Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My baby WT is still not eating much. I've seen it eat a cricket or two every now and then, but they were already dead. I've tried mealworms both dead/alive, small&large crickets both dead/alive, pinkies, and small pieces of meat.

My temps are:
basking=105-145(he has differnt lvls)
ambient=75-80
humidity=60-70

Cage size is:
Length=4ft
Widith=2ft
Height=3ft

He has plenty of hide spots and he already seems to have a fav. spot, he has branches to climb on, a water bowl in which he drinks and splashes around in, and he poops whenever he does eat and the fecal seems normal, dark brown/blackish color with white pee.

I'm running out of options to get him to eat, my monitors in the past have eaten from day 1 and chased down anything that moved. He just sniffs it and passes by. Now I've only had him almost 2 weeks now and he was born 10/20. The only thing I can think of whats wrong is maybe the cage is to big for him right now. I really don't see how parasites could be a problem with him being CBB. Maybe it's just the stress of a new home or being shipped is whats keeping him from eating normally like the little lack hole he should be.

I'm open to suggestions. If he doesn't start eating normally by the end of this week, i'm taking him to the vet.

Hey Alpha, I also have some CBB whitethroats. I have 3 of them. They are eating very well. I have them in a 40 gallon long and there on paper towels so I can observe there eating and pooping regularly. Your whitethroat may be shy when it comes to feeding. I would suggest you drop maybe 5-10 crix and leave him be. Check back later and if there gone, offer more and so on. My whitethroats will be upgrading to a 4x2x3 cage once I feel there ready. Well good luck to you. Also, if you are handling him, he may be getting stressed which also may be causing him not to eat. So I would also suggest leaving him alone until he is acclimated to his new enviroment.

Adrian

Did you get yours from the guy who had them posted in the Classifieds, Robert? Where I got mine. Anyways, I've just been doing normal maintence in the cage and I've placed couple dead mealworms and crics here and there and they're never gone.

Hopefully it's just shyness and he'll get more accustom to his surroundings. Right now, he's more interested in exploring and climbing up and down his branches.

You ARE offering live crickets right? They love chasing down crickets. And yes I did get them from Robert. Im going to start feeding them pinkies tuesday and dropping the insects. Raise them up solely on rodents. Ive got 150 pinkies and 150 hoppers coming to me tuesday. Well good luck to you. Mine are doing great. Post some pics of yours. I would love to see what yours look like.

Yeah, i threw in live, both dusted and undusted and he never flinched. Just went on about his business and ignored them. I was fully expecting an eating machine and I was happy that I had a baby again to watch destroy hordes of crickets, but alas, he/she has proved to be a dud so far.....

Well, first off...What are you using as your substrate? It looks to be wood or concrete. Thats no good. Get some dirt in there. I was going to show some pics of mine but Photobucket is down right now for some reason. I would keep your basking temps at or around 130-140. Good luck.

He's on dirt, thats just his basking area. Stone/concrete keeps a warm surface as does wood. The branches allow him to move higher up to the light if he choose to bask and such.

there are lots of variables that can affect this situation, but i would start cage size. it is much more difficult to do a large cage correctly, than it is to do a small cage.

i would suggest starting with a 20 gallon long, or something sized similarly. check out our Ionides caresheet on our site for more details. your basic details sound good, but again, there are lots of variables, including overnight lows, accuracy of measuring and knowing temps, hidespots, etc.

using a smaller cage during acclimation allows you to follow progress more closely, and once a baseline of health has been established, once the animal is comfortable and thriving, you can move to a larger cage. best of luck.
-----
robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles