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Need help with baby patternless, please

hotback66 Jun 04, 2003 09:36 PM

I bought a patternless hatchling on May 17th. She ate very randomly for the first two weeks. I offered mealworms, an occasional waxworm, and crickets. I saw her eat each of these items, however she wouldn't eat every night and she didnt seem to like mealworms all that much. She would eat a mealworm or two if I offered a waxworm in between. I didnt want to give her too many waxworms so, I have been offering mostly crickets with an occasional mealworm. Now she wont even eat a waxworm. I find feces in her cage about every other or every third day. Does this mean she is eating something? I havent witnessed her eat for at least a few days and I know she didnt eat last night because there was no missing mealworms/crickets however there were two feces. I dont think that there is a problem with her enclosure. It is about 1 ft. X 3 ft. with two dry hides, one hot and one cool, a humid hide on the hot side, a paper towel tube to keep her occupied and newspaper as a substrate. The ground temperature is about 90 on the hot end. She must be at least three or four weeks old now but still is only about 6-8 grams. She actually looks skinnier than when i got her. Is there a way to force her to eat? I really like this gecko and don't want to lose her. I have three others that are older than her in their own larger enclosure that eat like pigs. Can anyone offer any advice, I really need some help. Thanks
Jason
ps sorry for such a long post and i hope it is clear. if not i can provide any additional info that i forgot. thanks again

Replies (5)

hotback66 Jun 04, 2003 09:38 PM

I forgot to mention that a couple times I found some greenish feces (i think it was feces anyway). This happened after she would eat waxworms, so I havent fed her any since and it hasnt happened again. Thanks again
Jason

fisherk2 Jun 04, 2003 09:57 PM

You might take a fresh fecal sample down to your vet. If there is anything wrong with her that is the best way to find out, and most vets won't charge you for a visitation. They will just charge $15 or so to run the test. Call first to make sure. If your gecko is losing weight, you will probably want to hand feed her just to get her some nutrition until you find out what the vet says. You can get a bottle of chicken flavored baby food at the store, and if you put some on her lips she should lick it right off.

hotback66 Jun 04, 2003 10:05 PM

thanks for responding so soon. i will call the local vet tomorrow. do you know if all vets can do this kind of fecal test? i attend college in a small ohio town, so i dont really think that there would be any vets with herp knowledge, but i could be wrong. i will be going home to cleveland in two weeks, but i dont think i should wait that long. if i give her baby food, should i mix in some calcium powder? well, thanks again and have a nice night

fisherk2 Jun 04, 2003 10:25 PM

You will definitly need to get in contact with a vet that deals with herps because not all vets know what to do with gecko poop. Look in the yellow pages' advertisements and call the vets whose adds say they deal with exotics. Or you can do a search on the internet by using the words reptile, vet, and search. A lot of sources list recommended reptile vets by state. One page you can try is herpvetconnection.com.

I've never mixed calcium powder in with the baby food, but it probably wouldn't hurt. I would be afraid of it clumping up instead of mixing in.

Good Luck!

hotback66 Jun 04, 2003 11:21 PM

thanks again. i will call the local vets tomorrow. take care,
jason

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