Not eating! Poor little guy

[IslaReina]

Not eating! Poor little guy, PLEASE help

This is River

I have another post about him. I bought him exactly a week ago, and he hasn't eaten since. He is so skinny I was trying crickets but I bought mealworms yesterday and he has no interest in them whatsoever. I am thinking about force feeding. How do I go about doing this?

And also, if anyone could tell me his morph that would be great

(I thought he was a she earlier but now I'm pretty sure he's a he <3

Thanks <3

 

[lindsaydo]

Right first of all, you wanna check for any lumps in the tummy. Just gentle rub your fore finger down his stomach to the vent. If you feel lumps, it could be impaction, I wouldn't suggest feeding in this case, just a vet.
If not however, force feeding could be an option if he won't eat by himself. I would say that they can last a while without eating, especially if you only got him a week ago, they can take a while to adjust.
To get some nutrients in him however, I would suggest getting so Hills A/D dog food (from any vets) watering it down a little with some water and critical care (one tablespoon of Critical Care Formula to about 6 tablespoons of water). I also put in a pinch of calcium for good measures. When it is nice and runny, no lumps, I get an ice cube tray, rub the sides with a little vegetable oil, and put the slurry in the tray, with broken up lolly pop sticks in for easy removal.
I thaw one out, and .5ml of it is enough for one sitting a day I would say. It contains a lot of fat and proteins. I use a thin syringe, and hold the gecko in my non writing hand. With my good hand I gently rub the mouth, from the corners to the nose, back wards and forwards, the gecko should then open his mouth wide, then's your chance. It's trial and error really. Sometimes when they are first fed like this it goes everywhere, they shake their heads and it flings about, getting everything covered in dog food. Just make sure none of it goes up his nose, that won't be nice for him
If anyone else has any better suggestions totally think about their advice too.
I would wait it out a little while longer, to see if he needs to settle more. I notice mine will hunt with the lights to the tanks off, so I feed them their bulk food at night, but they have a supply of meal worms in a dish all day.
Maybe handling him a bit less, and just leaving him in his tank with a hide and some mealworms in a dish might help. You could try varying his diet from crickets and mealworms and moths. Mine absolutely love to chase moths around, something I would never had expected from my boring male. Could you get a picture of his underside, and a shot of his tail?
Hope everything goes ok

 

[IslaReina]

First of all, thanks a lot for the response!

I know it hasn't been that long so I will wait a little before getting the special dog food. I have a dog, do I need the special food or can I use my dog Prince's food?
also, can I try to force feed mealworms first?

I'll get a pic as soon as I can I really don't think the cause is impaction, I am not using sand as a substrate and they didn't at the pet store where I got him.

 

[lindsaydo]

I had a leo that got imopacted by vermiculite. I don't know about force feeding mealworms, as they do chew a little when they bite to disable the insect. The A/D dog food is a smooth paste, and is formulated for animals that need to put on weight. I wouldn't recommend using normal dog food, as it sometimes contains ash, and bones. If you want, you could just blend mealworms up to make a nice paste, and try seeing if the gecko will lick it off it's lips.

 

[IslaReina]

I just tried to get his mouth open and he like fell asleep... lol he is so weird. I'll put him on the floor and he'll be jumpy, then just fall asleep. He's like a small child lol

 

[puggy69]

im having a similar problem, i wouldnt worry about it tho it is frustrating!

try a waxworm, dip it in calcium powder and see if he eats it, wait till late on at night when he should be out of his hide, dangle a waxworm infront of him and he should go for it, they tend to love them. thats just to get him used to eating again.

Thats what mine did but dont give him too many, or else thats all theyll want to eat.
After that i left a dish of mealworms and used weetabix as a substrate for them so they were constantly moving around, i never seen him eat them but im guessing by the calcium powder and weetabix everywhere he ate some during the night.

Thats the stage im at but yesterday i bought him crickets and removed his mealworms and he isnt interested again so tonight il try handfeeding a waxworm then handfeeding a cricket. but i dont want the crickets annoying him, they tend to climb all over him!!

any advice on locusts anyone? are they fast or will the gecko catch them easily?

