Please eat buddy...

[Tehachopi]

So I'm sure we are going to be seeing a lot of these threads here soon but I didn't see any lately about this. Dova is coming out of his first brumation after being asleep since December. He gets up, basks and walks around his enclosed (still being lazy but more active than before) yet still refusing food. Crickets? Nope. Do you want dubias? Nope. Greens? Nope. Picky little boy refuses it all....except syringe fed water... He prefers mom to feed it to him over me but he will accept water from a syringe. If she isn't around he drinks in his own but stops and pretends he doesn't know how if she comes in. We keep a bowl of dubia in the tank but they tend to die or escape after a week in his bowl. Any ideas to get this rotten little dragon to eat? We are misting at least each day and a bath a week to hydrate him.

What I have noticed is one day we had really nice weather and opened up the windows. He finally got some lovely window time with fresh air and has been more active after that....but it is just a bit too chilly for a dragon again.

 

[kingofnobbys]

The weather does influence their mood - lots (even if living in an airconditioned home , they can sense pressure changes I think, and get clues from then brightness of the light coming in the windows.

Hand feed him. IS EASY all you need are a set of fingers.

If you are feeding crickets , pull a big hopper leg off, and squash the head and give the cricket a bit of squeeze to get some yumminess out, then hold the skinny end hopper leg and push the fat end between the lips (near the snout), dragon will eat the leg will get the idea there is food , the firmly press the head end of the cricket against the lips (at about the same place) if some yumminess comes out and stays on the nose , chi, lips, he'll lick it off, more than likely if he's hungry he'll eat the cricket.
Do this for a few feeds and he'll soon get the hang of being handfed by fingers.
Be prepared to be accidentially nipped on the finger tips if you don't move the finger tips away in time though - a risk worth taking IMO.

I know of a very experienced local breeder here who advocates using a stiff plastic (coated) card with hole cut to pass the food which is folded in half, he slips the folded end of the car between the lips of poor eaters, opens the mouth by opening the folded card, and in goes the food items through the hole, out comes the card and the lizard chews and swallows the food.

Other option is to puree the food insects and use a feeding syringe and large bore crop needle.I'd be using a feeding syringe like http://vetafarm.com.au/product/reusable ... g-syringe/ and maybe a 10G crop needle http://vetafarm.com.au/product/medicati ... op-needle/ to get the food into the dragon.

In a pinch , a disposable 10ml syringe and a 14G drawing up needle (NOT SHARP !) will work, you might need to enlarge the syringe hole to about 3mm with a drill to make it easier to get food through it though.



I've done this for an injured wild juvenile water skink (who was tiny , 10g), in Lucky's case I used a small 5ml syringe and a catheter tube (the plastic tube from inside a catheter needle) as he was too small for even an 18G crop needle and he had an injured lower jaw as well as loosing an eye , was attacked by next door's cat (he got mealworm lavae and pupae meat and cricket meat)..

Inadequate UVA will result in depressed apetite in a beardie, as will being too cold.
Check temperatures (day and night) if too cold , his metabolism will be very slow.
Check the UV light ( how old is it ? ) Needs a light that produces very high levels of UVA (about 30%) and UVB (at least 10%).

You might need an apetite boosting suppliment like HerpaBoost to get him eating.

 

[Tehachopi]

The weather does influence their mood - lots (even if living in an airconditioned home , they can sense pressure changes I think, and get clues from then brightness of the light coming in the windows.

Hand feed him. IS EASY all you need are a set of fingers.

If you are feeding crickets , pull a big hopper leg off, and squash the head and give the cricket a bit of squeeze to get some yumminess out, then hold the skinny end hopper leg and push the fat end between the lips (near the snout), dragon will eat the leg will get the idea there is food , the firmly press the head end of the cricket against the lips (at about the same place) if some yumminess comes out and stays on the nose , chi, lips, he'll lick it off, more than likely if he's hungry he'll eat the cricket.
Do this for a few feeds and he'll soon get the hang of being handfed by fingers.
Be prepared to be accidentially nipped on the finger tips if you don't move the finger tips away in time though - a risk worth taking IMO.

I know of a very experienced local breeder here who advocates using a stiff plastic (coated) card with hole cut to pass the food which is folded in half, he slips the folded end of the car between the lips of poor eaters, opens the mouth by opening the folded card, and in goes the food items through the hole, out comes the card and the lizard chews and swallows the food.

Other option is to puree the food insects and use a feeding syringe and large bore crop needle.I'd be using a feeding syringe like http://vetafarm.com.au/product/reusable ... g-syringe/ and maybe a 10G crop needle http://vetafarm.com.au/product/medicati ... op-needle/ to get the food into the dragon.

In a pinch , a disposable 10ml syringe and a 14G drawing up needle (NOT SHARP !) will work, you might need to enlarge the syringe hole to about 3mm with a drill to make it easier to get food through it though.



