not eating and no interest in food

Well, seeing how the other site wasn't really gicing me answers, just hard times, I decided to subscribe here. This is my first post, so more then likely I'll screw something up.

My issue is this: In early Feb. I bought a beautiful hypo female. I got her from a local breeder at a show near me who I've done business with before. Well, I got the girl in hibernation, got her out of it, and slowly got her to eat. Since she's been in my care, she has never pooped like my other guys do. She shows no interest in any sort of worm (wasted my money on silkworms), and only eats an occasional cricket. She eats about one or 2 a week. She is loosing weight, about 3 grams since I've gotten her, and there are folds in the skin. She looks huge, and definately has the potential to be quite the lady, but she's not eating.

I put her with one of my other females to see if being with another gecko would help (after the quarantine period of course), but they just slept together for a day. Then the girl went into shedding so I removed the questionable girl.

She is healthy and worm free just not eating. Any advice or whatnot would be greatly appreciated.

Michael

If she's not pooping then she's constipated. Try soaking her in luke warm water. If that doesn't work give her a little bit of cod liver oil and that should clear her out.

Try feeding her roaches or pinkie mice too. My big ladies eat pinkies like crazy and that helps keep them bulked up.


If she starts thinning out soak her in pedialyte and force feeding her mealworms. Try to be gentle but I have found that if my leos thin out to much I can't get them to start eating on their own. If I catch it early enough then I can turn them around and get them chubby again.

good luck

I've tried pinkies to no avial. I'll try force feeding, but its kinda hard for me because I'm not too sure what I'm doing with the force feeding, and I only have 2 hands, one to hold, and one to open the mouth...
got any tips for force feeding?

Be very very gentle!

You don't want to hurt them, they have thin little jaws. I rest the gecko on my leg and hold their head on my left hand. They tend to wiggle a bit and sometime they open their mouths a little and I pop a mealie in quick. Sometimes this doesn't work. So I ever so gently stick the tip on my finger nail in their mouth and gently push downward. They usually get annoyed and try to get free and henceforth open their mouths more. Just have a mealworm in your fingers so you can pop it in as soon as you can squeeze it in.

First I try by just putting the head of the mealie in and seeing if the gecko will eat it. THat's less stressful. If not I just get it into their mouth and rub under their chin a little bit. Then I let go and see what happens. It's a hit or miss game, and if something doesn't work I try something else.

If you're trying something like meat based babyfood smear it on their nose and they'll lick it off. I mix turkey babyfood with pedialyte and goop up their nose real good. Then they give me this look like, "rrrr why are you making me so messy!" and they lick it off.

I tried force feeding like you suggested, but I couldn't get her to open her mouth no matter what. I'd move the lower jaw, and she would move her whole head. I managed to get her to bite a mealie, then she licked the gooey insides, but never ate it. I'll try again later tonight, and get baby food tomorrow.

If you make her some "leo slurry" and drop a bit on her nose, she will lick it off. It's much less stressful than trying to forcefeed.

Slurry being a blender, mealies, vitamins and i guess baby food as the medium...?

Sorry...I meant to beat you back here with the recipe. LOL!! You were too fast!

This is Marcia's recipe. Here you go.

In a blender, combine:
1 small can Hill's A/D pet food (available at most vets)
1/4 cup Ensure (not chocolate)
1/4 cup pedialite
1 jar baby food squash or 1/4 cup plain canned pumpkin
1/2 tsp. each calcium powder and herp vitamins
2 crushed tablets or 2 opened capsules of milk thistle (found at most places that have vitamin and herb supplements - it is a liver purifier)
* a handfull of mealworms puree'd with this mixture if you can deal with that!
- Pour slurry in ice cube trays and freeze, thawing out only what you will use in a few days.

Is her tail still nice and fat? Or is it getting skinny? If her tail is still fat and she has good body weight I wouldn't worry about it and I certainly wouldn't force feed it. If a leopard gecko is loosing weight and getting skinny, there is something wrong, either with your setup/temps, or inside the leo (internal parasites). If the animal is getting thin, take a fecal sample to the vet and have it analyzed. It could be something as simple to take care of as a pinworm infestation. Force feeding it though, is just going to add to it's stress. IMO. And it is not going to take care of the underlying problem that is causing the animal to refuse food and get skinny.

Ok. I'll try to get all the stuff tomorrow. Convincing my parents should be interesting. Ya I thought tonight that it could be parasites, and I am going to look into a vet this weekend. I really hope everything works out well. I'm liking this site more then the other one. Everyone is so much more knowledgeable, quick to reply and friendly. I'll keep everyone posted.