Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, my female gecko hasn't been doing great since the spring. I bred her this year (she's two now) and she gave me 4 bad clutches. Since that, I don't think she's eaten a single thing. I don't know exactly what she weighed in the spring, but she had a huge tail and was developing fat pockets under her front arms (I didn't have a scale then).

Shes under 35 grams now.

She looks pathetic, and I feel bad for her. I've tried everything I can to get her to eat; offered her crickets, mealworms(her staple) and waxworms(her favorite). She doesn't touch them. I only see her drinking. She doesn't move for food like she used to at all.

She does have feces, a very small amount of brown part(forgot the technical name), equal to the size of the urates. Her tank is clean, she has a water dish, cool hide, humid hide, phosphorus-free calcium dish, and vitamin dusted mealworms.

I really need some advice here, I don't want to lose her.

A vet is almost out of the question. The closest think to an "exotics" vet only sees chinchillas and the sort (no reptiles), and thats a 45 minute drive.

Any advice at all is appreciated. Thanks.

First make sure she has adequate heat. I'm guessing you might already, but you didn't mention it in the first post.

A good trick you can try is mixing some multivitamin (I use Herptivite) with water, then dabbing drops on her nose to lick off. Be careful not to get any in her nostrils. Just a few drops is enough. The hydration seems to really help stimulate appetite in leos. It's a trick recommended to my by my vet, and it's worked for me every time.

Another option is to try feeding roaches. I know that sounds nasty, but if you can a hold of any lobster or discoid roaches, they may pique her interest. They're known to get picky leos eating again.

Are you absolutely sure there aren't any vets you can visit? Check herpvetconnection.com and anapsid.org/vets for any you might have overlooked. arav.org is another site you can try, but normal cat/dog vets get themselves listed for the extra publicity.
-----
chickabowwow

Thanks, I tried the multivitamin idea. She licked herself clean, which leads me to believe I could get her to eat something else like that, like yogurt maybe? Do you know of any liquid foods that could put some actual nutrition in her?

I gave her fresh mealworms and put the dish in front of her favorite hide in hopes she would eat some on the way in/out.

In doing all this, I noticed she is worse off than I thought. She's down to 31 grams and I can very clearly see her spine.

Any other suggestions? I'll look for a vet tomorrow, its getting late. Thanks again.

Leaving the mealworms for her is a good idea. It might take her a day or two after licking up the vitamin-water before she'll actually eat the mealworms. You may also have to repeat this trick to get her to eat another time.

I had one female who went off of food for months. For a long time I had to keep doing the multivitamin trick a couple times a week just to get her to eat, but she finally started eating completely on her own.

To get some nutrition into her, you can give her Ensure. It's one of those energy drinks they sell at Wal-mart or Target near the pharmacy area. There are different types available, but they have one (Ensure Plus) specifically for putting on weight.
Marcia at goldengategeckos.com has a good recipe for a bug slurry, so I recommend e-mailing her for it.
When administering fluids like this, try not to give over 2% of her body weight in a 24 hour period.
-----
chickabowwow

Hey definately follow xeldas advice cuz she knows what she's talking about.

but also i heard that dairy is bad for leos in the sense they're not use to it and will find it difficult or in our case messy to digest.
I've talked to a vet up here in yonder BC Canada and what they do here is they send all fecal samples to a single lab to do test, regardless of species.
Really the vet is your best option for professional immediate advice, good luck

Ensure products are lactose-free, so I don't think it would cause any problems. It's been used and recommended by many people who rehab reptiles.
-----
chickabowwow

I have seen on other boards that some people also use turkey baby food, the same way dab it on the nose for them to lick off.
-----
Cheryl

Please check your email, because I sent you the recipe for the special dropper food. I understand that it's pretty much impossible to get a fecal sample without the gecko eating, and I agree that your gecko really needs to have a stool sample tested for parasites, and/or even sent out to a lab to make sure there isn't a bacterial infection.

Best of luck...
-----
Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com