overweight pietschmanni?

jadrig · #1 07-10-2011, 05:53 AM

I remember one of the pietschmanni breeders mentioning not over feeding females...
I was curious if that was a problem with this species in particular. Also, have any of you breeders had problems with overweight females. My female is always starving and she puts on weight too. I feed her two dubias every other day.
Also, she has good fat deposits behind her front legs. She has Boobies!

rhacoboy · #2 07-10-2011, 03:38 PM

She looks a bit chunky, but not unhealty. I have a female who from time to time bulks up like that, and my other females just tend to stay slimmer.
Beautiful gecko, by the way.
-Armen

miguel camacho! · #3 07-10-2011, 08:17 PM

I think I remember having a female in pretty much the same condition, boobs and all. Even though I had them for about 2 years, I only ever found a single clutch, but it was far too late.

NigelMoses · #4 07-10-2011, 10:37 PM

I would be extremely careful with that girl. She is tubby, haha. I have lost two females that were that exact size with fat arm pits and I believe it to be directly related to obesity. I had a necropsy done on the first one and the vet said that she was obese. Both animals that passed away also had egg laying complications, both had rotten eggs inside of them. I believe weight will play an issue with that as well, obese geckos are not good layers. I have cut back to feeding my pietschmanni to once a week. I throw in a handful of large crickets once a week. I have been doing this for 6 months now and she has not lost any weight.
I have also heard that pietschmanni girls are prone to getting gout and dying from having too much protein in their diet, from overfeeding.

rhacoboy · #5 07-11-2011, 12:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NigelMoses

I would be extremely careful with that girl. She is tubby, haha. I have lost two females that were that exact size with fat arm pits and I believe it to be directly related to obesity. I had a necropsy done on the first one and the vet said that she was obese. Both animals that passed away also had egg laying complications, both had rotten eggs inside of them. I believe weight will play an issue with that as well, obese geckos are not good layers. I have cut back to feeding my pietschmanni to once a week. I throw in a handful of large crickets once a week. I have been doing this for 6 months now and she has not lost any weight.
I have also heard that pietschmanni girls are prone to getting gout and dying from having too much protein in their diet, from overfeeding.

This is the same feeding method that I use. I feed them large crickets once a week, and they're laying eggs and doing great.
Thanks,
-Armen

jadrig · #6 07-11-2011, 01:56 AM

Yeah, she is starting to develop calcium sacs too...but she is always starving. I just wanted to get everyone elses opinions. She will eat 3 roaches for every one that the male gets. I am a fan of keeping every animal separate, mainly to monitor food, but I realized that he backs off of her every time he approaches her...she starts squalking. They must feed on something less nutritious than most other geckos...cuz they have real efficient metabolisms.

NigelMoses · #7 07-11-2011, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jadrig

Yeah, she is starting to develop calcium sacs too...but she is always starving. I just wanted to get everyone elses opinions. She will eat 3 roaches for every one that the male gets. I am a fan of keeping every animal separate, mainly to monitor food, but I realized that he backs off of her every time he approaches her...she starts squalking. They must feed on something less nutritious than most other geckos...cuz they have real efficient metabolisms.

I wouldn't say being prone to obesity is having an efficient metabolism. It is quite the opposite. They will eat whatever they can resulting in obesity.

uroplatus99 · #8 07-12-2011, 07:31 PM

Yeah Joe... define a bit more you reason to think she is "starving"... just because she hunts down every bug thrown at her even if its 2 every 2 days, wouldn't really mean she is starving, just packing it on for the future. I am with Bruce on the metabolism... having a good or healthy one means that food would be digested properly, fat and nutrients obsorbed properly. This is just my take on it though.. and I would say that her motabolism is slow...

jadrig · #9 07-13-2011, 12:45 AM

Yeah...what I mean by starving is that shes always watching me at night...she keeps her eyes on me when Im in the room...hoping for me to throw her a roach.

uroplatus99 · #10 07-13-2011, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jadrig

Yeah...what I mean by starving is that shes always watching me at night...she keeps her eyes on me when Im in the room...hoping for me to throw her a roach.

I don't think thats starving... its glutton!

Put that girl on Weight Watchers