Force Feeding

is there some trick to getting them to open their mouths?? *LOL*

Normally Peter gets pissed off pretty easy...now I can't get the little guy to open his mouth to save my life.
I've tried the two things the vet told me....pressing gently on the corners of his mouth and pulling gently on the top of his head.....and nothing. *lol* He just looks at me like I'm insane.

Howdy,

I was talking with a breeder at a reptile show today about that same subject. He said that you just cover the nostril holes and they'll open up their mouth. I haven't tried this yet. He also warned that you have to be careful with larger quantities of liquids being squirted into a cham's mouth. If you don't get a swallowing action right away, they can easily end up with liquid in their lungs instead. He said that he makes sure that the syringe is past the airway and actually into the throat passage. If your cham isn't too sick to swallow, you may not have any problems so long as you don't introduce the liquid too fast.

The other way is to carefully pull down on the lower jaw/throat skin until the mouth opens. Messing up here can tear the skin...!

Force feeding can be difficult and is risky and should always be a last resort!

Did you try some natural sunlight yet and different food items?

When I have had to give meds to imports I simply put a drop on the nostrol or tip of the nose and they want it off so they open the mouth to kinda shake the head then you can put a drop or 2 of a proper food item, blended up crix and mealies with supplements added.

The vet can also give the reptile an appetite stimulate to help them want to eat.

1.what cham is it?
2.why do you force feed him?
3.how long have you bin force feeding him?
4.what do you use to feed him with?

yes some times they will stop eating and they can hunger strike up to 2 maby 3 weeks and it will not harm the cham that much if only we give them enough water. Some times to force feed them can do more harm then good. yes first i would try and give them diffrent food item. if he still wont eat i would give him water with vitamins and sugar, that is offen enough to get them eating again.
if that still not help i would force feed, but still use the water.
i force feed with some thing you give to puppys and smal cats, lot of vitamins and and...

I had a pardalis from a guy who had bin force feeding it with grashoppers for about 2-3 month and was pretty thin. a then gave him the vitamin water and the puppy food, but he was still not eating, but he was getting more fat. after 2 month, i gave up and only gave him water with a sprayed on the leafs. 3 days later he was eating grashoppers!

Niels, here is the original thread with all of the info on it:
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ad.php?t=68485