Zilla RIP 3/2/14 : Started a new thread for Sid!

Hi all. Never in a million years did I think I'd get so excited about a lizard pooping in his bath before. Lol

I want to potty train him, so I'm super excited. He's only ever pooped i the tub once. I was hoping today was the day since its Saturday, since he hasn't pooped in about a week and since he ate about 14 supers for breakfast. Yay!!!!!

What a nice birthday present. For him. Lol. He's a year old roughly right around now.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I take a roach and run it's butt along the side of the mouth of whichever dragon I'm feeding, they have to open their mouth & I pop the roach in. For Lonzo and worms, I have to open up his mouth with my nail, just a bit, then push the worm in & voila, food is eaten. I have to do this or they would have all died, none of them have eaten any bugs since Sept/12 on their own, they just stopped, that's over a year for each of them. I have no idea why they stopped, but none of them will eat on their own. They do better a bit on collards, but again, I have to hand feed them, piece by piece. It's a pain, and I only do the bugs twice a week, but the collards I try to do daily. Even in the summer-time when you would think they'd eat, those three just won't. Gabriel used to eat out of a dish, but he stopped and he's only 3 1/2 yrs old. :roll: Still a mystery.

As long as Zilla is eating something, it will help until he gets over this winter slow down.

 

[sjcksnmnusa]

I hope they improve with the weather. I have three rescues and have had to do that when they were sick. My Beauty is a middle aged( we think) female and she still needs hand feeding sometimes. I give her cooked squash and finely chopped romaine in a slurry through a syringe. It helps to keep her hydrated when she won't eat and of course, if they don't eat, they don't poop, and things go downhill from there. Maybe it's a light problem? Wish you the best with you friends.

 

[BrendaKay]

Hi sj.........

I recently bought new lights, but it's tempting to replace them again just in case. I'm still getting a tiny bit of plain squash into him. It's the only thing he likes. I tried chicken baby food and boy, when he realized he didn't like it, he flung his face all over the place. Scared the dickens out of me the first time he did it! Rofl!! But I'll mix it with squash tomorrow and get some into him.

He is still making that funny noise with his mouth. Opening it, sticking his tongue out a little (or really just moving it?) and making that smacking sound. Like something is stuck in his throat. Vet said he was fine tho, so not sure what that's all about.

Deb, I haven't tried forcing a worm into his mouth, but I think I may stop at petsmart tomorrow and get some wax worms for him. I got rid of all my roaches cuz he wouldn't eat them and I didn't want to move them to the new place.

It's still very cold here, so I'm sure he's still sluggish from that. He perks up in the tub (and he's been pooping in it EVERYTIME!!!!!!!!) so I think he'll get another in the morning. Honestly, I have no idea where the poop is coming from, but at least he's doing it. Well, last time it was mostly white, but still. I'm thrilled he's pooping in the tub!!

Ok, gotta go clean up my office more. This unpacking and organizing is for the birds, but the house is looking a LOT better finally. Woot!

 

[sweetiepie9]

I don't know either, but I still feed them, it's a complete mystery. Lonzo is 10 1/2, so I can understand why he would stop eating, but Gabriel is only 3 1/2, so why would he stop eating. Didi, too, he's only 6 or 7 years old and ate fine until Sept/12, too. Drives me nuts but I won't have them lose any more weight. Gabriel has lost over 60g, even though the weight loss looks good on him & he's much more energetic than he was. Didi is sleeping now, on a full stomach, so he'll be up for a bath on Wednesday. Leo has been sleeping for a week or so now, but he has an empty stomach, so can sleep as long as he wants. Rubio isn't feeling well, so he's to the vet tomorrow for an overnight because I work tomorrow eve and can't pick him up until Wed am. They have a tank to keep him in, so he'll be fine. Have no idea what's wrong with him, but he's acting very strange.

So hopefully you can get some food into him. He's still a good weight for his length but I sure can understand why you're concerned. And it's not the lighting, either. As for the smacking, maybe just something that's just Zilla? They can do strange things sometimes, for no good reason. Especially when the vet gave him a good check up and there's nothing in his throat. I hate winters for this very reason, they just don't act like themselves.

 

[BrendaKay]

I raised his tank temp a little bit. Let's see if that does anything. Gave him a bath this morning. No poop. Didn't drink any either. Just sulked. Lol. Got some wax worms today and that will be breakfast.

