Long-Term Hand Feeding

[newreptile]

Happy New Year Everyone!

I had rescued a neglected beardie from someone mid 2019- with normal care he's been doing great and has perked back up quite a lot. He's in a 120 gallon with a basking spot around 80ish and has a Reptisun 10.0 (just bought a new hood and tube today to try out the T5 versus the old T8, I'm looking forward to seeing how it reacts with him!). He's been checked by my regular exotics vet and is doing great, other than the fact that I can't seem to get him off the syringe feeding. Do you all have any experience with getting syringe-feeders to warm back up to regular self-feeding? He enjoys the Critical Care and also gets liquid calcium per his "prescription"- I guess can they indefinitely be syringe-feeders? My vet was telling me one of her techs has a more special-needs dragon that will always be a syringe-feeder- I don't mind doing that for him, I just feel like with his drastic improvements he shouldn't need to be hand-fed still. After having to work with the syringe for some time he does get quite fussy with it, obviously because he's feeling so much better he's very spunky, but I just want to get him back to being able to eat fresh veggies and foods on his own. I've tried not doing the syringe for several days to make him hungrier and then placing his veggies in, but still nothing! Let me know your experiences with dependent dragons like this.

 

[Claudiusx]

Hi there,

Great job on rescuing him.

Was 80 at the basking surface a typo, or is his basking surface actually 80?

This almost always happens after extended periods of syringe feeding. They either get lazy, or actually end up enjoying the synrgine feeding and don't want to eat on their own again.

Once the dragon is back to being healthy, and has some decent weight put back on, you can start weening him off the syringe by simply letting him miss a few feedings. As long as he is healthy, he won't let himself starve to death, and will eventually start eating on his own again.

One trick I did with one of my girls, was I would dip a superworm into some of the CC (that I made thicker so it would stick) and rubbed it along her face until she realized it was a familiar taste. Then once I got her to recognize that, I could get her to eat a worm or two at a time as long as they were covered in the CC. Eventually I used less and less CC until she was back to eating on her own.
In my case, it was the taste of the slurry I was giving her that she liked. So putting some of it on her salads and worms helped a lot.

-Brandon

 

[newreptile]

Hi Brandon!

That was just a generalized- his actual basking spot (branch I should say) usually sits between 93-95 degrees! I use PAR38 halogen bulbs for him so I have to keep it quite high from the tank in order to keep his branch from not getting more than 100* on the surface, I don't want to burn his tum. I find too any hotter he seems to go under to avoid more, he'll go lounge in a cave rather than perch on his branch! I've tried also mixing the CC and just placing it down in his food dish to eat as a thicker slosh so it's a familiar taste and smell- he'll twist his head down so I know he's AWARE and then just continues to sit lazy on his perch. He'll sometimes take worms from tongs if I place by his face but won't slide himself down to the dish if I put them there instead. I've tried going two weeks without the syringe and he'll still just lazy-lay and not move. Maybe even placing some dragon-safe live plants to encourage nibbling would help? He runs and slides over everything like a wild animal at some points but acts like his legs are broken when it comes to coming down for food :roll:

 

[Claudiusx]

Ok good just checking

It's good that you know your dragon. We always give generalized suggestions but knowing your dragon is the best you can do. That same girl I was telling you about above, would absolutely not bask if her basking spot was over 98. I had to keep it right at 96 otherwise she'd refuse. And I have 2 adults right now that actually like it at 105. So you're doing just fine

What is his weight right now? Did he lose much weight in the 2 weeks without food? I've had to do that also before. However, I only suggest it if they truly are back to being healthy. It's not uncommon for them to go 3 weeks or so before something clicks. As long as you have food available to them, they won't let themselves die of starvation. Even if they are only nibbling at their salad when you aren't around to make you feel bad for them LOL.

-Brandon