Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. I've done my reasearch, searched the archives and posted some questions before getting my Uro. I had his new home set up several weeks before picking him up. When I first saw him, he was pretty skinny and I waited till he fattened up. A week after getting him home and he's not eating at all. I've tried all sorts of different veggies and bugs, but he's just not interested. I've given him warm baths to hydrate him, the temps are good, day and night, and I know he has parasites, but I've been holding off taking him to the vet because of all the other stress of me getting him home. I am going to try force feeding him baby food today. Something with both meat and veggies. Is there anything else that I can do, or have the parasites totally taken over? He's not completely lethargic, but sleeps almost all the time and is so skinny I can see his spine. He's in really rough shape and I don't want to lose him. Thanks in advance for any help.

First, I'd stick with baby food that is just veggies. I also have great success with mixing pedialyte in with the baby food at about 50/50 ratio. When feeding him, "pull" his beard (as my vet assistant calls it) down to open the throat. He should be able to take 6cc or more. Keep this up twice a day until you see a change in his energy. One week is not alway enough to acclimate, and that's something else to think about. Make sure his temps are up, and maybe keep he's night temps around 70F until he comes around. I know that the balancing of the stress and the feeding can cause havic on ones mind, but if you're going to feed, these are my suggestions. All of which, I've done when Rocky was at that point. He was so lethargic, that he'd come out near the heat source, close he's eyes, and stay there all day. Even while I had the cage open and moving around stuff, he's eyes were closed. He came around.

Good luck.
Jim

>>Hi. I've done my reasearch, searched the archives and posted some questions before getting my Uro. I had his new home set up several weeks before picking him up. When I first saw him, he was pretty skinny and I waited till he fattened up. A week after getting him home and he's not eating at all. I've tried all sorts of different veggies and bugs, but he's just not interested. I've given him warm baths to hydrate him, the temps are good, day and night, and I know he has parasites, but I've been holding off taking him to the vet because of all the other stress of me getting him home. I am going to try force feeding him baby food today. Something with both meat and veggies. Is there anything else that I can do, or have the parasites totally taken over? He's not completely lethargic, but sleeps almost all the time and is so skinny I can see his spine. He's in really rough shape and I don't want to lose him. Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi, i'm french, just to tell you that my 2 Uromastyx acanthinura (that i'had since 2002 september), begin to eat till 1 week every day. During all this time, they didn't loss weight, they "take" weight but slowly. My tank is good, the T° is good, the UV light is good, but it's a mystery...The french breeder who sold them, don't understand what happened with the 2 guys. On all the babies which get every year, there's some who have this behavior and with differents species.

Don't panic, take a look on the weight of yours. Force feed is very stressfull for all the reptiles. Maybe try to let them quiet, try to put a "towel" on the glass of your tank as he can't see outside the tank...

trime

So I have had the same problem with my little nigerian, Hermione. Her cagemate died within 3 days of getting him b/c they were both wildcaught and had parasites. At first Hermione was fine after her cagemate died, but then she became very lethargic and not eating, just like he had done. I started giving her baby food/pedialyte which didn't really do anything but keep her from starving to death. The vet is kind of incompetent, and went through giving her panacur and something else with neither helping. Finally about four days ago, I called God. Well. Uro God. Doug Dix. He was AMAZINGLY helpful and told me that she needed some flagyl and a bit of baytril to kill off the ameoba in her stomach that were making her have a permanent stomach ache. I went to the vet and told him exactly what I wanted and made him show me how to tube feed Hermione to make sure she is getting all of her medicine and food. She has been on flagyl and baytril for three days now as well as a calorie/nutrient powder with pedialyte and Monday I will give her the NutriBac that Doug is sending me that will restore her natural gut fauna. Today was an amazing breakthrough for little Hermione. She ate lettuce on her own! I haven't seen her eat on her own in about three weeks. So I know she is on her way to recovery. All in all, I would really check out Doug Dix's website where the supplies are listed b/c he goes into full detail of how to deal with this and what to use. I wish you luck with your uro!

Marcie

Hi, Atari, the guy I'm trying to revive, did pretty good today. We got the baby food, peas, and the pedylite mixed together and after getting his mouth open for the first little taste, he started eating it on his own. We fed him twice today, both took a little coaxing, but we did get a fair amount of food into him. Monday he's going to the vet (hopefully) I finally found one near my area that deals with herps. I'm going to suggest what Marcie had posted to the vet. I've never taken any of my herps to the vet before, nor dealed with parasites, so I hope all goes well. Thanks for the help a million times over.