Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Do I need to worry that my adult male plated lizard hasn't been eating for a few weeks if he is still in good body condition? If so... what are some tricks to get him back eating (he's never had a problem before) and do I need to consider force-feeding, because I am concerned that that will be really difficult (he is big and has enormous jaw pressure) and I have no idea how to go about it.

Background info: his diet consists of calcium/vitd/multi-vitamin dusted canned insects (including canned crickets, mealworms, dragon-fly nymphs, snails, grasshoppers, etc). He lives in a 55 gallon terrarium with a bedding mixture of bedabeast mixed with aspen shavings. He has a uva/uvb light (how often do i need to replace the bulb for the uva/uvb to stay strong?), a cyramic-light heater and a plant grow bulb. He also has a large waterbowl that i use repti-safe water conditioner and electrolyte additive with. He has a hide-box and a basking log.

Does anybody have any clue why he isn't eating?
What can I do about it?
When should I worry about it?
Am I doing something wrong or missing something?

any help would be appreciated.

It probably is a good idea to give him a little bit of food just in case. Fruity baby food works very well for force-feeding, and is sometimes cheaper to buy than to make (well-mashed fruits work well, too.) When I had to force-feed my plated lizard, I found that using a spoon with baby food on the tip worked quite well.

All it usually takes is just getting even a tiny bit of food
past his lips, and the lizard should start licking up a bit in response. You can also put a little on the tip of his snout to help encourage him.

Unless a vet recommends otherwise, you shouldn't make him eat much at all, especially since that will likely need a syringe and poses a much higher risk of being bitten by an annoyed lizard.

There's also the slight chance that, like my own plated, he just doesn't like to have an audience at meal times. I rarely see mine eat, yet he leaves plenty of evidence of his hearty appetite.

Good luck with the little guy! Hopefully he'll start eating on his own again soon.

Lizzy Butt is picky, and it turns out that the reason he wasn't eating was because of the bowl I had his food in. Once I switched to a small plate, everything was fine again.
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~Sara~
5.5 ball pythons
1.0 Black-lined plated lizard (Lizzy Butt)
0.1 Burmese Python (Pixil)
2.1 Pet Rats
1.1 Dogs (Ozzie and Mandy)
0.1 Cat (Isis)
0.0.1 Synodontis Catfish (Big Spotty Fish)
0.2 Convict Cichlids