Our little guy is still not gaining weight, he's stuck around 60 grams (hatched 8/2004).
Here's the background...........
He's pretty active, eats, but not a lot.
He's in a 36"x18"x18" enclosure, basking 120-130 (depending on where you measure, the area that's at 130 is pretty small), cool end is mid 80's but can get a bit hotter (87-88) for awhile on hot days. Night time temperatures are whatever the room gets to during the summer (mid-70s). We have a mega-ray uvb that is listed at about 350 whatevers (can't remember the units, microwatts/cm2), which hangs suspended above the screened top. We also have two complact fluorescents in a hood fixture. They are "sunlight" equivalent (ie high cri), just for more light in the enclosure. We have the back and sides of the enclosure completely covered with a desert scene, and newspaper partway up the front glass, thinking the cats don't need to see what's in that enclosure, and causing undue stress to the lizard by falling through the screen top.
We feed primarily escarole and endive, with occasional dandelion greens, napa cabbage or bok choy. Those form the basis of his diet, and the rest (probably about 1%) are supplements or toppings that I sprinkle on top on alternate days. I use "da good stuff" from cricketfoods.com which has bee pollen and other things in it. "Salad topper" also from cricketfoods.com, some chopped, dried grass from oxbowhay.com, ground pink lentils (he won't eat regular green ones), ground hibiscus, ground dandelion, occasional fresh hibiscus and dandelion (when they're growing outside) flowers, frozen veggies, frozen mango or papaya. I have miner-all, but don't use it, because he never eats his greens when it's sprinkled on. He loves the pink lentils, and will attack a pile of them (ground) with gusto.
He's been stuck at 60 grams since about January.
We've had blood work done, xrays, several clear fecal exams (just had another one done today, negative) with no real indication that anything is amiss.
Our local vet doesn't have much experience with uros (ours is it), does have some with iguanas and other herbivorous reptiles, and finds the little guy absolutely fascinating. She told me today she did everything she could with that sample to find any parasites, and pretty much identified what he'd eaten.
The big issue in addition to not growing (although he was 61.82 grams last night) is that he doesn't poop very often--probably once every two weeks or so (I don't keep exact track, and I do miss it occasionally when he goes on the rock that's the same color as the poo). When he does go, it's huge. Not diameter, but length. So, the vet is curious as to why that might be and was going to research Reglan, which is used for humans and mammals to get the peristaltic action moving, but she was unsure about giving it to reptiles, and would check, and wanted me to check my internet resources.
any information or insight?
TIA!
--diane
and PITA
I would just try some of the more common strains that you can get in health stores like acidophilus or bifidobacterium. I know the second is suppose to be better at breaking down fiber and such. As far as how they relate to reptiles I think it's mostly just hearsay and random testimony. As far as reptile specific products go, Nature Zone's Essential Probiotics seems to have the most reasonable price (compared to some crazy people wanting $20 for an ounce??). The NutriBac stuff's only apparent claim to fame is "ridding your reptile of salmonella" which doesn't really make much sense. Their ad doesn't really claim anything else which sounds like its just feeding on scary pathogen hype.
