Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,
I have a few concerns about my oldest crestie. She is about 4 1/2 years old, and is usually around 60g. In the past few months, she has been losing weight, and stopped eating on a regular basis. She does not normally eat crickets, so a fruit mixture is her regular diet (my other 4 cresties eat the same diet and are not having any issues). She is now weighing in at 35g. I have been to the vet and we have ruled out parisites and infections (bacterial). She has had x-rays taken a few months back, and everything was fine there as well.
Any ideas why she may have stopped eating? I change the type of food each day hoping that one will smell better to her than others. I also suplement with Miner-Al (with D3), Repti-Cal, Carnivore Care, Insectivore, and Crested Gecko Diet (and each she refuses to eat) I have force-fed her every once in-a-while but it stresses her out. She had a bad shed yesterday, that I needed to assist with.
She has a UVB light set up on her cage for 8 hours a day(currently in a 12x12x18 inch - normally in a 18x18x24 inch tank with 1-2 other females)
Also, she has been burying herself with alarming frequency. I unburied her 3 times today, and she did the same yesterday. She also has substrate in her mouth when I unbury her, which I am worried may cause impaction.

Any ideas/suggestions on the eating problem or weight loss?
Also, any ideas on why they bury themselves?

PS. she has never been bred.

Thank you all in advance

Hi,
Sounds like you have ruled out alot of things. I would turn off the UVB or reduce it to just two hours per day. The digging I feel is to get away from it. Do you have recent stools that looked normal? Put paper down until you can rule out impaction.
You may have a few problems going on, it makes it hard to solve. When I get home I'll message again.
Amanda

Hi any change? how is the cresty?

Thank you everyone for all of your help. I just want to clear one thing up. For all of her life, the only supplement that she was given was Miner-Al and she had a dish of calcium left in her cage if she needed more. Also, when she was younger, I dusted crickets with calcium. The only reason I started using the other supplements, was with the assistance of the vet to ensure that she was getting extra minerals and vitamins - and trying to stimulate her appitite.

Yesterday I went to the vet for x-ray recheck - and it turns out that she has eggs again. And looking back on the past x-rays, what was written off as fat pads, were indeed eggs. The vet believes we have found the cause for the weight loss - she has been having eggs back-to-back since Feburary. It was not noticed as early, becasue she was with another female, and I was not sure who was having the eggs. With the vet we have decided to cool her down and reduce the light in hopes that this will stop her from wanting to produce more eggs.

Thank you all for your help. It has been greatly appreciated.

Good to hear!!
I'm glad.....i didnt mean to overload you with info. I think that i just misread your post about supplements.

I was just throwing out ideas. Glad you hear your lady will be ok! j
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"Brains for dinner, brains for lunch. Brains for breakfast, brains for brunch. Brains for every single meal; why can't we have some GUTS?"-Misfits

1.0 ball python- Azazel
0.0.1 Yellow phase ATB- Devilin Hisseyes
0.4 leos- Boji, Sanjae, Fae, Azra
1.1.5 crested geckos- Jubeh and Inari, Avalon, Vajra, Pheonix, and 2 hatchlings
1.1.1 gargoyle geckos- Acacia,Osiris, and Enoki
0.0.1 flying gecko- Malarchy
1.0 leucistic texas ratsnake-Ojo
0.1 albino kenyan sand boa- Akasha
1.0 xanthic kenyan sand boa- Ashoka
1.1 whites tree frogs- Sifaka and Eikon
0.1 Transpecos ratsnake- Cleo
0.1.2 Senegal chameleons- Ambaji, The Chosen One, and Vertigo
1.0 Ruthven's X Thaeri king- Kemushi
0.2 pacific parrolets- Mishka and Kya
1.1 cats- Cairo and Oberon
1.0 crown tail betta- Lazarus
1.0 Husband (hes my favorite, but i dont let the 'kids' know that. )

It sounds like you have oversupplemented her. Adult cresteds need MAYBE a calcium supplement once a week, especially if she isnt breeding.

