Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey, my female gecko is not eating just now and hasnt been ever since i got her a good few months ago. she has been surviving because ive been force feeding her crickets, mealworms and waxworms and is the only thing that has kept her alive but she is starting to resist and im am thinking about using a syringe with mushed up food a and put it into her mouth. what food etc should i put in the sryinge. any ideas would be useful.
thanks alot
p.s cage setup is perfect, temps etc. and she has a vet appointment in a couple of weeks.

foods to mash up...Crickets mealworms waxworms silkworms pinkies and dont forget to throw in some Calcium powder with them, and water
is she loosing weight? is her poop runny?
have you taken her in for a fecal exam yet?

Hi. I'm in the same position as you almost. I got a girl in early Feb. who only eats crickets, but like one a week, shes a huge girl, and has only lost a couple of grams, but she has skin fold, and I know she has the potential to be a big Momma with fat pockets and everything. I am taking her to the vet today to see if she has worms. I get her to eat using Marcia's recipe from GGG. I cost me like $15 to make. I used milk thistle gel caplets, and cut them open, it was cheaper, and doubled the Ensure dosage because I couldn't find pedialite. Good Luck though.
This is Marcia's recipe. Here you go.

In a blender, combine:
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)
* 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.

Michael

thhanks alot guys ill try mushing up mealworms etc and see how it goes.
she hasnt got runny poo

No, neither did mine.

I was worried when our healthy girl stopped eating her 10 mealworms per day. She didn't eat but maybe 10 mealworms total for 2 months. The vet said she was perfectly healthy (she had continued to drink, lick calcium and poop just fine rarely when she did eat). The vet said try something different, I tried crickets and supers and she is eating again. So give her a break and try something different.

Matt

One of my leos only ate 3 worms in the first 10 months that I had her while all the others were eating not stop with all of them being in indentical enclosures. After I got her checked for worms etc. I just left her to it and one night I found her eating and she`s never stopped since.

Get the poop checked out and as long as she`s not rapidly loosing weight or any other signs of illness theres no problem with her not eating, you may find that the force feeding is making things worse. It`s very stressfull for the animal and stress can lead to a whole host of other problems for you to deal with.

As long as the enclosure is setup right and she`s given a good bill of health from the vet there`s nothing really to worry about. Best thing to do is stop forcing feeding and generally just leave it alone, remember these arn`t really petting animals and will take time to adjust to new homes and being handled, some take longer than others.

Put it somewhere nice and quiet, and leave it have a bit of piece, as long as it`s not ill it will come around with time.