Help! Baby leo has stopped eating altogether?

I posted a thread a few days ago about how to fatten up my baby leo. However, since then, hes stopped eating altogether.

He is extremely thin, as is his tail. He was a rescue, and I am unaware of what he was few beforehand. Anyway, someone suggested to me that I should try baby food. Would this work? If so what kind?

I am also ordering some worms online, as I don't have any supplier locally. Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the forum! I hope we are able to help you help your leo!

You can offer him mealworms, crickets, waxworms etc. Waxworms are very fatty so they can help your leo gain weight. But they aren't very nutritious, so feed them sparingly (once or twice a week). Mealworms can be offered as a staple, as well as crickets. But if your leo hasn't been eating I would only offer a few, in case it regurgitates the insects.

Here is a sticky that will give you an idea on what to feed leos.
Slurry can also be fed to your leo if they aren't eating.
Go slow if its a rescue, extremely thin and hasnt been eating. Slowly build up its eating stamina!
Good luck, I hope I've helped a bit.

Thanks so much.

I've ordered some meal worms, and wax worms online. I've also bought a small jar of un-salted, organic chicken baby food as suggested to me on another site. I'm hoping I can get this little guy back into shape. He's really a sad sight as of now.

If you would fill out our care questionnaire that would help us to see if his not eating is husbandry related.

Welcome

http://www.leopardgeckoforum.com/t134-please-read-and-fill-out-with-your-health-questions

Like kel said, If you could fill in this questionairre it will hopefully help us help you and photo may be usefull too x

Thanks for the link Becca

What is the basking light? Like, does it give off heat? If it does, you don't need it. Leos don't really bask in the light, they get their heat from their bellies. Lights aren't needed, just so you know. They are more for our purposes than the leos.

I would get the waxworms and try some waxworms. She could be bored of her normal diet. Its good to have a variety in the diet. Waxworms are treats and should be fed once or twice a week, only 1 or 2 at a time.

I would also consider changing the carpet to tiling or paper towels as they are the ideal substrate. Reptile carpet can harbour bacteria, which isn't good especially for young leos, and a possible sick leo like yours.

Can you post a picture of your leo, so we can see how skinny it is?

You should also raise the temp of your hot side up. It should be between 88* - 95*. And because you're leo may be unwell, you can put it on the high end of that range.

Others will hopefully chime in if I missed anything. I hope your leo starts eating again soon!

Thanks for pointing out my error guys but back on topic... you pretty much covered my concerns kathryn. Good job

Unfortuanatly I cannot resize my image small enough so it can be attached..

My firewall will not let me "host" the image either... I'm unsure of how else I can post the photo..

http://www.leopardgeckoforum.com/t338-adding-an-image-to-your-post

Read that.

You can also upload it to photobucket. If that doesn't work, you can e-mail it to me, and I'll post it for you slykat48@hotmail.com

I appologize for the blurriness of this picture, my camera wouldn't focus with the glass. However, it gives you a general idea of how skinny he is.

Wow. Poor thing, he's really skinny. His little tail! :O

Has he pooped yet? You may want to think about taking a poop sample in for testing to see if there is anything wrong with him.

I took a sample in about a week ago, the vet said there were no medical problems other then the fact that he was severly emaciated.
He suggested putting him on a high-fat diet after he establishes his appetite.

I'm glad he's OK then health wise!

Yeah, I would keep offering him food. Give him the waxworms when you get them. And maybe consider making some slurry for him if he still isn't eating. I gave the link to the slurry in my first post.

Good luck!

I was relieved as well. :b

The waxworms are coming in about four days, so I'll be giving him those every few days.. I'm also going to be making a slurry to help give him a boost until his appetite is better.

I know this is off topic, but I was wondering if there could possibly be a problem with my setup, so I figured I would describe it to you guys and see if there were any problems.

Tank- 10 Gallon, with screen top.
Lighting- Two incadescant lights in the hood.
Substrate- Repti-Carpet that is thouroughly cleaned every other week.