With all those vitamins, her system is overloaded. I just heard from a friend who breeds them that they were doing the same thing you were...giving fruit mixture, crested diet, crickets, minera all, calcium with d3, repashi, ect ect... and they had 4 or 5 die from burning their insides out with vitamin A and D poisioning. She is probably in some seious pain and thus not eating.
Also, with all the calcuim, her liver is probably failing. This is what i would do to save her:

1) pick up some pedialyte. The clear stuff. And a tiny syringe (the needleless kind obviously). There are some calories in that, plus it will help to flush her system a bit. CAREFULLY open her mouth with a plastic spoon or a peice of cardboard..be care ful not to cut her or harm her jaw. (this is tricky..., but doable) when she opens her mouth wider, insert the syringe and SLOWLY give her about half.....be careful not to asperate her. Let her swallow, and breathe, and then give her a bit more. do this 2x a day.

2) in a few days of hydrating her, i would pic up something called Hill's A/D diet from your vet. It comes in a can, and you can portion it out and freeze what you dont need...
This is something for most all carnivores. I have rehabbed many an animal with this. take a small ammount and mix it with water to make a bit of a soup. Do the same with this as you did with the pedialyte, only once every other day. Make sure to go really slow when you feed her. And space it out so her system doesnt get overloaded.

This will help get some callories into her so maybe she will come back to where she was.....DO NOT ADD ANY SUPPLEMENTS TO THIS WHILE YOU TREAT HER!!!

and, when she begins to eat on her own, supplement her with calcium with D3 once a week from then on. I would try to get her onto Repashi once whe is back to normal...leave it in her tank for 2 days at a time....mix it only with water, no baby food. That is a complete diet.....if she doesnt respond to it, drop a bit on her nose and she will lick it off.
-----
"Brains for dinner, brains for lunch. Brains for breakfast, brains for brunch. Brains for every single meal; why can't we have some GUTS?"-Misfits

1.0 ball python- Azazel
0.0.1 Yellow phase ATB- Devilin Hisseyes
0.4 leos- Boji, Sanjae, Fae, Azra
1.1.5 crested geckos- Jubeh and Inari, Avalon, Vajra, Pheonix, and 2 hatchlings
1.1.1 gargoyle geckos- Acacia,Osiris, and Enoki
0.0.1 flying gecko- Malarchy
1.0 leucistic texas ratsnake-Ojo
0.1 albino kenyan sand boa- Akasha
1.0 xanthic kenyan sand boa- Ashoka
1.1 whites tree frogs- Sifaka and Eikon
0.1 Transpecos ratsnake- Cleo
0.1.2 Senegal chameleons- Ambaji, The Chosen One, and Vertigo
1.0 Ruthven's X Thaeri king- Kemushi
0.2 pacific parrolets- Mishka and Kya
1.1 cats- Cairo and Oberon
1.0 crown tail betta- Lazarus
1.0 Husband (hes my favorite, but i dont let the 'kids' know that. )

also: crested will bury themselves when it is too hot (*80 and above)
-----
"Brains for dinner, brains for lunch. Brains for breakfast, brains for brunch. Brains for every single meal; why can't we have some GUTS?"-Misfits

1.0 ball python- Azazel
0.0.1 Yellow phase ATB- Devilin Hisseyes
0.4 leos- Boji, Sanjae, Fae, Azra
1.1.5 crested geckos- Jubeh and Inari, Avalon, Vajra, Pheonix, and 2 hatchlings
1.1.1 gargoyle geckos- Acacia,Osiris, and Enoki
0.0.1 flying gecko- Malarchy
1.0 leucistic texas ratsnake-Ojo
0.1 albino kenyan sand boa- Akasha
1.0 xanthic kenyan sand boa- Ashoka
1.1 whites tree frogs- Sifaka and Eikon
0.1 Transpecos ratsnake- Cleo
0.1.2 Senegal chameleons- Ambaji, The Chosen One, and Vertigo
1.0 Ruthven's X Thaeri king- Kemushi
0.2 pacific parrolets- Mishka and Kya
1.1 cats- Cairo and Oberon
1.0 crown tail betta- Lazarus
1.0 Husband (hes my favorite, but i dont let the 'kids' know that. )