gus is on a hunger strike...!

[beardboy]

so my boy gus is not eating lately..not a thing..for 3 wks...he wont eat his supers..tried hornworms, he bit it and then it wiggled so he spit it out..wont eat butters either...hes always eyeing his food down like he wants it, glass dances, and then when i do try feed him, he wants nothing to do with it...i dont get it...and all his needs are good- uv, temps, etc. so im stumped...anyone have any ideas??

 

[Theroachguy]

so my boy gus is not eating lately..not a thing..for 3 wks...he wont eat his supers..tried hornworms, he bit it and then it wiggled so he spit it out..wont eat butters either...hes always eyeing his food down like he wants it, glass dances, and then when i do try feed him, he wants nothing to do with it...i dont get it...and all his needs are good- uv, temps, etc. so im stumped...anyone have any ideas??

Yes in the photo you have there Gus looks to be a young adult, this is very simple he is in burmation which mean he is hibernating. If you notice he start to lose weight while not eating get a fecal done if it comes back clean he just sleeping fo the winter. Look up burmation or cool down on here you’ll find plenty of info.

 

[beardboy]

hopefully thats all it is...tho he is quite young for that i think?? he'll be a year in december...and hes still active like he always is, doesnt really sleep except when its lights out at night...and he hasnt really lost any weight...maybe a really really really mild brumation??

 

[SaNToX76]

Well I thought about reading this seeing as how mine is also on an unusual eating strike since it was relocated to my Apt. in RI ... Lyx used to eat 40+ decent sized crickets a day and now its down to maybe 4-8 PER DAY. Still Very active during the morning and afternoons but does sleep early , I thought about brumation but I believe shes way too young at only about 5 months. I glance at fecals but no signs of worms so far. Temps are good, using a new ReptiSun 10.0 ... Have her on tile so no impaction...Loves dubias but my colony isnt up to being her main food source yet so shes been rejecting her crickets...Which also means her calcium and vitamins... :-/ Im lost...

 

[Theroachguy]

hopefully thats all it is...tho he is quite young for that i think?? he'll be a year in december...and hes still active like he always is, doesnt really sleep except when its lights out at night...and he hasnt really lost any weight...maybe a really really really mild brumation??

Yeah I would say a mild one when I was breeding full time I would have a lot of mine go down in that 7-9 month range, it would be a mild one and it would last a week here and there. If your dragon is young but has grown at a fast rate it will go down from my experience.

 

[Theroachguy]

You can always spend that 20.00 and get a fecal done to make sure its not parasites, never hurts

 

[Theroachguy]

I glance at fecals but no signs of worms so far. Temps are good, using a new ReptiSun 10.0 ... Have her on tile so no impaction...Loves dubias but my colony isnt up to being her main food source yet so shes been rejecting her crickets...Which also means her calcium and vitamins... :-/ Im lost...

Don’t bother looking at fecals you can’t see with the naked eye unless you have a microscope. She might be refusing the crix because she is hooked on the dubia and that’s what she wants. Order some super worms add those into the diet she will eat those for sure. Start off with 3-4 then increase want hurt her at 5 months. And at 5 months she could still have a mild case of burmation

 

[Paradon]

Yes, it's always a good idea to take a newly acquired reptile to the vet to have the fecal done so we can determine what kind of parasites it has, if it has any, and then treat it accordingly.

 

[SaNToX76]

Jason did you mean to say that superworms shouldnt hurt her at 5 months? Shes still under 16" but yeah Id like to give her something other than crickets. Early on she got a check up and was given a broad spectrum medicine to make sure she didn't have worms but I am workin on finding a vet up here. I really think it may be the light bulb...My zoomed bulb broke in the move back to college and I had to get an exoterra, same wattage but I see more activity and appetite with the zoomed. The guy at the petstore said all the local stores where changing to exoterra because they were cheaper...nice...Thanks for the replies

 

[Theroachguy]

Jason did you mean to say that superworms shouldnt hurt her at 5 months? Shes still under 16" but yeah Id like to give her something other than crickets. Early on she got a check up and was given a broad spectrum medicine to make sure she didn't have worms but I am workin on finding a vet up here. I really think it may be the light bulb...My zoomed bulb broke in the move back to college and I had to get an exoterra, same wattage but I see more activity and appetite with the zoomed. The guy at the petstore said all the local stores where changing to exoterra because they were cheaper...nice...Thanks for the replies

just how big is the dragon if it colse to 16" it cant hurt him just make sure you dont give him to many of the huge ones.

 

[SaNToX76]

Still only about 12" and half of that is the tail so... I think im gonna have to find some wax worms till I can order more dubia and jumpstart my colony somemore...I think another hundred, maybe couple hundred would do the job. I tested out how it would react to crickets vs dubia today..Dropped about 5 crickets in and nothing...they just walk all around and eat its salad, hide, chirp ...Its like it doesnt even notice them anymore. I put a nymph dubia on the edge of a bridge I have in the tank and it ran, jumped up on a log, and snatched it up maybe 3 seconds after it touched the bridge. The second one I dropped in hid in a gap in the log and it tore it in half with a bite splashing white fluid on the sides of the tank and voraciously licked at the oozing green insides of the remaining dubia while it lived out the rest of its short and excruciating life in fear...Great to watch though!


I just feel bad that I can't give it as many as it wants per day.

 

[beardboy]

so back to the whole point of this thread..... safe to say that gus is brumating...hes been napping the last 2 days...what a life... sleepin all day... :roll:

 

[Pusha Man]

Roscoe has been doing this as well! He totally ignored a master-piece salad I made him the other day! :evil:

 

[beardboy]

so i may have figured out the problem...i have 2 boys, 2 seperate tanks, and 2 seperate uv bulbs...one is older than the other... i thought that steve had the older one...no, it was gus..the tube was about 7-8 months old...so that may have been the cause of him not eating... both steve and gus were under reptisun 10s, but now i have gus under a 100 watt self ballasted megaray..i just got it today so we shall see if that helps with his darn eating problem hes been having...

 

[clear]

My bd has went down into burmation this week, I would suggest a few nice warm baths to make sure he gets his last poop out!