Hi all,
I've been a member of the GGA for a while, but I'm new to this list. I'm hoping that
someone can give me a bit of advice, or some reassurance about my leopard gecko. I'll
apologize now for the length of this message, but I just want to give all the info
that I think is relevant- I wont go into her actual set-up conditions or
supplementation as I feel confident with all of that, I have 13 leopard geckos in all,
and they are all thriving- with her as the present exception (I am of course happy to
give set-up details if anyone thinks it could be relevant).
I have a female leopard gecko who is two years old now. She seems to have lost
interest in food (well, livefood at least), and I'm not sure what the cause is.
Up to January 2002 she seemed in good health. I have had her from a baby and she has
always eaten well, and grew well (big for a female leo). She is 9.5 inches (snout to
tail tip) and weighed 74g in June 2001- that was when she was fully grown at about 1
year old. She then bulked out a bit reaching 85g at the end of January 2002. At the
end of January I did a routine fecal check on all of my leos and found that they had a
small load of pinworms (I got a vet to confirm my id of pinworms on the slide, he
prescribed panacur, I gave two doses and then found that the next fecals were clean,
and have been clean since).
My leo seemed to stop eating around the time that I wormed them (my other leos did
too, but started eating normally again a few days later). I didnt worry too much that
I hadnt seen her eating though because as she'd gotten older her eating slowed down
anyway, and she seemed to rarely eat while maintaining her weight.
I'd introduced her to a male last year, when she was 1, but she didnt seem interested
in mating (she seemed quite aggressive towards the male, so I took her straight back
out again). I tried her again this year (at the beginning of Feb, about 1 week after
the clean fecal) and this time she mated. That was 9 Feb (I keep males and females
separate so I know the exact dates), for quite some time after that I wasnt sure
whether she was gravid or not (I usually find it quite easy to see the eggs, but this
female has a particularly white stomach, which I find difficult to see through- or
maybe there were just never eggs to see?)- anyway, I think that she maybe wasnt
gravid. Now, just over the last few days (which is approximately 2 months after she
mated) I'm 99% sure I can see eggs.
Having said that she is not interested in food, for the last two weeks (maybe 4 or 5
out of 7 days) I have been feeding her babyfood (fruit) with Jumpstart and calcium
(and sometimes vitamins) mixed in. She seems very happy to eat that- licks it off my
finger. Today she weighs 75g (she's been stable at that weight for around 3 weeks
now)- thats around 10g less than she did at the end of January. Its not like she is
wasting away, she still seems quite chunky, I'm just concerned at the weight loss, and
the apparent lack of appetite.
In brief, she seems to have stopped eating (not even interested in waxworms, but will
take babyfood) and has lost weight (quite noticable in her tail) around the time I
wormed her, or around the time that she mated- could one of these be the connection?.
I have not noticed any other differences in her behaviour, she is still shedding and
behaving normally.
So, my questions (and thoughts) are:
- What triggered the lack of appetite? could it have had anything to do with the
Panacur or the mating? (I'm wondering if the panacur could have disturbed her natural
flora, if it did, how would I restore this?- probably not with babyfood!, also I'm
guessing that if she is actually carrying eggs that her appetite would be suppressed
as her stomach may be squeezed by the eggs).
-I know they can store sperm (mating once to produce an entire seasons fertile eggs),
but does that mean that she could mate at the start of the season and then hold the
sperm until she decides to make eggs (none of my others seem to have done this).
-If she is actually carrying eggs, why might she have decided not to lay them (I dont
believe her to be egg bound as I havent seen her digging, or straining- please correct
me if there are other signs to look out for).
-should I continue to feed her babyfood/jumpstart? (I dont want to stop incase she
loses too much weight, but I'm concerned that if I continue she'll never feel hungry
enough to eat on her own, and will get used to being "spoiled")
(I have actually spoken to a vet who has said that this type of wasting is quite
common in leopard geckos and to keep feeding the jumpstart with supplements and she'll
hopefully come round).
I'd be grateful for any advice/ideas,
Thanks,
Pauline
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