Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a tangerine leo, who will not eat unless I handfeed her (she would rather starve then eat in a bowel), and will no longer use the toilet in her aquarium. She begs me to give her attention and wants to be picked up almost every night (she goes against the glass and will use her front paws to scratch at the glass until I put my hand in there) and will run on my hand. In fact, I do not have to pick her up--she walks on there on her own.

Then she licks my nose and looks real cute.

But she will ONLY poo on my hand. I got fed up with her pooing on my hand so I left her in there for almost a week and NO bowel movement whatsoever despite the fact she loves to eat. Fearing impaction, I let her walk on my hand and lick my nose and sure enough she pooed on my hand. a HUGE bowel movement. In fact it was so large it kind of exploded out.

So I have to make it a point to let her on my hand a few times a week just so she will move her bowels.

Anybody else have this problem???? If so how can I get her to use the aquarium again?????? Please don't say "just leave her in there" because it makes me real nervous if she doesn't move her bowels.

She has perfectly formed stools with no odor, and I check them every three months which comes out okay! She eats like a horse; in fact there are pockets of fat even under her arms not to mention a HUGE big fat tail.

Thanks
Jade Fox

Try placing the next handful of poo on an area of her tank you'd like her to use as her bathroom. That's often effective in getting them to relocate the bathroom. Good luck, that's weird!
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0.3.0 leos, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
0.0.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton & Olivia Newton John
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena

I tried that. Does no good. She wants to poo on me or hold it in until I pick her up. She USED to be real good with bowel habits and pooed exactly the same place everyday. She just stopped doing that and goes on me and refuses to mess up her terrarium.

Thanks anyway,
Madame JadeFox

I saw some Halloween rubber hands at Walmart. Maybe you could get one to poop on inside the enclosure.

I've had sucess with plaing poo into a an area like mentioned above. All my geckos but one would poop in one corner. So I kept moving his to the same corner as the rest. Eventually he started pooping there as well.

Try that see if it works.

Paul.