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Should I be worried? Ctenosaura similis

replover Apr 16, 2007 03:39 AM

Should I be worried about my Ctenosaura? This is the same one I posted about a few weeks ago. I have had him that long.

I have NEVER seen him eat a thing. Although I do see small poops and urates in the cage, and he is active and alert (very). He was mal-treated before and had no UVB and was brown. He is now green under my care. He has also grown from 10.5 inches to 13 inches and is halfway through a shed as we speak.

I give him a fresh plate of greens, squash, carrots and papaya everyday, which I don't know if he ever touches. I tried to take pictures of the salad to compare by nighttime, but he runs through it and messes it up so I can never tell. I have seen small bits of papaya on the corners of his mouth twice, but that could be rubbed on, I don't know.

He also has a bowl full of mealworms and some crickets with enough legs removed that they don't leave the bowl but still wiggle. I tried to count them to see if he's eaten any but I gave up after a day. It just cant be counted as some crawl out, some die and dry up, some eat the others and there are just too darn many.

He seems to be doing fine, growing and all, but I have NEVER seen him eat a THING. Also, if he is only eating the worms and crix, I worry if he will ever switch to veggies when he grows up. I have a tegu that will not eat fruit even though it is 4 feet long now, and I have to hide the fruit in meat. I don't think I can do that for the ctenosaura as it eats crix etc. and gutload is just not enough for an adult. I want to start him off well in life.

Replies (1)

Bayzow May 04, 2007 10:22 AM

When I had a similar situation, The thing that worried me was the lack of regular pooping: I knew he wasn't eating. Yours obviously is. If you want to be sure-er, take all the food out of his cage, and wait one day. Next day, put in a small bit of greens, not a massive amount, which he has already proven he won't/can't eat all of. Then it will be gone or it won't; voila! Scientific process in action.

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