Reptile & Amphibian Forums

She still refuses to eat but seems to be doing well. How
long can she go on like this. I am still force feeding pureed
food every 3 days along with vitamins/calcium. I am beginning
to think she will never eat again.

Has anyone elses Ig went this long? She seems happy and healthy
but everything I read keeps telling me this is associated with
a problem but the vets have ruled out any medical conditions.

Could it be that it is ME? She seems very comfortable with me
and likes interaction but maybe she just does not like me???
Should I find a new owner for her?

Thanks
Linda

Other than the eating thing, how is Beanie? Is she a good weight, active and all healed up from her surgery? I would definately NOT say she dislikes you! I'm betting more that she loves the one to one attention of being fed by you and is being stubborn so that she gets it! If she's growing and shedding, she's doing great and if she was unhappy that wouldn't be the case.

What a stubborn iggy, no surprise tho I've never had a critter as stubborn as Tempest myself! I'll probably get a huge flame for this, but I would consider skipping a meal, and see if she'll pick up some food on her own. Are you still syringe feeding? Maybe go to using whole food, like lettuce or carrot pieces, or banana or berries, and even if you have to open her mouth and stick it in, get her eating foods that she has to actually pick up and chew. You might also try an irregular feeding pattern, one that she can't possibly get used to, so anticipation of getting fed by mummy(! love my mummy !) can't help out in being stubborn on feeding herself. I'd try oh, say two days in a row, skip 3 days (oh mummy I'm staaarving) then a day, then day off, then two days in a row, then 4 days off... something to kind of scramble her pattern up and maybe kick in the proper response to hunger (eating) instead of her waiting till you feed her.

I would definately not rehome her! It sounds more that she adores you and is loving being pampered and spoiled by her very good ig mummy

>She still refuses to eat but seems to be doing well.

Does she do some activities on her own, like moving in and out of the basking zone? Taha would be a real good sign.

> How
long can she go on like this. I am still force feeding pureed
food every 3 days along with vitamins/calcium.

Cut way back on the vitamins. She's surely getting too much, even to the point of hyoervitaminosis, which would make her sick.

>Has anyone elses Ig went this long?

I nursed an ig who had surgery for reupured ovaries and severe inflammation of the surfaces of her internal organs (Peritonitis). She was just about dead. I nursed her for 3 months before the exploratory surgery, and for three months after it. Every day I fed pureed ig food using a stainless steel 6 inch long ball tipped large bore needle and a large plastic syringe. It got to be pretty routine. Then I decided to let her get hungry and voila! she began eating again. She's with her owners, still doing well.

Sick igs can take a long time to rehabilitate. Ask your vet about getting one of those needles and a big syringe to go with it. It's not hard to tube feed once you become confident that the tube can't go down the airway.

Could it be that it is ME?

Yes, if she has no medical condition that is making her anorexic. In that case, your ig is merely dependent on being hand fed. I's a well-known trap for igs and their owners. Again, in that case the way to test the hypothesis is to stress her by witholding food for about 10 days. If she has no medical issue, she'll resume eating after that short fast.

> She seems very comfortable with me
and likes interaction but maybe she just does not like me???

She accepts you. That's good enough, so her anorexia is not directly related to you.

Should I find a new owner for her?

You couldn't find a better owner. Plus, a stranger and a new house will stress her out with Relocation Stress.

In your place, I'd get outfitted with the stainless feeding tube, and feed pureed ig food every day. When you get good at it, it takes about two minutes, and the food goes straight into the stomach. She needs to eat every day, not every three days, and the tube will make that easy to do.

Roger

My vet said to cut back to 1X/week feedings but I could not
do that so I went every 3 days to give her an opportunity
to eat on her own. You said in your post she needs to be fed
every day but then you said to not feed her for 10 days. I
would think that is too long.

She was a great eater until she became gravid and had to have
a hysterectomy back in June. She is thermoregulating just fine
is shedding (somewhat irregular) and is pooping about once a
week. When I syringe feed her, her eyes constrict and dilate
so I know she is hungry. She will tongue flick her food and
do the eye things but nothing! The funny part is she has
went from 2.2 lbs to 2.7 lbs with only me force feeding about
3 teaspoons/3 days. I really do appreciate your input as I do
not know what to do. Can you maybe clarify the first paragraph
for me?

Thanks so much
Linda

What I meant: When an ig needs to be "force fed" it's entire diet, and eats nothing on it's own, then it needs to be force fed every day so it gets enough nutrition for the body to do healing. It also keeps the ig hydrated, protecting the kidneys.

OTOH, to test whether the ig is ready to eat on it's own, the force feeding stops long enough to make the ig very hungry (that's about 10 days imo), and when it's hungry enough it will resume eating from a plate, if it is healthy enough. It takes courge for the owner to do that stress test. After 10 days, if the ig still won't eat, I'd resume force feeding for another month or two, and then repeat the stress test.

I'd do all this under the supervision of a herp vet.

It's encouraging to see that your ig gained weight while being 'force fed'. That's why I said that your ig could be hooked on force feeding. It happens.