 

[lindsaydo]

I suppose locusts aren't as juicy as a cricket, their bodies are smaller, and you would have to have a bigger locust to compensate in loss of protein as opposed to a cricket.
You could always try I suppose, they are quite fast, and the big ones hurt when they jump at you, it's like someone full on flicking you. I have them jump out of my tarantula tank at me and hit me in my head, they leave marks, but that's the big ones I am on about. I know chameleon's love locusts, I hand fed them to one.

 

[IslaReina]

I can't dangle them in front of him, if it touches him he just jumps away no interest. still

 

[CountGecko]

Could try some Applesauce or baby food, I gave some to my Baby which was impacted form vermiculite, I'm sure its what kept her alive till she was able to pass it.

Possibly he could have parasites, like dogs or other pets they should be given something to control parasites every so often.

Maybe impaction, Its kind hard to tell if their impacted till later signs like stiff or paralyzed legs, regurgitation, constantly cleaning themselves with bits of what ever they eat clumped on their back ends. impaction can be treated but you have to be positive that their impacted in the first place cause its a stressful procedure.

 

[puggy69]

mines getting like that too, iv contacted the last owner and she said he was eating fine before i got him, and i havent changed his viv, all thats changed is the scenery around his viv, he loves watching the telly haha so im putting it down to change of scenery but that will be 2 weeks tomorrow and all hes ate is 2 waxworms gettig a bit worried.

registered him with a vet today but dont want to take him and cause more stress unless i really have to. il give him the weekend and see how he goes,

best of luck with yours

 

[lindsaydo]

They are surprisingly sturdy animals. Mine has had two bouts of major surgery in the last month, and it was a 30mins drive home, and my dads drive is like a maniac on crystal meth at the best of times. When I got her home she was fine. Someone even bumped into our car and my dad followed him driving insanely. I was screaming and my dad was shouting, i thought we were gonna crash and die, and my gecko just sat there in her plastic tank taking in the scenery and not phased at all by the horrible stuff happening around her.
I reckon you should take both your gecko's to the vets islareina and puggy. If not, and it gets worse, then theres no guarantee you will make it. Do it now while they are showing signs of being healthy.

 

[IslaReina]

ill go check if we have applesauce now. i think ill try putting it around his mouth to see if he licks it off

 

[IslaReina]

we dont have any anything else i can feed him?

 

[Allee Toler]

Chicken baby food. Applesauce has a lot of sugar in it, so I wouldn't think about giving that to them. A jar is like 50 cents.

 

[lindsaydo]

Chicken Dinner baby food, it has a lot of protein in it. Did you do the whole putting 10 meal worms in a bowl and leaving them? I put mine in an glass ash tray. It is deep enough so the meal worms don't escape, but heavy enough for it not to fall over if the gecko stands on it.

 

[IslaReina]

yes i've had them in there since tuesday, some in his calcuim and some in a diferent bowl. I have tried using three different kinds of bowls. and I cant really keep him down long enough to try to open his mouth, he wont open his mouth at all, and im worried that pinning him down too much will be very stressful for him I have him in a smaller box right now with a bowl of mealworms, some mealworms on the ground (the box is white so he can see them) and all he is trying to do is climb out

 

[Allee Toler]

Okay leave him be for a week. Put some worms in a dish, and leave him. Moving him, holding him, stressing him out will only make him not want to eat more. If he won't eat no matter what, then take him to the vet. We can't fix him for you. We're not vets. We can only help give our opinions on getting him to eat, if all of our suggestions aren't working then there's nothing further we can do for you. I wish you the best of luck with him. But I can't think of anything that won't stress him out further.

edit*** Jump start! Get some. Pet store's carry it. It's by Zilla. I've had success with it in the past for those who went off eating. A pea size in the mouth 2x a day for a couple days will stimulate his appetite. It's an appetite stimulator.

 

[IslaReina]

Ok thank you ill see if the pet store has it. the only other thing i can say is that his poop is green, is that normal? does that mean anything?

 

[Allee Toler]

Green is usually parasites or infection. Take a fresh poo, put it in the fridge until you can get it to the vets. It needs to be checked out. Green isn't good at all.

 

[CountGecko]

Chicken baby food. Applesauce has a lot of sugar in it, so I wouldn't think about giving that to them. A jar is like 50 cents.

They have Apple Sauce with no sugar added, that is what I feed as a rare treat to the cresties but yeah that probably has other additives/natural sugars which aren't good.