Help on a rescued dragon

Hello all. I am hoping for a bit of advice on a rescue we took in from the local reptile rescue about 3 weeks ago. I am cross-posting this on several forums, so forgive me if you have seen this or responded somewhere else.

Her name is Flame, and she is about a year old. The owner surrendered her because of lack of time, and apparently not knowing how to care for her properly, as she is very small (about 14" and maybe 150g). But we are having some serious issues.

Since we got her, Flame has not eaten one thing at all. I have tried a variety of greens (turnips, collards, mustards, dandelions, red leaf lettuce, etc), some fruits and veggies (papayas, mangos, apples, carrots, peas, beans, anything colorful and healthy), crickets, superworms, even pellets of different sizes just trying to find ANYTHING she will eat, and nothing happens. She looks sideways at everything and puts her nose up. I have tried feeding her squash and sweet potato baby food, but she literally clamps down her teeth and I cannot get her to budge for any sort of feeding with a spoon or syringe. She will let it fall out of her lips and not swallow a thing.
I have been bathing her daily, and she is only occasionally pooping in small amounts. We had a fecal run, no parasites or anything to be concerned about. Everything LOOKS normal, but she will not eat.
She is semi-active, but is getting weaker and slower every day, and I of course believe this is from the lack of food. She is very skinny, but came to us like that. She has not shed, and shows no signs of shedding at all. Her eyes are still bright, but they are getting duller every day.
She is in a 40B tank with tile, basking spot 100-115 (I have tried everything in between to see if that helps), cool side 80-85, 2 basking branches, brand new 10.0 bulb in the cage (not on top of the screen), lights on 13 hours a day.
Any ideas on what to do? The vet is saying that until she eats, theres not much to do, but we cant get anything in her. I am watching her right now, and she is just so listless it scares me. Thanks for any help in advance!

Kelly Kordek

Handling her everyday is a lot of stress on a weak dragon, it may be good to cut that down to every other day or maybe even only twice a week at the most. What are the temps in the cage at night? Do you keep food in her cage all day long? Was she eating while the rescue had her? Is she out in view most of the day or does she hide a lot?

Is there any chance maybe she's gravid? Not necessarily that she was bred, like maybe infertiles?

Originally Posted by Junkyard

Handling her everyday is a lot of stress on a weak dragon, it may be good to cut that down to every other day or maybe even only twice a week at the most. What are the temps in the cage at night? Do you keep food in her cage all day long? Was she eating while the rescue had her? Is she out in view most of the day or does she hide a lot?

The only handling she is getting is for the baths. The night temps drop down to about 75 all the way around. She does have food available all day, and I change it out frequently. She mainly sits on her basking log all day until about 6 or 7 at night, then she goes into the corner and goes to sleep, although lights don't go off until 9. She has no hides available simply so she does not hide. She was only with the rescue for 48 hours before I got her, and she did not eat there for them at that time.

Originally Posted by Saladragon

Is there any chance maybe she's gravid? Not necessarily that she was bred, like maybe infertiles?

I honestly have not thought about that. I would think no simply because she is losing weight and not gaining. She is very slim all the way around, and her belly is soft. But it is a thought...

I did have a good friend of mine mention the possibility of hookworms that would not have been found in a regular fecal unless she is releasing eggs. Also the possibility of trichamonis. I am going to try a treatment of panacur here at home and see what happens. I can't get another fecal simply because she is not having any bowel movements now (no food = nothing to poop out).

Thanks for the questions, and if you have any other ideas, please let me know!

Kelly Kordek

The only reason I was asking is that I had a girl that was gravid several times with infertiles, and she did just that, stopped eating and lost weight. The infertile clutches were just very difficult on her, and she was huge. So being that this girl is so tiny, it just made me wonder. If it is infertile eggs, most of the time, you won't be able to feel them or see them pooching out like you would fertiles. They're so soft and squishy that you really wouldn't even notice them, except for the dragon's behavior. And she may well be past that restless point of the process...

Poor little girl. I hope you get it figured out soon. I've got my fingers crossed for you and her.

Infertile eggs, that is a good idea. Have you tried feeding her outside of her cage? In a different environment she may develop a desire to eat. Dragons are curious creatures, something you may try is placing her cage next to another dragons cage, place food in each cage so it will mirror each other. When the healthy dragon is eating, your rescue may be inclined to go see what the healthy dragon is eating and try out the food too.

I had a girl that was very stubborn about eating and I was able to trick her into eating for me. When I handled her she would open her mouth threatening to bite me, I would just stick a piece of greens into her mouth and she would chomp away. Odd, but it helped.

Thanks Tere and John! Just for some inspiration, here is a picture of her. She is a very intense orange, but this was taken not long after a bath so she was still heating back up. She really is a sweet little girl, and has such potential to be a great addition to the family of animals we have here (12 other dragons, 13 leopard geckos, 1 mali uro, 1 BTS, 2 BPs, 3 pale agamas, 1 dog and 5 kids). I am really praying for her to make it through.

Kelly Kordek

Sorry, just posted under my husband's name. The joys of IE vs. Firefox!

I have tried feeding in a different cage and other places as well. I might try the cages side by side to see how that works too.

Thanks for all the ideas everyone, I really appreciate it!

Kelly

Well, where's the picture, girl? She sounds beautiful!

Good idea on the feeding, Michael. Kelly, I know you said you tried feeding her and she spit it out, basically. Is she taking fluids at all? Does she look dehydrated? I know that's another reason they won't eat, and it's so simple to fix. And how old is she? Do you know?