Hot side (85-90)
- Hot hide
- UTH

Cool side ( 75-78)
-Humid Hide
-Cool hide

sounds pretty good so far. the lights could stress your baby out so until she gets better you might want to leave them off for right now, also my leo didn't ever use her moist hide until i moved it so half was on the UTH and half wasn't and now she is in it all day long so you might want to do that. also you might want to up the temps to 95 or 98 while she is sick. the only other thing that would worry me is the carpet mostly because of the bacteria that can grow in it like a dish sponge, and that when they go to eat they might get their teeth stuck on the carpet fibers, just a suggestion, you might want to change it out for paper towels until she gets better just to see how it goes. but that is up to you i just hope your little leo gets better poor thing she looks so skinny, but you are doing your best and that's all you can do, so keep up the hard work!

I made up some slurry tonight, and began force feeding it to Jag. He eventually started willingly licking it from the syringe, so I began using a plastic spoon. He ate a rather large amount, but a few minutes later, vomited up a little bit under his hide. Should I be concerned about this?

it might have been because he didn't eat for so long that he ate to much to fast, try and ease him back into eating by only giving little amounts at a time, i don't know if you tried this but if you put a drop on the tip of his nose they usually just lick it off so you could try doing that so there is less stress.

Thats what I started out doing, but he'd rub it off, so I open his mouth a bit and placed the drop on his tounge.. I guess he decided it tasted pretty good, because he started licking it off the dropper. I'll definitely lessen the amount he recieves so he doesn't over-eat again.

Your vet is absolutely right. For an emaciated leo you want higher fat lower protein or you risk refeeding syndrom (please google this. It killed hundreds of P.O.Ws and hollocaust camp survivors because the needs of emaciated people/animals is much more specific than just "feed them" you can do more harm than good feedin the wrong elements). I would make your slurry with a good mix of was or butter worms mixed with maybe 1 or 2 mealies so you have that higher fat to protein ratio.

When feeding slurry to motivate your leo to eat force feeding is the most stressful. Hopefully now that she has a bit of a taste for it the next time she'll just lap at it. Also you can leave a dish in your viv overnight too to encourage feeding on her own. Continue live feeding offerings as well on a regular schedule. I would offer slurry 2x a day (early morning like 7-8 a.m) then about an hour after sunset. Before you go to bed put in a lil capful of slurry close to your leos favorite hide. I wouldn't be comfortable offering more than 2 or 3 MLs of slurry at a time esp since your leo already regurged, its in an anorexic state. After a few (4-5) days keeping down small feedings increase by 1-2 MLs. And cut back to feeding once a day on slurry and once a day on live bugs. Keep your temps in the higher range because the leo wil need the addeded digestive support, it will encourage your leo to move to thermoregulate and movement motivates appetite, plus being so under weight the leo will not have that fatty sub q layer to help insulate them. I'd be keeping temps at 96-98*F, also because if it gets too cool your leo could brumate with the onset of winter. Then you wouldn't know if your leos not eating because of brumation or illness. That would suck cause then you're fighting all winter with it to eat.

So that's what I would be doing if I were in your shoes. Good luck

Good luck, Will be visiting this topic to see the outcome!

Thanks so much for the help. (:

I'm ordering more wax worms tomorrow, as I used up the rest in the slurry. I will definetely put a cap-full by his hide.

One this that I've been wondering about, is how soon will he start to put on weight? I know its a slow process, and shouldn't be rushed, but I was wondering when I should start seeing signs of a weight gain?

Again, thank you all so much. This is my first rescued leo, and with him being is such awful shape, I don't know what I'd have done without your guys' advice. (:

You likely won't notice too much weight gain off the bat. Your leo is going to be rebuilding from the inside out so all the nourishment she takes in now will be life sustaining, then excess gets stored as fat to be used later. I wouldn't imagine seeing much of a gain until she's eating regularly on bugs.