Your Gecko Won't Eat Video Tips 101

[Tommy13b]

Nice vid Hj. As for M_surinamensis i would rather force feed my gecko rather than letting it waste away wouldent you?

 

[M_surinamensis]

As for M_surinamensis i would rather force feed my gecko rather than letting it waste away wouldent you?

Not necessarily.

A gecko that is refusing to eat has a problem. The problem is not that they are refusing to eat, that is a symptom that accompanies whatever the underlying problem actually is. The causes of anorexia can vary, it could be simple stress, it could be improper environmental conditions that have altered their physiological responses, it could be injury, it could be impaction, it could be a parasite load... these are simply examples, the potential causes are numerous and diverse.

Dying- or even experiencing significant health issues- as a result of not eating takes awhile. The gecko, especially a species like a leopard that readily develops fat stores, has to go through it's bodily reserves of fat or trace nutrients and experience sufficient subsequent cell death to actually begin to manifest as a problem. If the gecko had a good weight to it, this can take months.

Dying as a result of force feeding can potentially take minutes, hours or days. Adding food to a digestive tract that is not equipped to handle it can manifest as an acute issue, one which can have immediate negative consequences. Ruptured organs, a massive growth in the parasite population as nutrients are added, improperly digested food prompting bacterial blooms. Not the least of which is the simple fact that assist feeding (the video was not really force feeding) is a stressful process in and of itself, potentially prolonging the animal's refusal to take food voluntarily.

Identifying the cause of a hunger strike should always be the first step. Once that information is understood, then and only then should a keeper make a decision about how best to address the issue, with assist feeding being one of their available options.

I have not said that it is irresponsible to assist feed.

What I have said is that it is irresponsible to show someone how to assist feed without also educating them on when and why they should choose to do so. It is not a simple yes/no answer based on the solitary question "Is the gecko eating on its own?" but rather a decision which mandates additional, situational, information. Without caveats, without a discussion or lecture about the when and why- providing instructions on the how is simply negligent.