Probably not an emergency, but...

[Vacren]

I didn't want to bump my other post.

My baby layed 15 last night, all doing ok so far (slight collapse of four, possibly infertile bc of mom's age?) but the issue I'm having now is that she's only regained 1g since she was pulled from the tank last night.

My question is, at what point should I consider force feeding? Any suggested baby food? She kinda looks pathetic, almost like a shell, I'm guessing that has to do with a loss of 1/3 of her body mass last night. I have garden veggies mix, planned to mix in some calcium and 'push the issue' tomorrow afternoon if she still hasn't eaten.

Any advice welcome.

~V

 

[spurlee01]

Here is more info for anyone interested. viewtopic.php?f=45&t=139007

As for baby food, You can mix together chicken and squash. 2 parts squash, 1 part chicken is the typical ration, I don't know if that should be higher because of the situation or not. I wouldn't force feed, but instead I would drip it onto her nose and let her lick it off at this point. Is she eating any bugs at all?

 

[Claudiusx]

Yeah, why consider force feeding? Is she not eating bugs on her own atm?

-Brandon

 

[Vacren]

Sorry for the late response. She is eating, two reptiworms since laying 15 eggs 10 months before it was safe. No kale, no mustard greens. Considering force-feeding because she looks empty, still active but looks similar to a VERY dehydrated dragon I saw a few months back. I raked around her water dish and she hasn't been near it in at least six hours. I just want to get ahead of any issues that could come of her situation.

Any thoughts on the eggs? They've been at 80-87 (jerryrigged setup for the next few days) and I have three that look collapsing with 2-3mm indention and one with a 1mm bulge.

@Brandon, I duplicated your setup and the fluctuation is me trying to get to 83. Thanks for the help last night.

 

[spurlee01]

Has she been bathed since then? I would go ahead and bathe her again. My girl will ONLY drink water out of the bath or occasionally an eye dropper. You could also mix it with some pedialyte. Force feeding can be dangerous in terms of them aspirating the food or damaging their jaws, so I would only use it as a last resort. Can you get ahold of silk or horn worms? I apologize if my post was short last night, my little girl got pretty sick with infertiles last year.

 

[Vacren]

She looks a little better after the bath. I put some mixed garden veggie purée on her nose and that worked too.

Thanks again everyone. Gonna stop freaking out and focus on the hopeful new babies.

~V

 

[Buggsy]

If shes still not eating iwould get her to the vet for an xray to make sure there are no eggs still stuck there, Usually they eat like anything once their finished, and the first batch is the most prone to become egg bound.

 

[spurlee01]

How is she today?

 

[Vacren]

162g, fat, happy. Xray came back negative for eggs or impaction. I have been feeding her canteloup with calcium, she doesn't really like not being able to stick it with her tongue but she's munching. Got her to eat more maggots and picked up some crickets for her this morning.

I've been reading the ER posts, gotta try and order up some reptisun light bars, I just realized that I bought glo because nobody carries sun around here, meant to order some. All five have been doing good with about 10" on reptiglo for about 4mo now. New bulbs are on order though.

I lost four (maybe five) eggs to mold/ infertility, changed the setup a little to reduce humidity, rinsed and replaced the substrate with a 50:50 mix. I still can't seem to get a steady 83, it's 85 air and 88 mix right now. Should I be concerned? Incubator isn't gonna show for a couple days, they said they were out of stock and shipped late.

 

[spurlee01]

I know nothing about egg incubation. Has anyone told you that www.petmountain.com has the best prices on reptisun 10.0? Just make sure it's the tube. I cannot remember if anyone said this in your other thread, so i apologize if it's redundant.