Adult Fimbriatus not eating!

[dadoza2]

I have 2 adult fims. 1 is male, and the other one female.
I got the female in bad shape, she was trying to shed and probably was rubbing a lot on her trip here.
She had many wounds down her back and on her nose from the rubbing and was really dehydrated and weak so I moistened her, removed her dead skin, then left her for 4-5 days on some damp moss in her cage, where she barely moved from.
On about the third day, I opened her cage and to my surprise, she had laid a clutch of eggs. I also thought this might have explained her unwillingness to climb and always wanting to be on the ground.
From what I can see now, she has a bit more life in her now, but I still haven't seen her eat anything, and its been 8 days now since I got her, and about 3-4 days since she laid.
The male has much more life and seems healthier and stronger, but I also don't think he has eaten anything either, and his feces looked very yellow with very little of the brown part.
I have paper towel on the bottom of their tanks with a bit of spag moss to keep the humidity up.
I used foam pipe covering as branches and fake leaves as well as some cork bark on the wall.
I have uv light on them 12 hours a day. I have been throwing in crickets at about 2am before I go to bed every few nights and they never seem to get eaten.

So now that you know the story my main questions are:

How can I get them to eat?
Should I crush up crickets and try to force feed it?
Should I try something other than crickets?
If I keep the eggs in spag moss in a closed deli cup inside the cage with that be sufficient to incubate?

I'm really worried about them and I would really appreciate any input you would have.
Thanks.

 

[Aimless]

Can you post a pic of the cage, and the geckos?

Where did you get them? If they're fresh imports it might take medication for parasitic infection.

I would personally not force feed any gecko in only 8 days unless under the advice of a vet, but I don't keep uros. Hopefully someone who does will participate soon.
How are the chalk sacs on the girl? What are your precise temp ranges? Where are you keeping the cage, and have you had Uroplatus before? Everything I know about suggests they're quite delicate.

 

[Graham_s]

Sounds like a classic case of fresh imports.

I second Aimless's questions. And also, it would be ideal to keep them separate until they are both in good health. What size vivarium are you using?

 

[dadoza2]

Here are some snaps of their cages.



Here are some snaps of them.

the girl



the boy


Fimbo whispering sweet nothings into my ear.


@Graham_s

The pics are of their seperate cages, 18x18x24. I know it is small for them, but I will be getting a 2x2x4
screen cage for them and one other female in january.

@Aimless

I got them Chameleons Canada. She doesn't show any visible chalksacs. Temps average around 75 during
the day. When I go to sleep and turn everything off, it goes to around 70. The lowest I recorded in the
past few days was 67.5. I am keeping the cages at about the mid level of the room. I have not had Uroplatus before.
Before I got them I knew I was in for a lot of special care and research, but that's one of the things that
drew me to these delicate devil-eyed beauties.

That being said, here is some info I've found and advice I got from Clint Hill since my last post for anyone having similar problems.

You should'nt try to feed your freshly imported gecko for the first few days, the main concern is hydrating them.
Some people will put them in a screen cage, and throw it in the shower for a good 20 minutes every couple of days for the first week.
If that isn't an option, you can just heavily mist them for the first week.
It is wise to keep a mister filled with unflavored Pedialyte to spray directly onto the geckos.
Pedialyte replaces electrolytes and helps to get them hydrated, and can be found in most drug stores/pharmacies(make sure it is unflavored).
They should be kept alone in very bare bones setups, with paper towel replacing substrate.
Any feces should be removed and the spot sanitized immediately.
After they have settled down for a few days you can offer them just a few crickets.
Too many and it will cause the gecko unneeded stress.
You can also pinch the back legs to make them slower and easier to catch.
Do not force feed your fimbriatus.
You can also squish a cricket or roach and rub the juices on their lips to have them lick it off, which sometimes stimulates eating(hasn't worked for me yet)

I also got an answer about the eggs.
I was advised to put them on a dry medium in a bottle cap, and then put the bottle cap on the top of a moist medium in a deli cup.
This can be kept on a closet shelf, even around the low 70s.

Before I take them to the vet I am gonna keep trying this, and of course any other suggestions, as they seem to be getting a bit better. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure I heard them munching on some crickets last night, but I don't know if it was both or just one.
Any other input would be much appreciated and thanks for reading!

 

[Aimless]

Nice! Clint knows his stuff, way more than I. The lack of chalk sacs is a little concerning. I'd concentrate on proper gutload to be sure she gets the right nutrition, and not pair them until she has at least a little calcium reserve. She may have retained sperm now. Nutrition for your girl especially seems the most urgent need, to my way of thinking.
I hope they settle in and start eating for you soon!

 

[Peter B]

They don't look very well...I would certainly look for veterinarian advice. Animals like this mostly will have to be treated against parasitic infections. Also a vet can rehydrate them more efficient and he can give liquid calcium. I also would keep them a bit warmer. 75 as a max seems to me be a bit on the low side for fimbriatus in a bad shape.

