Won't really eat!

[Dopestar23]

I've had my little one for about a year now, he's probably over a year old already and recently he started refusing to eat very mush of anything.

It started a couple of months ago, when he started refusing to eat crickets anymore, then it was cockroaches and now he pretty much only eats 5 mealworms every couple of days and maybe a couple of small rocket leaves. I have changed his light from a reptisun 10.0 to a reptisun 5.0 because I couldn't find another 10.0 and now all he wants to do is hide.

Can someone tell me what might be worng and what I should do? I really hate it when he's not happy...

Thanks.

 

[Dopestar23]

Also... Is it possible that after eating so much he is in brumation? He does sleep a lot. And he has been looking rather plump for quite some time.

 

[Lennifer]

It is possible that the light change is part of the reason. U said u switched form a ReptiSun 10 to a ReptiSun 5? The ReptiSun 5 does not give off nearly as much UVB as the ReptiSun 10. If u are having issues finding thsi light in the stores, u can try ordering on line from Pet Mountain or LLLReptile. Is he still Pooing normally? I would recomend orderign the ReptiSun 10 again & see if that helps. I would also have a fecal exam done to rule out any possible parasites...as this could be another reason he isn't eatting as much. As far as Brumation goes...I thought bruamtion was pretty much over but I could def be wrong about that! lol! Is he losing any weight that u knwo of? Usually when they Brumate...as long as they have no parasites & are healthy, they shouldn't lose any weight.

~Sandy

 

[Dopestar23]

He has been eating this eratically way before I changed the UVB which was yesterday. That's why I'm worried.

And it might be brumation here in South AFrica. Don't really know when it starts or when it ends. He hasn't lost any weight yet. He's 600g and around 47cm long. If anything, I think he gained some wieght instead of dropping anything.

Thanks for your help though.

And I want to take him to a vet but I don't know of any good herp vets in town. I'll keep looking though!

 

[Lennifer]

I found the following listing for South African vetinarians...

Veterinarian:
Dr Philip Stapelberg
Radiokop Animal Clinic
1026 Opera Road, Radiokop
Radiokop, Select...
Phone: 011 475 8680

Veterinarian:
Bruce and Malcolm
Atterbury Bird and Animal hospital
Atterburry Road
Gauteng
Pretoria, Select... 001
Phone: 0123485712
Emerg: na

Penzance Veterinary Clinic
112 Main Road (corn Payne Street)
Hout Bay
Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Tel: ++27 21 790 4777

Sunray Veterinary Clinic
Sunray Road
Fish Hoek, Capetown, South Africa
Tel: +27 21 7822090

Hopefully one of these are close to u & I did read that most of them take reptiles

~Sandy

 

[Dopestar23]

Thanks for all of the listings, but I think that it is just him trying to brumate, and I keep waking him up. I just read a bunch of info on the signs of brumation and most, if not all of behaviour he's been showing match up to what I was reading. He's been avoiding the sun and trying to keep to dark corners, and closing his eyes and trying to sleep. It's also been getting a heck of a lot colder recently, and is starting to become winter.

The only problem is that I'm really new to this brumation thing, and I kinda feel useless just letting him sleep all day long. I don't know whether I should keep his night light on(because it gets friggen cold) and how cold I should let it get.

This is just so HORRID!

If you've any experience, please let me know.

And thnaks again.