Roger

When my iguana was recovering from surgery he had to be syringe fed. I fed him EVERY day. They really need to be eating every day. I would feed him one small jar of baby food per day at the minimum. He got up to about thirty CC's. I think making the iguana wait every three days is not good.
I would also offer Beanie fresh food every single day to see if Beanie will eat on his own.

She gets fresh food everyday. I don't syringe feed her
baby food. I give her all the stuff she used to eat including
alfalfa pellets pureed in a blender. My point is that if I
force feed everyday, what is the incentive to make her eat
on her own since everyone thinks (including the vet) that this
is behavioral?

Maybe, I am messed up in my thinking. Please advise

Linda

You are feeding even better then baby food then. I sometimes pureed fresh stuff but I got a little lazy when I had to syringe feed him for 6 months!

I do believe that it is probably behavioral too. I just hate to see that Beanie is going three days with no eating and only pooping once a week. That is pretty bad.
I would continue with the syringe feeding every day but also select things they like to eat like bannana or melon and open his mouth and put it in. Have you tried taking wheat bread and running it under the faucet until it is completely soaked and pulling it into little pieces and giving it? My guy would eat this even when he was very sick.
Do you know what Beanie's favorite food is?

If Beanie was still recovering from surgery or was in poor body condition with poor mobility and unhealthy, I would agree that you'd have to feed her every day. However, it sounds like Beanie is completely healthy in every way except her dependency on being hand fed.

Going two weeks without food will not hurt an ig. It may sound really mean and harsh and cruel, and I don't recommend feeding your Ig every two weeks or anything silly like that either before I get flamed here. I mean that if you flat out only offered fresh food, or even the usual pureed food but in a dish, not letting her get it via you, it won't hurt her to go a good 2 weeks without a solid meal in her.

When I first got Tempest I was terribly worried, he would not eat, anything. If I bugged him, he'd open his mouth to bite me and I could shove a piece of veggie in there and he'd chew it and swallow it, but for 6 weeks he would not eat on his own. I tried everything! Veggies, fruit, bread, dog food - the goal was to get him eating anything, and we tried dog food because his previous owners who dumped him in the parking lot to freeze and die might have fed him that. My vet assured me almost daily that he'd be fine, as long as he was still active and fighting. After 3 1/2 weeks, I started syringe feeding him mushed up and soaked rep-cal pellets, and left pellets in his cage dry all the time, but it was a full 6 weeks before I heard him crunching on pellets on his own. He didn't even touch fresh greens for another oh, almost 3 weeks after that! Keep in mind that he was found almost frozen, temps were down to freezing at night and he'd been out a while, and emaciated.

As long as Beanie seems healthy, I'd try tough love. Offer her the puree in a bowl, offer her fresh greens, fruit and veggies, and wait her out. I think she's just become accustomed to the routine and you need to break her out of it. If you think you can't, maybe you can board her at the vets and they can take a swing at it? The local vet college here will take in animals to break them of behavioural dependencies, but I imagine its expensive.

"Has anyone elses Ig went this long?"

Zephyr went without eating by himself for 5 months. You couldnt tell it now-pig. I definitly think the extra sunlight just jumpstarted his appetite (moving from NH to FL)

Sarah

Each one of you made very good sense and I think I have come
to conclusion that Beanie is dependent on me for feedings.
I want everyone to know that I have tried almost every type
of food much to my dismay she will not eat. I also have come
to the conclusion that I must be giving her enough food by
feeding every 3rd day as she has gained weight. This morning
she would not eat from her plate but took a few small
pieces from my hand. I am going to have another checkup from
the vet in a few weeks just to check her progress to be sure.

I think I have a plan! I am going to force feed for about
5 days/each day. At that point, I am not going to feed her
for at least 7days but maybe keep offering some food by hand.
I will see what happens. I want to make sure you all know that
I would never do anything to put her at risk for illness by
making her go without food. I will weigh her every couple
of days to be sure she is not losing weight. I am sad because
I feel that I have caused this by stepping in too soon and
being to overprotective by force feeding her.

Thanks so much and I will post again soon. Believe me,
withholding food is going to be very hard for me.
Linda and Beanie

NEVER, EVER feel bad for caring! At the end of the day, you see your Beanie every day, you know her far better than anyone else, and caring is far better than not caring! I don't think it is possible to care too much. I think its wonderful she took even a few pieces from your hand, she'll turn around, you'll see

Anyways, there's *always* exceptions to the rule. My attitude with the dogs and with years of training race horses, was if they didn't want to eat, that was fine, but it didn't stay available either (unless of course something was wrong). My exception, was a lovely little mare that the night before a race (she always knew), she wouldn't eat, nor would she that morning, unless I hand fed her. Don't ask me how she knew, but she always did. Die hard me would be in there, coaxing her to eat, when any other time I'd rather have swallowed my own tongue

I think you're a wonderful ig mum, just look how far Beanie's come since you've had her

You have been a tremendous help and your Ig is very
lucky to have found you!

Linda