Concerned about Sprocket

[frankykeno]

Well I just weighed Sprocket last night. He's a male Crested, about 1 year old now (I got him as a baby from Matt at Pangea August 06). He only weighs 22 grams and has basically been at this weight for awhile now. He seems healthy as anything, jumps huge distances, very perky acting, sheds clean as a whistle every time, poops normally, etc. He was moved to a larger enclosure, hated it, tried a 10 gallon flipped up, hated that, now he's back in his plastic "baby" tub which he apparently prefers (refused to eat at all in the other enclosures).

The problem is and always has been with Sprocket is that he is a flat out picky eater. He was raised on GSD as all are at Pangea and very well started and healthy from a reputable breeder. He really could care less for his GSD and rarely licks at it. He will occasionally try human baby food (peach usually) but that's not even something I can depend on him doing. Forget trying to sneak any suppliments into his food or dusting live prey. Any hint of that and he'll refuse to touch anything for weeks on end.

With live prey he used to love crix, then went off them and now will eat them very rarely. Most of the time I have to remove the horrible hopping things from his enclosure. He does like mealies. Sometimes he eats them very well, sometimes he just ignores them for days on end. There seems no rhyme nor reason to why he eats or refuses to.

He's been moved to the ball python room where it's warm, low light and quiet. This didn't seem to make a whit of difference to his eating pattern and there's been no weight gain at all since we moved him over a month ago.

He's quite a friendly little thing. Quite willing to be handled and never makes any alarm noises. Climbs about his enclosure well, uses his various vines and so forth. He has a lovely full tail.

We aren't handling him much right now as I'm so worried about his eating and being low weight for his age. To my eye he's growing in body structure but beginning to look a tad thin for my liking. I tried for pics today but he was too busy trying to hop all over me and sneak up the wall to get anything worth posting. He's misted twice a day every day, sometimes three times a day.

Am I worrying too much? Any ideas on encouraging better or more consistent eating patterns? Would getting him a mature female somehow perk him up enough to want to eat better? I'm at a loss and a bit worried about Sprocket.

[mlededee]

getting him a female would likely take his mind even farther from eating. males tend to have rather one track minds and eat less while they are breeding, thus the need for a break for several months out of the year for them to rest and put back on any lost weight. he's also pretty small for an adult female--usually males should be about 30 grams before breeding. i'm sure at his age he is sexually mature, the problem is more that a larger adult female might be to aggressive with him.

have you ever had a fecal done on him? you might do that just to rule out any kind of internal parasite.

when you give him mealworms do you cut the heads off first? their shells are so tough and chitinous that cresteds can't digest them, meaning they don't get much nutrition at all from them. if that's all he is eating he may really not be getting much nutritionally unless you cut the heads off first so the good stuff can get into his system.

which cgd are you feeding? is it the kind in the small bottle with the purple lid or the kind that you can order from pangea that comes in a silver colored bag? the diet has been slightly reformulated and the kind in the silver bag is the newer version, which supposedly tastes better and has a better texture. it is now also made in a bunch of flavors, so you might even be able to find a flavor that he likes. my chahoua was always a really picky eater and had to be fed her cgd by hand but she eats the new cgd out of her dish now, which is something i never thought i see her do.

can you get phoenix worms locally? if he likes mealworms he might like those and they are much more nutritious.

one thing that concerns me is his calcium intake. not eating cgd is not especially good, but not eating dusted insects either means he is likely not getting near the calcium he needs. i would get a uvb/uva bulb and put him on a 12 hours on/12 off cycle. i'd recommend the reptisun 5.0 bulb--it is fluorescent, thus is won't heat up his cage. it hasn't been proven that uvb/uva rays help rhacs utilize the calcium in their diets, but they are almost always recommended by rhac vets for rhacs with calcium deficiencies. some keepers have also reported higher energy levels from their rhacs after starting to use uvb/uva bulbs. make sure that you direct the light through the screen of his cage and not through glass or plastic though, as this will block the rays.

[frankykeno]

Some excellent suggestions Emily! I'll get busy adjusting his diet as far as trying the phoenix worms (I'll have to order them online as I can't find them locally) and scrap the idea of a female for him. I had thought with another gecko in there he might scramble a bit for the food and perk him up about eating but that seems an unlikely idea. I've read with phoenix worms you don't need the calcium supplement, is that correct? I haven't had a fecal done as coming out of Pangea I pretty much expected he'd be fine that way. Problem with the light is Sprocket will not adjust to anything but his fairly decent sized plastic tub (it's high and spacious...bit smaller than a 10 gallon tank). Everytime I've tried to move him to an upright 10 or anything but this particular plastic bin, he flat out refuses to eat a thing. I've tried waiting him out but he'll go a couple of weeks without eating and that just plain scares me, so I've always given up and moved him back where he seems happiest. Crazy thing is when I moved him to the 10, I moved every piece of his normal cage "furniture" with him. Added a bit more vines and so forth but really it's the same basic stuff.....but any move from his plastic bin just makes him nutsy for some reason.

[mlededee]

it is so odd that he stresses like that when you move him. you could always cut out part of the tub top and replace it with some screen or fine wire mesh if you do decide to use the light.

i only suggest the fecal as kind of a default--it can't hurt and some cresteds do carry parasites, they just don't present a problem unless the gecko becomes stressed.

you are correct, you do not have to dust phoenix worms as they are very high in calcium. i'd get at least the mediums sized ones for him--they aren't very big worms.

if you don't have the newer cgd and want to try some for sprocket pm me your mailing address and i'll send you a sample. a diet of insects alone really isn't good for cresteds although if he takes to the phoenix worms that will help. the little man needs to get some cgd in him every now and then!

[frankykeno]

I know it's odd Em. I swear I have the freakiest little gecko. He's so happy and easy to handle but he has this absolute attachment to his plastic housing. You'd think a lizard wouldn't care really since I move all his furniture so it's not an all new experience for him and a 10 isn't even all that much roomier than his plastic home. I got that maybe that other huge enclosure was too big and scary. But geesh a 10 gallon flipped upright should have been fine, but he immediately refused to do anything but hide and sulk and act very nervous and flighty if you touched him. Pop him back in his plastic and he's out and about all over the place again, happy to climb on my hand anytime, very calm basically for a little goober lizard LOL. He will only eat in his preferred home for some reason. Go figure.

I pmed you my address and really appreciate the food sample. Hopefully he'll like it better than the purple label TRex GSD which he'll occasionally lick but really shows not much interest in.

Any suggestions on good phoenix worm suppliers online? I remember someone mentioning one but I failed to grab the link at the time.

Emily = The Lizard Whisperer

[mlededee]

ha ha, i whisper and the gecko in my avatar squirts poo down my leg and onto my fuzzy blue slippers. i wish i could get into his little head and whisper, "hey! chill out! the others are fine and here you are poo squirting and gaping your mouth open at me!"

i order my phoenix worms from www.phoenixworm.com. they don't sell in the smaller 100ct cups but the prices are good and shipping is fast. if you want to try a smaller order i googled phoenix worms and found a bunch of suppliers, i just don't have experience with them.

[frankykeno]

Thanks Em. I'll google around and ask around to find another supplier. 500 worms that I'm not sure Mr. Picky Pants will even eat is a bit much. I suppose the rats might like them as a snack though, so if I don't find another reliable supplier (I don't need 100 dead worms either) I'll just have to order the 500 and see how it goes.

Geesh I wish pet stores would have better supplies for lizards than standard mealies and crix!