Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi i bought a pair of saharans from douglas dix. At first everything looked fine although the female was skinny and the male had a skiny tail. The male and female starting eating and geting fat within 2 weeks but all of a sudden both of them basically stoped eating. I found out since they were banging against the wooden walls they got infections on their mouths so i am treating that with scope. Yes, mouthwash kills the infection in the mouth douglas dix told me that. Well i have been treating them for a week now and on the male it looks like it is almost gone and the female's mouth looks a lot better. Well the male started off at 188 and is now at 163 and the female started at 96 and is now at 80. Yea i know they go threw their acclimation process but i dont think they should lose that much weight. I actually think they aren't eating at all, but i am not sure i house them with other uros. I know for the first 2-3 weeks they ate a lot but for the past two weeks when they got these infections they both are losing weight fast and are basically going down hill. I am going to force feed them. I was wondering what i should feed them, and how do i force feed. I have no clue about force feeding. I am totally new at force feeding so i need to know everything basically.
-----
Mike
1.1.3 maliensis (Spike, Marshmellow, Brown, Green, Orange)
1.3 geyri (Fire, Flame, Sunset, Princess)
0.1 Pit Bull/German Shephard/ Lab/ ect. mix (Kodak) - looks like an over grown toco bell dog.

Before you try force feeding, have you tried using baby food on their greens? I found that banana worked the best, but others say sweet potatos were their uro's favorite. You can also try to coax them to eat this from your finger or a dropper by dabbing it on their mouths.

Best of luck!

tara

PS- I had gotten Kameko (my mali) from doug and he too would not eat for 3 weeks. Even now, after about 3 months, he still gets fickle and refuses to eat for days at a time. Let me know if you figure out any tricks!
-----

Have you tried a very light coating of bee pollen on the greens to intice your uro to eat? I find that when my uro gets a little fickle about his greens, I rinse the greens in water and then sprinkle some crushed bee pollen granules on them. The residual water causes the pollen to stick to the greens so that my uro can't pick the pollen out without having to eat the greens as well.

Hope this helps
-----
1 Mali Uromastyx named Ra

I think i am force feeding them wrong. All i do is barley open their lips and very slowly squeeze baby food from a syringe into their mouths. It can take up to 15 minutes just to attempt to put 3cc of baby food. How do you force feed them. I cant get their mouths open long enough to get the syringe in there. What is the best mothod of force feeding? How many cc's should a skinny 14 inch adult eat per day. And how many cc's for a subadult 10 inches long. Right now i am only giving them 3 cc's of baby food a day, is that not enough? too much? I really need some advice on this force feeding is new to me.
-----
Mike
1.1.3 maliensis (Spike, Marshmellow, Brown, Green, Orange)
1.3 geyri (Fire, Flame, Sunset, Princess)
0.1 Pit Bull/German Shephard/ Lab/ ect. mix (Kodak) - looks like an over grown toco bell dog.