Fussy Eaters!

well thats better than fighting i suppose. thanks people for all your help and if i have any other worries il be back to bother you all but i will be on for your quiz im sure

Haha glad to hear it.
Sorry there aren't many of us on the forum as of yet, but if you know anyone who may be interested in joining, it would reall help us grow

Look forward to seeing you at a quiz
here is the thread about it: Click Here

i thought id better pop back on to say that the gecko soup has not worked and my poor gecko is as skinny as ever i am of course still trying everything possible but he doesnt seem to be improving

sorry to hear that, have you had poo samples checked yet? they may just need a course of wormer. would you be able to syringe feed them if i send you some syringes with fine tips?

Also, have you seperated them and fed them seperately?

Sorry to hear that its going this way.
I have a gecko at the moment that is getting skinnier and skinnier and i've tried everything, i know how it feels when you feel like you've tried everything.

i have not had poo samples checked- i nearly did and actually turned up on the doorstep but they were closed and i havnt found any poos since- i believe the locusts in the tank are eating them. syringes would be helpful, at the moment i am using the blunt end of a cocktail stick to place food on his nose but lots of this he rubs off, and it distresses him. i have sort of sectioned off thier tank so they have seperate homes, i have a feeling he may be calcium deficient as he is quite see through so i have sprinkled calcium powder everywhere and fed him extra calcium. although he looks quite lethargic when in his tank he is speedy and awake when i get him out. he is also far more trusting of me.
im finding it hard o get food that is the right size for them- bab black crickets and baby locusts are my limit but the locusts irritate them and they never eat the crickets. they seem to have gone off wax worms and have never touched meal worms no matter how many times i try to feed them. i tried wax worm moths as my previous gecko loved these but both leos ignore them. its hard to know what to do.

if you send me a PM with your address in it i'll send you some syringes with a small attachment to make it easy to get into there mouths, when i had a problem with a calcium deficient baby i was advised by my vet to put him under a uvb 2% bulb for a hour a day at around 6pm for a few month as this will help him asorb calcium and strenghten his bones and it did work. i use zolcal-d added to there water instead of calcium powder.
You can order food off livefoods uk and get them delivered for quite cheap if your struggling to get the food in the shop, maybe try getting mini-mealworms if you do order some food off them.

Sorry to hear that you're still having problems getting your leo to eat. You haven't responded yet that I've seen if you seperated him into his own enclosure or if he is still living with the other leo. I thikthe cohabitating is really stressing him out as that is the one thing that has been consistant thru out this ordeal. I really do think he needs to be housed by himself in a hospital type tank (just kitchen roll, and the required hides he needs plus a little capful of calcium with D3 in his dish 24/7 (usually this is just suppose to be calcium but since he isn't eating and D3 is needed to absorb calcium it is prob. best to use the mixed at this point.

Something else you can do is talk to your vet about a vitimin B12 shot... it is an appetite stimulant, and I have had to get them before for my son's ball python (not often but like once or twice, andmaybe again here real soon if he doesn't break his winter hunger strike).

Do you know whether or not your leo is drinking? You can keep him hydrated with soaking him every couple days in a water solution with some dissolved calcium in it. They will absorb it thru their skin and it will help keep them hydrated. If you're soaking him 3 times a week to keep him hydrated I would do the calcium/water soak once a week (so 2 regular soaks and 1 with the calcium/water solution). Don't use a lot of calcium for this, maybe just a half teaspoon mised with 8 ounces of water. I saw this remedy on my chameleon forum. If, while you're soaking him, you can take a little cotton bud and dab some of the calcium/water solution on his nose he will lick it off, you can also mix up another little batch with some multi vitimin to make sure he is getting some nutritional values into his body (but don't soak him in this, just mix up a little, keep it refrigerated and dab some on his nose every day). Maybe the increased vitimins will help increase appetite since there is B vitimin (not sure which B vitimin off hand but I have seen it on the label of ingredientson the vitimin label) in the multi vit.

During all this non-eating phase have you ever checked out the inside of his mouth to make sure he didn't have any injuries or disease such as mouth rot?

