Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I have a juvenile red nigerian uro. I've had him for about a year and a half. About 2 to 3 months ago I was cleaning his cage and like an idiot I forgot to close it when I was done and he got out. I looked everywhere for him but I could not find him ( if anyone has lost a small lizard or snake, you know that sometimes it's impossible to find them !!! ). Anyway, 2 days ago I saw him on the floor in the corner of my bedroom and I put him back in his cage. Thank God he is alive but he is VERY thin. And he won't eat much now. My question is.....is there any product I can buy ( like a paste or a gel or a liquid that has vitamins & minerals in it that can boost his health ) that I can gently force feed to him so he can gain weight and hopefully start to eat on his own ???

Any information is appreciated.
Thank you for your time.

See if it will eat some blueberries, they have moisture and nutrition that hydrate them quickly. This has worked for me with past rescue lizards.

Warm your uro to proper temperature and offer the berries to see if it is interested. The outside of the berries should be dry.

I have also had seriously dehydrated uros drink from a very shallow dish on their own but they were sunlight warm.

Good luck, at least you found your lizard.

You can also try cut up cantelope melon or green seedless grapes cut up to try to get him rehydrated.

I tried everything to get my uro rehydrated and to start to eat on it's own. I tried the fruit trick, soaking him etc...

Basically came down to taking him to a vet for him to receive injections of fluids. I now have to do that every other day until I start seeing him eat on his own.

I had to do that once for one of my baby Saharans who stopped eating. She got skinnier every day and got very lethargic. I took her to a vet who gave her one injection of fluids, and that kick started her to eat and start basking and being active again. That was a couple of months ago, and she has almost doubled her body weight since that scare. Hang in there!

Andi

You need to take him to the vet right away. I just adopted an emaciated beardie to save her from someone who abused her and whenever they are emaciated like that sometimes they are too thin and too weak to eat. The vet will inject the lizard with the proper fluids to get it's blood sugar and system going. It's probably dehydrated too so It NEEDS The fluids -it must go to the vet. Then after that the vet will prob. tell you to syringe feed it(they'll give you dry syringes and you can use veggie baby food mixed with some Calcium)

good luck!!

kristen
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4.2 Bearded dragons (Lee,Stumpy,Blackie,Spazz,Lynn,Charlotte)
1 Egyptian Uromastyx (Niles)
(Papa Kunja and Uri have recently passed..we love you)

Thank you for your advice!