Can leos hiccup?

[Britt005]

Sounds stupid, but seriously. She only ever does this when I'm syringe feeding her where she will have these spasms. He whole body just kind of flinches just once, then nothing for anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute or so. It looks like hiccups! Once she starts that up, I usually quit trying to feed her and it usually stops. Is the syringe feeding giving her the hiccups?

 

[Aimless]

or is she trying to bark at you because the syringe feeding is stressing her out?

why are you syringe feeding?

 

[Britt005]

Oh boy, that's a long story. But nutshell version - she's just not eating on her own and was losing weight. My vet advised me to syringe feed her till we pin down the issue. I've been documenting it in this thread FOOD BESIDES CRICKETS, DUBIAS, AND MEALWORMS

I dunno if she's trying to bark...we've been doing this for quite a while now so I feel like she knows the drill. And she takes the food pretty willingly, I don't have to force her mouth open or anything. I just squirt a little on her nose and eventually she'll just start licking it right from the syringe. But she's never barked before so I dunno if I'd recognize it. Maybe it's just a sign she is full? lol I'm not super worried about it at this point...I just think it's weird!

 

[Zux]

Hi Britt,

They can indeed Hiccup and as-long as it is not a common occurrence its nothing to be concerned about.

 

[TheresaB.C]

Well, it is in this moment when I realised that I took to many biology courses in high school…

Hiccups are sudden, involuntary contraction of the diaphragm muscles. It all come down to the lungs and diaphragm of an organism. In humans, the lungs are incapable of moving on their own. The diaphragm expands and contracts the lungs, letting us breath. Lizards do not have diaphragms to help them breath, which is the same reason they can not breath when held upside down. In geckos and other lizards, the lungs are able to expand and contract on their own. So, since hiccups are just involuntary contractions of respiratory muscles, geckos are in fact capable of hiccups.

Long story short: Yes.

 

[Britt005]

Sorry for the delayed response guys, these last few days have been ridiculous. But thanks for answering! I wasn't really worried, at least not after the first few times it happened. Good to know though, lol. And I didn't know about them not be able to breath upside down!