Female pregnant Roborowski strange behaviour - Help

[ChaoFan]

Hello, my female Roborowski started behaving in strange way yesterday.
She is going around the tank during the day, not usual, and she moves legs and head in frantic way. She keeps trembling even when she stops and today i saw her moving her lower jaw repeatedly and quickly, like biting the air.

She is pregnant (even though i don;t think the eggs are fertile), she lives with a male. Temps are 26-23 C warm-cool during the day, down to 17 C during night. It's winter here in China.

Her skin looks like she is going to shed soon, but i have never witnessed this behaviour in the past, so i don't think there is a relation.

I haven't really brumate them, they have been eating but less than usual in last weeks. i dust the feeders with Ca+D3 powder 2 out of 4 meals and once a week i dust with vitamins.

I don't think this is normal, should i look for a vet or there is something i can do myself?

Thanks,
Michele

 

[kirak]

I can not say for sure, but to me it sounds like a low calcium issue. Gravid Teratoscincus females require very high amounts of calcium, especially during the eggshell development at a later stage. I literally pack my gravid females with calcium in various ways during that stage, and they still eat sand to compensate calcium deficiency (or just instinctively). So provision of calcium through dusting of feeders is clearly not enough for breeding females.
It depends on the character of Calcium+D3 product and some other factors (how much Calcium and D3 in it, how well the powder sticks to insects, do you feed from tongs or insects are released into terrarium and thus have chance of cleaning off some powder etc.), but I would dust, at least with pure calcium, the other 2 of the 4 meals too, in other words fed insects should always be dusted...
Your gecko requires examination by a vet asap.
Good luck.

 

[Tamara]

Yes, it sounds like a calcium problem, are you providing a dish with cuttlefish bone or something?
Also do you make use of a UV-B light?

A vet might not be a bad idea, he can give her an injection with liquid calcium to boost her reserves back up.., but you don't want to wait to long with that, the stress from taking her to the vet might also not be good for her if she is already to weak.

 

[ChaoFan]

Thanks kirak and Tamara.
To answer your questions, i leave in the cage a small cap of Ca+D3 powder always there. And i do not use UV-B, they are nocturnal geckos and come out from their hides only at dusk.

Until some months ago i was feeding them mealworms in a small dish, then i switched to crickets. It's possible that Ca supply started to be not enough after this change, the crickets were free in the cage and could easily shake off the dust.

I will take her to a vet and follow your other suggestions, thanks again
Michele

 

[Tamara]

Yes we know about them being nocturnal but we use UV with our leo's and vipergecko's too, they are also nocturnal but we do see them catching some sunlight every once in a while.

Also you should remove the dish with powder containing D3, to much D3 can build up to dangerous levels.
It's better to use plain calcium such as the cuttlefish bones, and use the D3 only for food supplementation.

 

[ChaoFan]

ok Tamara, i will follow this as well, thanks for your time!
I hope i will come back here with good news...

 

[ChaoFan]

Hello, a quick update just to say that everything is solved.
I did not take her to the vet, as i wanted to wait her complete her shedding and thus avoid some stress. In the meantime, i gave her immediately some calcium (and switched the Ca+D3 supply in the cage with 'pure' Ca). As she went back to normal behaviour within less than 2 days, after which she shed completely, i did not take her to the vet.
She laid the (not fertile) eggs and now she is active and perfectly ok.

So, i guess the calcium deficiency was the issue. The cause may be that, even though i have not brumate them, i did let the temps go down and they have been eating less than usual for weeks, but still being relatively active. I guess that this caused the Ca, deficiency, being them active but with no appetite.

Now temps are going up and they both went back to eat like pigs..

Thanks again for the great help!
Michele

 

[Tamara]

Good to hear she's doing fine.