I've done this for an injured wild juvenile water skink (who was tiny , 10g), in Lucky's case I used a small 5ml syringe and a catheter tube (the plastic tube from inside a catheter needle) as he was too small for even an 18G crop needle and he had an injured lower jaw as well as loosing an eye , was attacked by next door's cat (he got mealworm lavae and pupae meat and cricket meat)..

Inadequate UVA will result in depressed apetite in a beardie, as will being too cold.
Check temperatures (day and night) if too cold , his metabolism will be very slow.
Check the UV light ( how old is it ? ) Needs a light that produces very high levels of UVA (about 30%) and UVB (at least 10%).

You might need an apetite boosting suppliment like HerpaBoost to get him eating.

I tried what you said with the cricket but with a dubia. I got some gooey out and in his mouth before he threw a fit and flicked it back in my face. He was having none of that it seems. His uv light I got back in november. Even though it isn't 6 months old yet I'll get another bulb as soon as I can. I forgot to check the price on it today at work but if I have enough I'll replace it tomorrow. If not payday is Friday. I'll definitely look into Herpavite.

Edit: OK so looking at the Herpavite I can't find it around here too well and most sites I can find are from Australia. What I have been able to find are Flukers Repta+Boost Insectavore & Carnivore High Amp Boost and Zilla Reptile Health Supplies Jump-Start Appetite Stimulant. Would either of those work?

 

[kingofnobbys]

The weather does influence their mood - lots (even if living in an airconditioned home , they can sense pressure changes I think, and get clues from then brightness of the light coming in the windows.

Hand feed him. IS EASY all you need are a set of fingers.

If you are feeding crickets , pull a big hopper leg off, and squash the head and give the cricket a bit of squeeze to get some yumminess out, then hold the skinny end hopper leg and push the fat end between the lips (near the snout), dragon will eat the leg will get the idea there is food , the firmly press the head end of the cricket against the lips (at about the same place) if some yumminess comes out and stays on the nose , chi, lips, he'll lick it off, more than likely if he's hungry he'll eat the cricket.
Do this for a few feeds and he'll soon get the hang of being handfed by fingers.
Be prepared to be accidentially nipped on the finger tips if you don't move the finger tips away in time though - a risk worth taking IMO.

I know of a very experienced local breeder here who advocates using a stiff plastic (coated) card with hole cut to pass the food which is folded in half, he slips the folded end of the car between the lips of poor eaters, opens the mouth by opening the folded card, and in goes the food items through the hole, out comes the card and the lizard chews and swallows the food.

Other option is to puree the food insects and use a feeding syringe and large bore crop needle.I'd be using a feeding syringe like http://vetafarm.com.au/product/reusable ... g-syringe/ and maybe a 10G crop needle http://vetafarm.com.au/product/medicati ... op-needle/ to get the food into the dragon.

In a pinch , a disposable 10ml syringe and a 14G drawing up needle (NOT SHARP !) will work, you might need to enlarge the syringe hole to about 3mm with a drill to make it easier to get food through it though.



I've done this for an injured wild juvenile water skink (who was tiny , 10g), in Lucky's case I used a small 5ml syringe and a catheter tube (the plastic tube from inside a catheter needle) as he was too small for even an 18G crop needle and he had an injured lower jaw as well as loosing an eye , was attacked by next door's cat (he got mealworm lavae and pupae meat and cricket meat)..

Inadequate UVA will result in depressed apetite in a beardie, as will being too cold.
Check temperatures (day and night) if too cold , his metabolism will be very slow.
Check the UV light ( how old is it ? ) Needs a light that produces very high levels of UVA (about 30%) and UVB (at least 10%).

You might need an apetite boosting suppliment like HerpaBoost to get him eating.

I tried what you said with the cricket but with a dubia. I got some gooey out and in his mouth before he threw a fit and flicked it back in my face. He was having none of that it seems. His uv light I got back in november. Even though it isn't 6 months old yet I'll get another bulb as soon as I can. I forgot to check the price on it today at work but if I have enough I'll replace it tomorrow. If not payday is Friday. I'll definitely look into Herpavite.

Edit: OK so looking at the Herpavite I can't find it around here too well and most sites I can find are from Australia. What I have been able to find are Flukers Repta+Boost Insectavore & Carnivore High Amp Boost and Zilla Reptile Health Supplies Jump-Start Appetite Stimulant. Would either of those work?

Takes a bit of perseverance if they are not accustomed to it , or you are not very experienced in handfeeding lizards.
I'm not familiar with those.

 

[AustinnKaine]

I don't know why those appetite stimulators you listed wouldn't work.

 

[Tehachopi]

So we have had some progress. I started him on the zilla appetite stimulant and got a range of food. We had dubias on hand, bought crickets ( his favorites from my work) and superworms. It took a bit but today we managed to eat about 6 superworms! Far from the amount he used to eat but it is progress. We also got him a fresh UV bulb and changed it last Friday so things are looking up.

 

[AustinnKaine]

Glad to hear that