY slowly, he's still skinny but at least I can't see his bones anymore and his tail doesn't look shrivaled up anymore.

Th first night I with him and his "sister" they ate but then he stopped eating for a week and didn't move from his hide, each morning I'd run to his tank just to see if he was still alive. Many times these rescues are touch and go, they'll do great then all progress seems to stop and they seem to go backwards. Keep doing what your doing and hopefully she'll turn around because you seem to be on the right tract.

Try to get some nice clear pictures of that belly so we can try to guestimate what it is.. ovulation, fatty liver or just a visable organ.

 

[Angel]

thnak you , yes its winter here.

 

[mindgamer8907]

See my little leo would do the same thing when I brought him/her home: he/she wouldn't eat at first and eventually horked down about 10 or 11 mealies at once (she was only 7 gs at this point so I stopped feeding her until she could you know... not waddle but walk.. lol). Even then though, the regular pooping (that had been occurring) stopped all together. The ***** I bought him/her from had been using sand, and I had to feed her a drop of olive oil to loosen her stool. She then pooped three times in one day (all were giant). Just going to reiterate what Gitrdone0420 said: No sand... it's your choice, but now is not the time to try that... (so congrats on using paper towels, smart move) and I agree with the heat assessment as well: if you can, bump it up a tad, but definitely don't go down any.
One thought that I believe our German friend is leading into is a "hibernation" of sorts... in the winter they can eat, move, drink, etc. sparingly, to conserve energy. I think it's called bruminating right? Perhaps that's affecting her? Oh and I don't know if anyone else agrees but it seems that unless you're gutloading the waxworms (which isn't common) that's not the best idea to get a healthy gecko. It'd be like feeding a starving child nothing but cheetos and candy, you'd end up with a skinny child with horrid cholesterol and blood pressure etc. It sounds like you're doing all you can. I'll just throw these out there but you're probably trying it already.
-slurry (recipe in the forum... somewhere)
-slight heat increase (for metabolism)
-hand feeding?

When hand feeding, you could even break open the skin of a wax worm so a bit of gut comes out and touch it to her nose? My girlfriend's two new little ones (who I'm keeping here because our school won't allow pets, and I've found ways around that) wouldn't eat at first, but I tried it and when they tasted the guts, they got all excited and actually ate. In fact, they didn't even care if it was a dead worm, as long as the guts were there. Another suggestion is, and I don't know how squeamish you are, to break open a waxy and smear its guts on a mealy before dropping it in front of her and letting it scamper.

Honestly though (I see you have many pets, some kids and a bf, so you're busy) but some photos would help immensely.

PS. the veins on the belly are fairly common and not at all worrisome.

 

[Angel]

my temps on the hot side are 90-93 i added a heat lamp today to bump it up a few degrees, she perked up last night a bit hasnt eaten but she did drink , she is usually pretty calm when i handle her but has been very spastic lately so i couldnt take the picks im going to try again today see if she relaxes a bit.
since she has perked up a bit i will give it another day or so before i try hand feeding I really only like doing that as a last resort, I have been putting calcium on her lips and she licks that off.
I agree on the sand i never use that stuff for any of my lizards. she just came out of a shed also a coupe days ago so maybe that has a lot to do with it , actually my male went through a shed yesterday but he is never down like she is.
Is it possible she just ate so much when she first got here that she over did it a bit. and she was 18.1g the day i brought her home so she has gained very little though.

 

[mindgamer8907]

You know, that sounds highly plausible, especially coupled with the recent shed she went through. And yeah, I understand, hand feeding is a bad habit to fall into, it is best reserved for emergencies. I am lucky enough to have leos in my care that don't get used to that sort of thing so it wasn't a problem.
She is getting bigger though right? Slowly but surely, so good for you! Keep us updated

 

[Angel]

http://geckedout.shutterfly.com/pictures/57 here is the link to the pictures of her belly they arent the best she wasnt to cooperative, the picture it links directly too is the best one it kinda looks like shadows the blue was hard to get on camera , not the best camera but it works ( most of the time)

 

[mindgamer8907]

My god, who had her before? what kind of sadists were they?! She's so skinny! Unfortunately I can't see anything in her belly? Can anyone else?

 

[Angel]

sorry the camera isnt great its really just blue blotches I didnt see any red or pink circle so i dont think she is ovulating thinking maybe its just the weather she is up walking around this morning and was active last night after her lights went out just hasnt eatin yet.

 

[Angel]

yay she ate last night 6 mealies, she was out an about and i put the dish directly in her face and she attacked it ike crazy , hopefully she keeps it up =)