 

[jadrig]

My advice...No vet or treating of parasites now...it is definitely not the first priority. Twice a day, give them water with an eyedropper on their snout...as much as they will drink. Take out all of the crickets from the cages. Fresh imports like that need to be hydrated first, because if they do eat, they wont be able to absorb nutrients properly. Get a fruit baby food and mix it with a little H20 and your Ca supplement (Repashy's works well). Take the animal out of the cage (preferably daytime-less jumpy) on a good sized stick so that it wont climb off while you can administer baby food mixture to snout of gecko. Give the animal as much as it will lap up, one drop at a time. You have to be VERY patient and not be rushed for time. After a couple days of this, I then take it to the next level and start to 'sneak' in little crickets/fruit flies/roaches on the droplet of babyfood and the animal will chomp while lapping up the baby food. Yes, I have used fruit flies to nourish Fimbriatus and Henkeli back from being emaciated...worse off than your female! If you do not have small crickets, just kill the cricket and cut it into small pieces 2mm long. While the gecko is lapping up the baby food from the eye dropper, place the insect[piece] on the baby food drop. She will eat it. Do this for a week or two. Alternate every other day to avoid stressing the animal. Be PATIENT! Do not offer any live food during this time. Also, while your animals are in extreme quarantine, you should remove any substrate from the bottom of the enclosure. Whatever the papertowels were doing, it is less important than monitoring the consistency of the droppings. If you have any questions, PM me
Hope this helps.
Joe

 

[Peter B]

My advice...No vet or treating of parasites now...

I'm Lucky to have a great vet ;-). But I agree; rehydrating is the first priority

 

[dadoza2]

Thanks Aimless!

@PeterB I now have nocturnal heat bulbs on them 24/7 and the temps are now ranging from around 72-78

@jadrig Thanks a lot for your in-depth reply Joe. I will be trying your method.

 

[JLaRue]

@jadrig have you had luck feeding them. I actually just grabbed a fim from chameleons Canada and he's not eating. He's peeing and is hydrated and has been in quarantine for about 2 weeks now. I've rubbed cricket juices on his snout. He pooed after about a week and it looked like he'd been eating larva when he was in Madagascar so I have him small wax worms to replicate his last meal. Still no luck.

 

[dadoza2]

UPDATE

They are finally eating.

I used jadrig's method and administered a baby food mixture to their snouts for them to lick off.
The female was very receptive to this but the male was not. He would lick up the paste but would fling off the crickets.
After about a week of this, someone told me I should have even less in the cage, and 2 days ago I took out everything but 2 sticks each.
That same night at about 2am I dropped in 2 dusted crickets each after I turned the lights out and they both instantly did the head turn and went for them
The following night(last night) I gave them 3 each and they polished them off as well.
The female's tail has also flattened out, and one of her eggs was bad(smelled like rotten egg so I tossed it) but the other one I see red veins in

Thanks everyone for your help!

I'll post any updates later

-Josh

 

[dadoza2]

@JLaRue Mine just started eating crickets 2 days ago and I probably got them the same day you did.
Maybe it doesn't recognize them as food because they aren't moving enough, or maybe it just wont take something out of a dish. I had left deli cups with crickets in them inside their cages before and they weren't interested at all. 2 days ago when I dropped the crickets in the near empty cages they immediately did they head turn and went for them(very large circkets). This was after about a week of jadrig's method. Hope it helps.

 

[jadrig]

@JLaRue

Wax worms probably are not the best...probably the worst to feed them, especially if they have sensitive stomachs. They are pretty hard for geckos to digest and usually end up being regurgitated. Besides, the spark very little interest from Uroplatus. The best way to trigger feeding reaction is to not have any food in their for a least a day or two. If you are going to use a feeding dish, Use one with a large floor area so that the prey can be 'seen' scurrying around. My male will not touch a roach/cricket unless it is running around on the floor area. PM me for questions

 

[miguel camacho!]

Looked like he'd been eating larvae when he was in Madagascar? What does that mean? By the time you get any wild caught animals in the US or Canada, the digested content of their gut has been eliminated. If you see something that looks like larvae, your gecko may very well have a very bad case of worms.

edit: missed a page of discussion. This was in response to last page.

 

[JLaRue]

Shit, can that be treated with meds? You know what I should be doing?

 

[Fumbles]

I'm glad to see your geckos are eating. It's always satisfying to see them get back to a normal routine.

I see you're using a closed cell foam in that cage. I'd remove that ASAP and replace with natural wood. While your geckos may be ok with it, the crickets will eat that stuff and then of course the gecko eats a cricket gut loaded with foam.

 

[dadoza2]

Thanks fumbles, I never thought about that.
After reading your post I looked in the cage and sure enough found little foam shavings from crickets eating it.
Switching it out ASAP.