Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So my newest Uroplatus Sikorae was doing great for the last few months, however I discovered him exhibiting odd behavior last week.

I noticed that he was taking a habit to hiding behind cage furniture, and not eating as frequently.

So I finally pulled him out, to find that he was mid-shed, and had not bothered to eat the shed off himself like he normally does. I took it upon myself to remove the shed very carefully (he actually seemed to be helping me do it, as I was gently pulling on it, he would pull the other direction). Besides the shed, the first thing I noticed is that his movements are very slow, and definitely not typical.

I have since kept him in a small container (half gallon) with a damp paper towel and water dish so that I can monitor his health. I've been forcing him to eat baby food (peach), by putting some on his mouth and having him lick it off.

He's had a few bowel movements, but they do not appear to be normal looking. They are sort of light grey, and liquidy, with not much of a detectable urate (could be due to lack of crickets he normally has been eating).

He seems to have beem improving marginally in the last few days ... Slightly more active. He actually lept onto my shirt and crawled up onto my shoulder yesterday.

Well today I thought maybe he should try to eat a cricket. So I put one in with him. He didn't seem to pay much attention to the cricket, until it went straight for his mouth. I think it was purely out of the annoyance of the cricket being there, but he chomped down and ate it, much like he would normally do.

All appeared fine, until I noticed him making this "yawning" like motion every now and then. All of the sudden, I observed his mouth hinge open, and he shook back and forth very violently for 2-3 seconds, and made an audible "squeek" noise, as the limbless, slime-covered, and still-twitching cricket was ejected from his mouth.

I'm kind of disturbed, and sad about all this, and I am not sure what kind of a game plan I should have for him at this point.

Any advice?

I should mention that besides the strange behavior, there appears to be nothing physically wrong with him. He does not appear to be dehydrated (tail is not curled on edges), there are no mites, or visible parasites, and he has a fat belly like always.

-a
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i have a female thats basically going through the same thing now. ive had her for almost a year. she was in bad shape when i aquired her but she pulled around and was doing great up until a month or two ago. i seperated her from the others. she hadnt eaten a cricket in like two or three months. she was really healthy but she started to lose weight slowly. shes still pretty well hydrated but i did notice lateral kinking in her tail due to malnutrition(calcium mainly). i ve been giving her a mixture of fruit babyfood with calcium and vitamins about twice a week. im hoping that this will act as an appetite stimulant as well as give her the nutrition to keep her kicking. do not force feed your uro anythin solid. i have a sameiti that was pretty sick when i first aquired her and she would eat several crickets but then puke them all up just like how you said. what i did was make sure that she was only eatin like one cricket a night so that it wasnt so much stress on her stomach. vomiting causes more stress than anything else. and if your gecko wont voluntarily lap up a liquidy babyfood type concoction then you still shouldnt force feed it . it is probably some kind of parasite but treating the parasite is not important NOW. keeping it hydrated and something in his stomach is the most important thing now. this happens a lot with wild caught uros. i think that they can manage very well it a high parasite load but if something stresses them out and hinders their metabolism they regress and deteriorate rapidly. only treat your animal with meds after it is healthy. good luck be patient.

if the parasite load is high and the animal's health is declining... it cannot handle the parasite load. It should be treated. Try to get a fecal sample and have it run by a vet.

jason

I agree with the other posts. In addition, make sure you're monitoring weight very closely. Also make sure you're monitoring the humidity with a hygrometer (just as important as a thermometer). Vomiting is bad. If it happens again, this critter needs to see a vet.

I got huge critisism the last time I suggested this, but I think it was all in my delivery. Your species has a specific temp range that it needs, correct? Increase the temps to the higher end of this range. (say, if your prefered range is 73-78, then have 75-80). This is a temperature finicky species, but helping it create a fever is as beneficial as it is with other species; just don't cook it!

All in all, a vet visit and a husbandry recheck are #1 and #2 on the priority list.

Ian