Feeding issues again

Fourth day without food for rambo again, he just seems to keep going off his food, i've checked to make sure hes pooping fine and he is, his viv was clean two days ago and theres 2 poops about the size of a standard mealworm each in there. i dont get it, his temps are constant running 95 on the hot side and 91 inside the moist hide and 80 on the cool side. i drop a mealworm in for him and straight away hes on the hunt stalking it across the floor area but once he gets in close he just has a quick lick and then hes off somewhere else. i weighed him about a week ago and he was 16g and checked again tonight and he is still 16g so he has not lost any weight, but he has not put any on either where as amber has loaded another 2g onto her gut this week from 17 up to 19g. i filled out the questionare last time he was not eating and everything seemed fine, he started eating again shortly after that and i put it down to shedding but now im thinking is there something else up? amber is still eating a steady 7-9 mealworms per night and seems quite happy but ive noticed rambo isnt coming out of his hide at all with the exeption of when i remove the lid to try to get him to feed.

You know, as long as he's not losing any weight I think I would just chalk it up to a fussy little guy. If he is still acting normally in every other way, and I do remember your husbandry being spot on, I would say that he is just going through a stage. I have one leo that I don't know how she lives on what she eats, but she does just fine. I have others that Lord help you miss a day and they won't talk to me the next day....lol. I think that he is just maybe going through some changes and it is throwing him off his food. Keep an eye on it and let us know if there are any other changes. That is all that I have for you. Perhaps someone will have another idea but that is all I got:)

I'll trust Jolene when she says your husbandry is spot on.

Mark, what's the weather like where you are?? If it's fall or winter, some go into a hibernation mode, where they won't eat at all, or very sparingly. Come spring when the weather outside starts to warm up and the days start getting longer, they will start to eat like you wouldn't believe.

I had one that ate twice over the course of a whole winter. I'm in Saskatchewan, Canada and trust me when I say our winters are long here!! Anyway, she had always been like that and she was fine. There wasn't anything wrong with her, she was just in a hibernation mode.

But if Rambo isn't losing any weight, he's still shedding normally, and acting normal, then I would say there isn't anything to worry about.

Hey there Mark... something that I'm picking up from your posts is that Rambo lives with amber 24/7. with out checking your other thread Im just assuming here. It could be that amber is intimidating your smaller male leo, has taken the dominant roll in the community viv and is scaring him off eating. Maybe now that she is a bit bigger she feels more ballsy and is throwing her weight around when you're not looking. Food would be a major point of contention for them and if amber threatened him off food before he may be hesitant to try and feed around her again freely. If they are housed together is there someplace you could put amber so you could feed rambo completely seperately?

Also are you feeding super worms or meal worms? sometimes if the prey item is too small it is less appealing to your leo but if you're feeding appropriately sized food then you could try rinsing off the food before you offer it to your herp (unless its a dusting day obviously ), I notice sometimes with my Eros if the feeders spend too much time in the oat bedding and the oats are slightly moist from the air he is a bit put off by them but as soon as I rinse them off and drop them into the viv he hits them like there's no tomorrow.

Just a bit to expand on the community living thing... if amber is the dominant one she could also be hogging the best heating spots thus by leaving rambo a lesser temperature area than he needs for optimum digestion. It could be that it's just taking him a little longer to digest his food than amber because he's getting less heat.

Amber and rambo both live in seperate 36" viv's, although they are stacked on top of each other he only see's her when its play time as my partner gets her out at the same time as i do each night. im feeding standard mealworms at the moment as i thought superworms may be a little bit big for a 16g leo? i'll try giving the mealys a little rinse tonight when hes ready for feeding time and see if he seems a bit more interested. I fear you are right though and i have a fussy eater

we are in summer here in the UK (not that our summer is very warm) and i keep the whole house on a thermostat at 21 degrees (i think my partner is cold blooded - shes always cold)

Thanks for the input all of you feel alot more at ease now that nobody says i should be worried

Juvies are odd creatures... they have new instincts emerging every day and are in a constant state of confusion imo. some tend to get a little more sketched than others which could affect feeding response but as long as everything else is spot on with his poos and shedding and temperament there is likely no reason for worry... Glad to hear tho that you keep the leos seperate... you'll avoid a lot of potential problems that way.

He's still playing silly buggers lol but i did notice a dark area on his underbelly tonight so i took a few photo's from different angles and one from underneath to check he isnt looking underweight or if i need to worry about the dark area

here is the dark spot



and from the side



and from above



and i got round to changing amber from carpet to tiles aswell tonight so here's a picture of amber chilling on her new tiles



i think she looks quite alot bigger than rambo for being the same age too

They all grow at their own speed Mark. I have some that look like they are months younger than others and they are all the same age. The dark is probably just the internal organs and all but of course I am not a vet:S. I think that he looks just fine to me:)

I believe the dark spot is the liver.

one of the healthiest juvenile leo's i've ever seen to be honest.

Yep those would be his lil internal organs making the dark spots... if you google image search leopard gecko anatomy you'll get some good dissection pix explaining a lot more about their internals than you'd likely care to know about Also being that young they are still quite translucent in certain lighter colored areas so it makes it easy to see what's inside.

Yeppers, I would have to agree with all of the posts above!! Your little Rambo looks very healthy and might I add quite the looker. He's gorgeous!!

I wouldn't be too concerned about seeing the darkness of his organs through his skin. Some have a thicker skin on their tummy than others do.

I'm sure he'll start eating when he's good and ready to eat. He's probably being picky or he's throwing a fit like a "teenager" would. I have noticed some will go off of food a few days before they are ready to shed as well.

I know you'll keep a close eye on him to make sure that he's acting normally.

7 days without food for little rambo now, i noticed he has only pooped twice in that time, and not at all for the last 3 days. Ive also noticed a big poop with a woodchip stuck to it.. He was on woodchip when he first came to me before i changed to carpet and later onto tile. Is it possible he may have a woodchip stuck somewhere? I know there is a vets that deals with herps about 8 miles from me can they xray a herp? Would that tell me if hes blocked up?

Yes they can tell from an xray if he's blocked up and yeshe could still have some wood chips in him from previous care. They aren't digestable, his only hope is to pass them. He might have a partial blockage or worse if he's ingested chips. I think its time for a call to the vet to find out about the xray

I will call the vet first thing in morning poor little fella

I broke up his big poop to find 4 woodchips in it so i hope thats the blockage come out but going along to vets first thing in the morning

Good thing Mark. finding those woodchips in his poo isn't good. You can dab a lil mineral oil on his nose to. Help move things along. Its a laxitive plus it'll "grease up the tracks" so to speak. Please let us know what the vet says. Sending good vibes...

They cant see him until 2.20 tomorrow but hes booked in unfortunately theres only one vet i can find in my area that deals with reptiles

Good call on taking her to the vets. I hope everything works out. Please keep us updates:)

Well rambo is home from the vets. Hes been checked and good news is there is no impaction he's actually empty right the way through (not surprising after 8 days with no food) but the vet wasnt very happy with his breathing and has given him a shot of antibiotics incase there is an infection present and hes back on friday morning for another check and another shot of antibiotics. He's also given me some repti-boost to try and give him a little bit of a pick-me-up and encourage him to start feeding again and i think il grab some wax worms this afternoon too and try those as hes a sucker for wax worms

all in all im feeling alot more confident about his recovery knowing there is no impaction but not quite out of the woods yet.

keeping my fingers crossed for little rambo!



on another note the vet asked me if i was using UV, i said no as he doesnt need the UV being crepescular(if thats how you spell it) and the vet explained its not essential at all for them however he has seen a recent surge in MBD in alot of reptiles coming in with a high percentage not using any UV and seems to think there is a link between the two and recommended even just allowing a few hours of UV each day to ensure hes getting what he needs. Im not telling everyone to panic and go buy UV lights as its only the opinion of 1 vet but i thought it was quite interesting.

With proper ambient light from sitting in proper placements, I feel that my leo's get all the UV they need. They may be getting more than they need, since I usea 10.0 UVB bulb on my Anole tank in the same room though, lol.

A leo won't generally bask in uv lighting so they have no benifit for them. Uv lights produce D3 which aides in the absorption of calcium. He gets that in his supplments he should be fine. Glad to hear there's no impaction. Too bad on needing the anti biotic tho... did the vet prescribe or suggest a probiotic to go with it since the antibiotic will likely kill all his good bacteria (gut flora)? You should always use a probiotic with an antibiotic. Your herp will recover overall a lot faster and have less depression because of the meds.

I am so glad that he was not blocked up. I hope that he got it all out of his system now and will have no more issues:)

Yea hes being bathed in, and also has repti-boost in his drinking water which is a pro-biotic

That's good... I thought repti-boost was just an appetite stimulant. wasn't aware that it has probiotics in it. So if it does that's great. What exactly is he being bathed in? ya lost me there?