Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so ive been trying to read about what kind of supplements would be good for an underweight reptile. so far i've seen nutri-cal (which i also read has alot of sugars?) and Hill's A/D prescription canned dog food. im wondering if anyone has had any success with any other supplements to get an underweight gecko back to health.

i work at a pet store and i have three leopard geckos there. one is healthy and looking great. The other two are slightly smaller and their tails are not nearly as fat as they should be...but not terrible yet. im confident that they dont have parasites as they have doubled in size since we got the shipment. they have meal worms and get crickets every morning. when i am there i make sure to give them plenty so there is no competition...but not so many that there will be leftovers to annoy them.
anyways...any other common pet store remedies? i dont think my manager is going to want to buy anything we dont have in the store because our store is on a tight budget.
dont b! ch to me about that though. i say f^$K the corporate world. i never understood why people hated it so much until i worked here. stuff takes forever to get done. and i am only one man.

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MIKE
Photos
www.ball-pythons.net

Well, just from my own experience, just because the gecko is growing doesn't mean it doesn't have parasites. My BF's first gecko was bought (ironically from his brother who worked at a "smart" place to buy animals) and we took care of him for 9 months, until we moved about 6 miles and the stress was enough to offset the balance and even vet treatments and a month of hand feeding wasn't enough and we had him put to sleep.

Stay away from the dog food and such. You can offer waxworms on occasion or invest in some vanilla flavored ensure, but that would take a lot of extra time for you to feed them. I'm afraid in that environment there is not much to offer.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

I'm not sure what you can give the little guys, I've heard ensure and I myself used a mixture of baby food and a calcium supplement. I was about to move onto Wingaling dog food by Merrick but she perked up.

I know exactly what you mean by working in the pet shop tho. I got my Leo from the tiny, family owned pet store I worked at for 2 years. Their profit comes from mostly dog and cat supplies so the reptiles got a little overlooked although were cared for very well. She was a little skinny and we had some issues with choosing substrates, since we were trying to promote our own products.

This was Mojave when I bought her: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v478/JannieWolf/Mojave Rex/BabyMojaveFlop.jpg
Since she was/is my first Leo we had some trouble with MBD that left her legs so sore she couldn't hunt, that's why I had to go on to supplements. I was gutloading the crickets but not dusting. She hates mealworms and at the time refused to eat waxworms, commercial foods she wouldn't sniff and was losing weight fast. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v478/JannieWolf/Mojave Rex/MBDMojaveLegs2.jpg
Eventually she got better was so angry about being forece fed she started hunting again. 9 months later she's turned into this fat assed little creature. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v478/JannieWolf/Mojave Rex/MojaveTile8a.jpg

I hope all goes well with you're little ones.