Sweet boy was asleep when I got home. No night night snuggles.... :|

 

[FreddysMom]

Whoa thats crazy that's what you all are wanting them to do is poop in the bath. I was wondering why my Freddy only poops in the bath, he must've trained himself haha. But that's cool

 

[BrendaKay]

Hi FreddysMom!
Yeah when I first came on here and read that people potty trained their dragons, I was like 'huh?' Then very quickly realized how awesome that is! No mess in the tank, and no worries about pooping all over my house or car......

Zilla is still light years away from being 100% trained because he's still not eating much so I don't have a grasp on how often he needs to go. Hopefully this spring he'll snap out of it and start eating more.

I'm home from work today, so lots of out time for him. I'll set up another lamp again so he can stay by the window. Richard and I will be off at a side job most of the weekend, so no out time til sometime Sunday. Good money for us tho, and who doesn't like that? He's trying to get his jeep done, and I think the cash he'll get will be enough for the rest of the springs he needs. Then the last big purchase is new tires and it's pretty much done.

Ok, gotta get a jump on my day so I don't waste it.....

 

[sweetiepie9]

Have fun with Zilla today & that's great that Richard is going to get the parts he needs to fix his jeep. Sounds like a busy weekend coming up.

 

[BrendaKay]

Odd question: does anyone's dragon poop in their sleep? The first time he did it, i thought maybe I just missed it before lights out. The second time, I was like 'hmmmmmm'...... But he did it again last night.

Now I'm still not absolutely positive it wasn't there before his light went out (I got home to a dark tank and just covered him up) but he almost always poops in the morning.

He's never done this before a few weeks ago and the only real change I can think of, is his tank never really goes below 73 at night in the new house. (House is very lopsided with a ten degree difference from one end to the other.). He still barely eats, and still does that mouth snapping thing. Btw, I got a video of that I will post next.

So I'm wondering, COULD he be pooping in his sleep??

 

[BrendaKay]

Here's the video of the weird lip smacking thing he started doing. It's almost like he's got something caught in his throat, or his tongue is to big. I took him to the vet the first day I noticed it, but she didn't see anything wrong in there.

<a href="http://s1129.photobucket.com/albums/m503/howdovely/Zilla/?action=view&current=F5CD1735-AE6E-4D77-A5A1-126E4F17D04D_zps2afcleky.mp4" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/m503/howdovely/Zilla/F5CD1735-AE6E-4D77-A5A1-126E4F17D04D_zps2afcleky.mp4" border="0" alt="Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos" /></a>

 

[BrendaKay]

Well, I guess I have no idea how to post a video from photobucket! Grrr.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Just post the link & we'll be able to check it out.

And I'm not sure about the pooping at night. He's probably pooping before you come home, maybe? Odd behaviour. Wonder if he needs a blood panel at the vet, just to be in the safe side and maybe an xray, too. Maybe it's just a winter thing? Hard to say from this end.

 

[BrendaKay]

<embed width="600" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" allowNetworking="all" wmode="transparent" src="http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf" flashvars="file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid1129.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fm503%2Fhowdovely%2FZilla%2FF5CD1735-AE6E-4D77-A5A1-126E4F17D04D_zps2afcleky.mp4">

 

[BrendaKay]

Did that work? I did it from a computer instead of my iPad.....

Yes, the vet had said if nothing changes within two weeks, to come back. It's SO very cold again, but will make an appointment for him asap. I believe it was really cold last time too, but he was fine. I brought a lamp for him to stay under and some blankets to lay on instead of that bone chilling metal they have as tables. lol

 

[BrendaKay]

FINALLY got a good video today off of his web cam during the day. I hope you can see it ok, I had to video the screen with my phone because I didn't know how to get it off the webcam program.

Anyway, this is the first time I've seen him do an actual throwing up motion. He usually just does what he does at the end of this video. The lip smacking thing.

The fat pads on his head now seem to be indented too. Going to weigh him now, but I'm sure he's lost more weight. Calling the vets office to see if the reptile vet will be there tomorrow and will try to get him in.

Any idea what this could be? There was nothing in the spot where he did that either, like nothing actually came out. It was dry when I got home.

Here's the different video:
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/m503/howdovely/Zilla/953A661D-1069-4955-A008-AC442B506C09_zpsdjabgqpa.mp4

I hope that worked. I had trouble with the last video. Going to post this in health too, or the ER section.