Wont eat

We have two berdies that are about 6 months old and recently on of them has stopped eating and has become very inactive. She was feeding on crickets and romaine lettuce great before and now has just stopped and is looking very sickly.

We have a powersun on them and a under tank heating pad, it is about 110 in their basking spot and between 75 80 degrees everywhere else. they get calcium on all of there food as well

we thought maybe it was a bullying issue so we separated them during feedings and no change.

where we bought them from suggested a bath in gatorade and water solution to help spike her appetite but had no luck, any other ideas would be great

Thanks

Wow. This sounds like my scenario as of late. Mine (my 2 youngest, and are housed together) are right about 7 months. One is a male het hypo and the other a female hypo. I got both of them almost exactly 5 months ago, and I'm guessing they had to be at least 6 weeks old then because they were both shipped, each from a GOOD breeder.

I thought that my girl had gone into brumation because for the last month or so she's not been so active, and she quit eating. I've still seen her eat an occasional cricket or two, but NO greens (which she's never showed interest in greens) and she seems to hate wax worm like I hate spinach! lol Normally they both stay out all day, but she got to where she would only come out for an hour or so (might've been more, but certainly didn't seem like it) and go back under her rock/cave and lay there.

This morning I soaked them both while I cleaned their tank. Choosing to finally throw away the carpet that I never comes completely clean, I chose to switch over to crushed walnut (since realized that maybe I should just go with paper, at least for a few more months). They both appeared completely normal while soaking, but less than an hour after returning them to their CLEAN home, I noticed the female lying in the "sand", her little limbs outstretched and twitching!!! I've never seen this from her before, BUT I've not really bothered her as she lay under her hide sooo....????

I immediately called my vet and she quickly told me that this was early signs of calcium deficiency. They were able to get me in at 4PM (just a little while ago). Fortunately this is treatable at this early stage, but I've got to get her calcium UP. I was given calcium concentrate to administer each day, and I'm given good hope of a full recovery.

I've heard totally different stories about the Power Sun bulbs, but regardless, I think that's better than what I've been using (I'm going by my vet's reaction). I also did not realize that a screen top blocked/reflected away some of the UVB rays. Because she's not eating enough calcium, she needs that much more from the bulb (or a warm enough day to get her outside for a few minutes).

Anyway, I'm not sure what advice to give you, to get yours eating, but I would suggest keeping a closer eye on her in case she starts getting what look like muscle-spasms. Just for the record, I took both of them in and the boy is just fine. He's been eating fine, including greens and wax worms. But what you said about one of yours just really caught my attention, sounding SO familiar.

Good luck and I hope yours starts eating soon!!

Josh,

Just re-read my post, after eating dinner and calming down from my own stress over my dragon's condition. I was basically trying to see if my scenario sounded (to you) like what you've been going through, just in case it might help you. ....then I got a little carried away (even more than I realized at the time of writing it!!).

Still hoping yours just needs to get it's appetite going!!

Hey sorry for the delayed reaction, yea sounds really similar to the same situation of what I got going on. so we started just force feeding her a mix of calcium and smashed up bananas with a syringe and even in one days time she seems to be doing better.

Thanks

That's awesome! I've been giving my girl her doses of concentrated calcium, but she hasn't eaten anything. I got her out in the sun today for about 20 minutes (temps reached mid-60's for a few hours!!) and she's already looking better...just won't eat. She even stayed out most of the day, today. Her "twitching" seems to be almost totally gone even though the doc said it could take 3-4 weeks.

I thought about doing something similar with crickets, but bananas sounds A LOT better! I think I'm going to try that right now!!

Josh, THANK YOU!!!! I've never even thought of bananas in my dragon's diets before--PERIOD--so naturally, I didn't think of feeding them through a syringe! It took me a minute to get her started, but she gobbled down a decent amount. I certainly feel better, as I haven't seen her eat a cricket in a few days.

Good to hear! ours is doing much better as well, gunna try some crickets todahopfully that will spark some interest

How did it go with the crickets?? I've been able to get my girl to eat a little more at each feeding, this evening even mixing in a little smashed strawberries and very finely chopped squash. She gobbles up everything that comes out of the syringe, but has shown no interest in crickets, nor any salad while in her tank. At least I know that she's got something good in her system.

Not good at all, she didnt eat at all, and was super weak i forced some crested gecko food in her. I gave her a warm bath dried her off and put her back,

when I came back a few hours later, she was un responsive and had passed
gunna miss her

Oh man...I'm really sorry to hear that! Just goes to show how well they can hide how sick they are and when we finally see it, sometimes it's just too late. I really am sorry that she didn't make it!