Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,
I had written before about my fat tail, Corwin. Thanks for all your help Now we got her started on the jump start. At first she was like no way! now she has become receptive to it, sometimes opening her mouth to get a few drops of it (we watered it down a little and put it in an eye dropper). We've been using it sparingly as we are not sure how much to give (dont want to stuff the poor thing) or how long we should be giving it to her for. We tried a wax worm last night with a little jump start on it, and she still refused to eat it. She did shed and eat her skin, and this may seem silly but could she be full from that? She just finished shedding about 2 or 3 days ago. I dont believe that she is impacted as she still poops! I think that she is still well hydrated- spends a lot of time in her humidity hide- and is lazy during the day and comes out of hiding at night. She seems to have gotten a little spunkier now that she has gotten some calories in her. When I take her out she squirms a little more then crawls around on my arms and hands. Anyway, if anyone has any guidance on teh jump start please let me know! im considering taking her to the vet agian to see if htey can get her to eat some real food. thanks!

Count out and put crickets in the enclosure. Count again in the mornings to see if its eating them.

Do the Jump Start mixture every 2-3 days if its not eating. Add a little vitamins and a little calcium to the watered down mixture once in awhile also.

If its holding its weight and pooping, its doing fine and no need to "hand feed it".

Any time I use a Jump Start mixture I offer normal food also.

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Mark
Our Site

I thought that it wasnt good to leave the crickets in over night. I was told that after about 4 hours to take them out if theyre not eaten. I left them in over night once and I'm afraid that the crickets may have "antagonized" her because now she is afraid of them. If I put a cricket(s) in the tank she turns around and "runs" from them. ????

AFTs normally eat at night.
I DO put Crickets in and leave them over night. Put in two crickets to start with. Leave them in over night. Next morning try to find the crickets. If the AFT eats 2 crickets the next night put in 3. Find the number it eats each night and then feed it that many.
For all my AFTs that are adults and kept a lone, I do this. For my two tanks where I have colonies, I throw in a (small) handful each night.
Throw some dry cat food in for your crickets to eat in the cricket container. That way the crickets aren’t starving and they will leave the AFT alone.

I DONT pull crickets out of the AFT enclosures if they aren’t eaten that night, I leave them in. I have never had a problem with crickets eating on my AFTs or stressing them out. Keep the numbers small.
My young AFTs seem to eat during the day and during the night.
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Mark
Our Site

Petsmart told me not to leave the crix in overnight, but I do and have had no problems...I stay up late sometimes, and I notice that my AFT usually eats around 3 am. My snakes also tend to eat at night. My fat tail won't eat unless temps on the warm end are 88* or so all night...I think I already mentioned terrarium temps in one of my replies to your earlier post. My fattie tends to like temps on the hotter end of the normal range. If you don't have cat food, you can buy cricket food, it has vitamins, etc. that are also good for reptiles. Also make sure you put some "cricket quencher" or similar substance in the cricket container so they won't be thirsty and drown in your AFT's water bowl before it can eat them...I use Flukers calcium fortified cricket quencher (looks like yellow jello). Sometimes mine won't eat for about 2 days after he eats his shed, I think he's full from eating it.

EGADS! Mine must be pigs disguised as AFTs. I've got two adult males, who live together BTW, that will eat between 8 and 12 crickets a night. They do tend not to eat much for a day or two after eating their sheds.