Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My AFT, who hasnt eaten in the past 2.5 months, just took another trip to the vet.
He underwent an x-ray, to be sure there were no obstructions.... there werent.
I was sent home with some bone/calcium powder, known as EMERAID, which is usually given to birds. I was also sent home with A/D dog and cat food, a protein based supplement. I was instructed to mix the emeraid and food (separately) with gatoraid (for electrolytes, and sweetness) and feed Ripple (my AFT) with a needleless syringe. I drop a drop on his lips, he either licks it off or it sort of wicks in. Then when he starts likcing, he will just lick drops off of the tip of the syringe. I have been doing this for the past three days or so.

Something weird happens sometimes though.
The mixture will start dripping out of his mouth. I dont know if he is regurgitating, or if its just too much and its dripping, as if he hasnt gotten it down yet or what.

He will also sometimes open his mouth really wide sometimes. What is he doing????????

Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much

Hi

Since he hasn't eaten in so long, he may have kind of given up on the idea of eating and you will have to turn that around with him.

Try a mixture of chicken baby food, off brand pedialite and a little non flavored plain yogurt. The yogurt will help him to get his normal enzymes back into his stomache and the helpful bacteria that is normal to help him digest his food. When giving him yogurt, don't give him any other calcium, because the calcium will have plent of calcium in it while you are feeding it to him.

When you get the food into the syring, it will help it you hold the syring under warm water for a little bit, so the food isn't cold, they like it better that way.

If he doesn't take in enough by you dropping it on his nose after awhile and keeping it in, then you may have to syring it directly down his throat for a while.

Take Care, TLB
p.s. - you just need to get him used to eating again since he hasn't eaten in so long. They can just sometimes after awhile give up on the idea of eating and you have to get them used to it again.

Thanks so much for the reply. I was worried that it got buried and no one would answer.

The advice your giving me is great. I will try the mixture you suggested, along with the suggestions from the vet.

Any ideas as to why the mixture was dripping out of his mouth? I've concluded (on my own) that hes not regurgitating, just not getting it down and its dripping (even running) out.

I just have to keep feeding him to get him used to eating again? Persistence is the answer???? Any thoughts on why hes not eating for so long?

Thanks again

Hi

It may possibly be dripping out because you may need to make the mixture a little thicker in consistance in my opinion. I have three AFT of my own.

Heres an example for you: let say there is an aft in a petstore that doesn't really take care of the aft good and feeds it once in awhile, or is in with several other geckos and doesn't get it's share of the food. After a long period of this, the gecko may get so tired of it or used to not eating that it just stops all together and doesn't really care anymore and thus stops eating. In a scence it kind of has to be retrained to eat again.

Take Care, TLB

Hi

One more thing. Doe's he drink water regularly?.

One more thought on why the food might not be going down so easily, that is because he hasn't eaten so long so his neck veins and maybe other may have shrunk up a little from lack of fluids.

Take Care, TLB

He does drink water regularly. Even when hes not eating, i would see him drinking, however, he hasnt been doing much of anything recently. He just lays underneath the paper towels all day. I dont know whether or not he does anything at night, cause im sleeping.
I hope hes ok. I dont want it to be hard for him anymore.