Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello i seem to have abit of a problem , ill start by explaining my set up. i have an 7'' dwarf caimen in a 70 gallon rubbermaid container(until he gets alittle bigger so i can build him a custom enclousre) with another smaller rubbermaid container inside it as the pool/pond as well as a coco fiber substate making up a 60/40 water to land ratio i have an infared heat lamp for the basking spot wich gives tempatures approxametly 105 i have a 2 plants in ther in order order to create shade as well so it has a range of tempatures anywere from 80-110 the water is heated with a protective cased turtle heater wich keeps the water at a steady 79 degrees and the water is filitered with a submersable filter ther is also a burrow/tunnel spot between the pool/pond and container wall and finaly the whole tank is lit by two flourecent fixtures one a 24 uvb exo terra 8.0 lamp and a regular flourecent day lamp and i use a wire mesh screen as my "lid" . now as to my problem...

for some reason it wont take any food that i can visably see when i first put him in he would only eat minos i tried chicken heart and gizzurd pinkie and fuzzie mice cow heart wouldnt touch them it ate the minos though after al the minos were gone i added more minos some dissapeared but thers been atleast half of them ther for about 2 weeks now so then i started adding crickets and meal worms after about a week and a half of not taking any food from me or eating the minos now i think some of the crickets have been eaten but i cant varify that for sure because he wont eat infront of me but ther is a decrease and from what i can tell i dont have a bunch of crickets loose in my houselol and needless to say he had zero intrest in the meal worms now what i cant figure out is if he in fact was not eating wouldnt eventualy his appetite build up and eventualy either A) have its health deminesh and B)ravage any food that comes near him... so basicly i wana know if A) how to get him feeding more regularly and a broader diet B)what signs i should look for for dimineshed health C)what could be the cause for this and D) is ther even a problem or is he just being picky or shy

well thers my story lol geesh sorry for the length but anyinfo would be great thanks in advance

regards

Hello,

First of all, I can appreciate the very detailed post as it helps to better understand his environment as well as the issue. Personally, I see nothing wrong with your setup. It is set up quite nicely. One thing that I have noticed with Dwarfs is that they typically are finicky eaters as hatchlings, but quickly grow out of it. My dwarfs were a bit finicky at first and wouldnt eat anything other than chicken, but now will pretty much take anything offered. Your fish are a good start, but as Chris Dieter directs, you might want to make sure that you have a steady population of them stocked in order to stir him up and go after them. If you only have a couple dozen and it is a fair sized water source, then they might be staying away from him and he doesn't quite realize that they are there. If they are stocked densely(sp?) then they will brush up against his legs and tail, etc. as they swim and will thus "excite" him into chasing them. Next, is that as you notice, dwarfs are rather shy feeders (at least at first) and will not eat while you are watching. Generally, what I had to do was place a piece of driftwood in the water area (despite the extra land space) and then place feed items onto the top of the wood. He generally excepted food from there. However, you have to leave immediately after placing the food in there and dont go back in for awhile.

Ultimately, it appears that you have done your homework. Keep trying a variety and make sure that you use a good vitamin supplement when you feed chunk meat. You can also try feeding fuzzy mice, etc. Whole animals are always best, but keep up with the fish as well.

Good luck and Best Wishes,

Chris
My Website

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My Website
www.herpfanatic.com

I got 3 dwarfs a few months back and had pretty much the same problems you are having at first. Your cage sounds great. Is he WC? Have you had him wormed? Mine really picked up on the eating after being wormed. Mine still won't eat with me in the room. I leave 3 rat fuzzies in the cage right before the lights go out at night twice a week and in the morning they are always gone. Rat fuzzies are pretty much all mine eat. I started mine of crickets and then moved them to the fuzzies when they were eating well. Mine never really ate minnows. I put about a couple dozen in with them when I first got the caiman and at least half are still there. I would recommend weighting him now and keeping track each month to monitor his weight. If he is steadily gaining weight I would not worry about him too much. Have you found any feces in his cage yet? I would at least get a fecal test done if you don't want to worm him. How long have you had him?
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John Vandegrift

thanks for your help guys another quick question i put in some meal worms trying to see if he would eat them but no dice so those no good dirty... i mean lol the worms burrowed into the soil is ther a problem with that should i do a soil swap?

I personally don't see any threat in the mealworms burrowing into the soil. I wouldnt sweat it.

Chris

>>thanks for your help guys another quick question i put in some meal worms trying to see if he would eat them but no dice so those no good dirty... i mean lol the worms burrowed into the soil is ther a problem with that should i do a soil swap?
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My Website
www.herpfanatic.com