Thank you jordan. Violet are the tanks next to eachother? Sometimes just being in site of the other gecko could stress him.

ok, heres an update:
i think my gecko could be constipated- he has a swollen little tummy where he has been eating food, but very little poop has been passed. i recieved the syringes today (thankyou so much) and have managed to successfully feed one gecko although he was a bit angry about it, the other one is a wriggly bugger but i will try again later when he is calmer, what should i do about his pooping problem? i read on the net that i should give him a lukewarm bath and gently massage the area.
heres a question, im thinking of switching to repti carpet and wondering if it is a decent idea?

glad you got the syringes ok.
i would try the lukewarm bath and gentle massage his belly.
im not sure about using repti-carpet as never used it, most of us use kitchen roll as bedding for our leos.

Yes thats a good way of getting him to poop. Also, little drops of olive oil on his nose, so he licks it off, will help get things moving.

I wouldn't recommend repti-carpet. They can harbour a lot of bacteria, quite hard to spot clean, and gecko's (especially small ones) can get their teeth and toes stuck in it.

i examined the bellies of both of my geckos earlier and they both have a green spot in the same place on their body. my elder gecko had this too, im wondering if its normal? my skinnier gecko has more visible insides i can see a main vein/artery in his belly, like a long red line spidering off in different places. his belly seems less swollen today although it does not look like he has pooped- unless it is somewhere and i missed it

Yeh the greeny blue dot is normal. Just their insides.

Young gecko's have very translucent skin.
Glad to hear it is less swollen.

Mineral oil is actually a mild laxative rather than olive oil which moreso just "greases the trax" Jordan. You can get mineral oil at most drug stores for rather cheap. Again tho just a dab on the nose and a couple lix to help move things along.

There we are then Violet, as Kel said above, mineral oil will be even better

hi everyone, im glad to say my gecko is a little better now. im pretty sure that they are eating as i put a whole pot of crickets in their viv which all dissappeared within two days i saw a reptile expert in my local city today and inquired about my geckos and their setup, they share a 75cm by 25cm vivarium but apparently this is too big? it can scare them i was told, also the temp during the day gets to 93F and goes down to 73F at night which i have read nearly everywhere this is ok, but was told today it should be about 85F during the day. this is a bit alarming that i could have been making such huge mistakes so i thought i would clarify it with you all.

There is such thing as too big (it can feel daunting and unsecure), but if your sizes are right, i wouldn't say yours is too big. As long as they have nice cubby hides to feel secure in.

no your temps are fine, 88F - 95F is what you want. of 29C - 34C ish.

I'm glad they are eating. The only thing too make sure of is that one of them is stealing all the food.
It can be regular occurrence with young ones living together. There is very often one that thinks they are in charge, but don't let them have all the food. Feed in seperate tubs if you have to.

just to be right my vivarium is 75 cm wide and the depth front to back is 28cm also 40 cm floor to roof is this a adequate size?

How are you getting such a swing in your heat if you are using an under tank heater? I think that's too much of a drop. Constipation will happen cause of improper food, too low temps, and ingesting foreign matter. Temps too inconsistant willl slow down the gi when it needs t be working to digest the last meal. There should only be about a 5 degree swing between day and nite imo.

im not using an under tank heater, im using a bulb, and everywhere i have read say the temps are supposed to be like that, also it is extremely hard to just produce a 5 degree difference whether i use a heat mat or a bulb

i used to keep all my females in vivs and my day temp was about 90/95f and i used to drop it down to 70/75f at night using a thermostat and my leo's were all happy like that and my vet said it was fine so i wouldn't worry too much

An UTH heater should be used rather than a bulb.
Belly heat is what is important to a leo.

If the ambient air temps of a leo's enclosure is around 95F AS WELL AS the floor temps being around 95F it can cause them to get very drowsy very quickly. So an UTH to heat the floor rather than the air is more important.
(And obviously for proper indigestiong as mentioned)

I have to agree with Sam on the night temps though. A drop to mid 70's isn't going to do much to their health, but the less of a drop the better obviosuly, whilst still creating a realistic night drop. about 10 degrees i'd say.

i have a UTH heater. it is made by ExoTerra and i have used it previously. i even tried it yesterday without the light during the day and it makes no difference to the temps. it goes from about 73F to 77F which i am pretty sure is way too low. i only use it in the winter when the tank needs just a tiny bit extra heat.
perhaps i am looking after my geckos wrong but from what i have read in most 'caresheets' and manuals and been told by a friend with geckos is that a light will suffice to heat the tank, as long as it is heated correctly. one thing i am unsure about is that i have read that during the day one side of the tank should be about 90F and one side 80F.
how am i supposed to create a difference of ten degrees on either side of the tank? im pretty sure a thermostat wont create that