Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my female who i received about a week ago will not eat. the only she eats are superworms. she will not eat pinkies, she will not eat crickets. any advice. is she just stressed or is she telling me she only wants superworms? im starting to grow concered because she doesnt look like shes doing to well. It almost seems as though she may be loosing some weight. thanks for help

Are you feeding live pinks or frozen, my girl wouldn't eat frozen until she got the taste of a half dozen live. How big is it? What else have you tried?

she is 16" and i have had to force feed her crickets because she was not looking good. i have only tried frozen. i am unable to get live pinkies where i live??? it seems as though she will only eat the super worms because they squirm. the crickets also put up a fight, but she wants nothing to do with em...thx

I am no expert, but if a vet didn't tell ya to force feed, you could be doing more harm then good. A week isn't that long to go without a balanced diet, my girl went through a phase not too long ago where she would only eat 1-2 pinks a week, and that lasted for a good 2 months or so, then she laid eggs and has been pigging out ever sense. Could that be a possibility? If you have a local pet store, maybe they would call ya when pinkys are born. Try some night crawlers, silkworms, small fish, and dust everything, wet items first so more vits will stick, and last, what are you using for UV lighting? Hope I helped, let us know how thins are going. Where do you live?

u may be right about force feeding...i am just concered and want to get some fat on her cause she is starting to look like an etheopian. i believe the previous owner may have abused her(or neglected her), and i am hoping that is the problem...if so, there is so much love her, that i hope she forgets about her past. another problem is that she is housed in a 5'x5'x5' enclsore. so i cant let the prey just run around because there is 20,000 hiding places for crickets. so i have to hand feed. so far she is only taking superworms out of my hands. i have two 160w zoomed powersun bulbs, 1 48" reptisun 5.0, and a heat lamp which provides additional uva/b. she is only about 15-16" so i dont think she is getting ready to lay eggs, plus i dont feel any either...agrrrrrrr...poor baby girl. i have also been giving her vit supp with her water...i may have to try getting live pinks....thx for help...
p.s. i live in NY

If she will only eat superworms, then give her as many as she will take. Mine went through phases when they would only eat certain things. Earthworms are something they always liked, you can get them at bait stores. You can also put a clear plastic container in her cage that she can hop into and get food, but the insects can't get out. Mine never ate crickets once they got about that size, they look at crickets as baby food.
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