Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi guys. So I got back from a business trip a few days ago and found my male adult henkeli near death (I left my family to watch after him and instructed to them how). It appears he has quickly become extremely dehydrated (tail is VERY curled), weak, and even has some of those "near death colors". I quickly took action to begin rehydrating him and even gave him some pedialyte yesterday and he seems a bit better, but I know it'll be a long road. Problem is this: as important as water is, I am beginning to worry about his nutrition. I really want him to eat, but he seems to weak and not alert enough to catch his own. I also do not want to force feed him and stress him to death. Any way to find a middle ground and get some food in his belly, yet keep stress to a minimum? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!!!!

Jon

well, i cant really think of any "middle ground" between forcefeeding and not, maybe just be careful of what you choose to forcefeed him with. henkeli are rather large, so i cant imagine he would have any trouble with a cricket once it was in his mouth, but i would guess that mealworms or something of that nature would be the easiest to get down...yet ive heard they take more to digest. it really sounds like a tough call. anyway, as a piece of advice i never really trust anyone to care for my leaftails for a long period of time. the longest i have gone was a week, and every day i called to make sure things were going ok. the biggest thing is that these guys cant be neglected, as so many of my friends have found out when i have to turn them down for vacation all the time.

hopefully your guy pulls through.

Seperate him from other geckos, "assist" feed him a mixture of chicken babyfood/pedialyte/herptivite/calcium... Get him to gape, squirt it in... takes 5 seconds... Although its not always this simple... Collect a fecal asap... Get it checked... I have had females crash like this, but i suspect its from the stress of overbreeding and the rise of coccidia levels... In such cases I have ran fecals and only extremely high coccidia numbers turn up... I treat accordingly... It may also be a bacterial infection, in which case you have a seperate issue...
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Ben

with my female henkel i'll mix just enough babyfood(fruit medley) with water and calcium/vitamins so that its a thin enough mixture to be consumed like water(through an eye dropper) but at the same time,packed with nutrients because a geckos only going to drink so much. they can go a pretty good while with out food but water is so much more important. i also do this with her during breeding season so that she gets extra calcium. just be patient, henkels turn around and recover better than any other gecko in a short period of time due to their high metabolism

Pedialyte is better than water as it contains more electrolytes than any form of water... And I personally do not use fruit flavored medium for assist feeding... it contains too much sugar... In addition, I would not reccomend thinning it down to the viscosity of water as it tends to be a much more messy project than you want... Thick enough to barely drip works best and you can either A) dropper feed it onto the snout (takes more time than its worth) or B) get the gecko to gape, squirt a few mLs in at a time... This is the approach I use... its faster, cleaner and healthier... I also assist feed breeding females and trust me, when you have 6 pairs, you're not going to want to spend a half hour dropper feeding each gecko...
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Ben

well if it wasnt worth the time i wouldnt be doin it to begin with. my female henkel eats babyfood(fruit medley) at her own will. Ofcourse individual geckos would have to aquire a specific taste over a period of time. the droppers i use are real precise, theyre glass droppers a professor gave me a couple years back. a thinner fluid works better for me, i guess it all depends on what instrument youre using. But in my opinion, i think that letting a leaftail lick the supplement as they would a drop of water is more natural and most importantly a whole lot less stressful compard to shot gunning.