I posted this earlier in another forum, but came up short and we are desperate for any information at all that can help.. Things are getting a lot more urgent (the longer this goes on, the tougher it's going to be), and I'm hoping that I can find some people who have experience with this to chime in:
One of our juvenile (about 3 months old) bearded dragon got very sick with a respiratory infection and stopped eating. She lost so much weight that the vet was all but assuming that she would not make it. On the advice of the vet, we started syringe feeding her. After a round of antibiotics, she seems to be much more healthy.
Before all of this, she was a really good eater. But now after 4 weeks of syringe feeding, it's like she has forgotten how to hunt/eat without the syringe. She seems completely uninterested in food, even if we do not feed her for a few days. She does exhibit hunger, and sometimes opens and closes her mouth just a little bit, but will not eat unless force fed.
Her tank is set up well, 105 in the basking spot, a good T5 UV light, she still drinks water in the bath. In fact, she seems strangely thirsty much of the time, but I can't imagine she is dehydrated because of the water she gets from the food we give her.
We have tried a variety of her favorite foods, and we even try to sneak small crickets or soldier fly larvae in her mouth when the syringe is in there just to get her to remember what eating live food is like, but to no avail. The most she ever does is lick food that we put in front of her, but never tries to bite it. When she is really hungry, she will even open and close her mouth a tiny bit , expecting food to just show up.
We di get a fecal test a couple of weeks ago, and it turned up a small amount of coccidia, and we treated her for that, hoping that would solve her eating issue, but it did not.
We have tried going for a few days without food, just to see if the hunger will make her eat, but nothing. We have tried a ton of different foods.
Right now her staple via the syringe is dried juvenile food made from soldier fly larvae, mixed with repti-boost, water and calcium powder.
Is there a good procedure/strategy to gradually get a beardie eating on its own again? I feel like the longer this goes on, the harder it's going to be to the point where this might be a lifelong thing soon.
One of our juvenile (about 3 months old) bearded dragon got very sick with a respiratory infection and stopped eating. She lost so much weight that the vet was all but assuming that she would not make it. On the advice of the vet, we started syringe feeding her. After a round of antibiotics, she seems to be much more healthy.
Before all of this, she was a really good eater. But now after 4 weeks of syringe feeding, it's like she has forgotten how to hunt/eat without the syringe. She seems completely uninterested in food, even if we do not feed her for a few days. She does exhibit hunger, and sometimes opens and closes her mouth just a little bit, but will not eat unless force fed.
Her tank is set up well, 105 in the basking spot, a good T5 UV light, she still drinks water in the bath. In fact, she seems strangely thirsty much of the time, but I can't imagine she is dehydrated because of the water she gets from the food we give her.
We have tried a variety of her favorite foods, and we even try to sneak small crickets or soldier fly larvae in her mouth when the syringe is in there just to get her to remember what eating live food is like, but to no avail. The most she ever does is lick food that we put in front of her, but never tries to bite it. When she is really hungry, she will even open and close her mouth a tiny bit , expecting food to just show up.
We di get a fecal test a couple of weeks ago, and it turned up a small amount of coccidia, and we treated her for that, hoping that would solve her eating issue, but it did not.
We have tried going for a few days without food, just to see if the hunger will make her eat, but nothing. We have tried a ton of different foods.
Right now her staple via the syringe is dried juvenile food made from soldier fly larvae, mixed with repti-boost, water and calcium powder.
Is there a good procedure/strategy to gradually get a beardie eating on its own again? I feel like the longer this goes on, the harder it's going to be to the point where this might be a lifelong thing soon.