Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My AFT hasnt eaten in a good 2 months. Weve been to the vet, he says the next step is xrays.
Ive heard suggestions for and against force feeding.
I think I remember reading something about dropping a drop of something (some kind of food mixture) on his nose, and by natural reaction he will lick it off of his nose. I understand that this may be tedious, but im willing to try something to get some nutrients in him, without much stress.
Any advice appreciated

Well I have some experience with this, I had to force feed using that method on 3 leos at the same time for about a week... I don't know much about AFT, but they don't seem to be too much different from leos....

First here is a good recipe... from goldengategeckos
1 small can Hill's A/D pet food (available at most vets)
1/4 cup Ensure (not chocolate)
1/4 cup pedialite
1 jar baby food squash or 1/4 cup plain canned pumpkin
1/2 tsp. each calcium powder and herp vitamins
2 crushed tablets or 2 opened capsules of milk thistle (found at most places that have vitamin and herb supplements - it is a liver purifier) un-needed unless have prolonged malnurishment

* a handfull of mealworms puree'd with this mixture if you can deal with that!
- Pour slurry in ice cube trays and freeze, thawing out only what you will use in a few days.

Put it in a syringe and drip slowly on nose. Some will drink out of it making it easier as well. And rarely they might bite down on it, which is the quickest

Well Im learning along with everyone else here but... I have taken the advice of putting baby food on my young geckos lips and she did lick it off. At least she ate something. The problem is that she didnt digest it. It basically passed right through her So to the vet I went tonight and I got a lil syringe to give parasite meds in and he gave me an extra syringe to feed the baby food in. Its really tough to get her to open her mouth though.

Dont know if that helps but maybe you can get something useful from it heh, Good luck !

Did the vet show you how to force open the mouth?

If not, you risk breaking their little bones

I will use this string to learn. I had a reply or two on how and I just tried the business card approach and that went over like a lead balloon for me. Got her mouth open then she went into a rage.

More suggestions?

My vet wants me to force feed as well. I was just doing the one drop at a time thing, and it was taking forever. I just did it all at once for the first time . I just held Rex till he calmed down, then gave a little nudge on the side of his mouth (the vet said the side is the easiest to get it in), pushed the syringe in (not to hard) and put all the liquid calcium/vitamin D in. I am so happy plus Rex didn't gag which he was doing when I was just droping the stuff in. Good luck with your guys,

Lisa