Anole is not eating...

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Anole Forum ]

Posted by ALanolis on May 02, 2003 at 11:35:56:

In Reply to: Anole is not eating... posted by shortydsm on May 02, 2003 at 01:48:23:

Fussy eating is a common Anole drawback. And it is harder to unravel than most people would assume. It may be one of the following:

- No UVA
- Too cold
- Bully Anole takes all the food
- Internal parasites
- Illness
- Prey items too large
- Malnutrition (supplement lacking diet)

Hypothetical situation: captive bred Anole, housed individually, fed a varied diet of the right insects, supplemented with dusting once or twice a week with the right powders, has a 5% UVB and 33% UVA fluorescent, 60-70% humidity, proper thermal gradients, plants, wood, and at least 10 gallons of space. This Anole's keeper will encounter fussy eating far less than someone with multiple Anoles, who were probably wild caught, and have been fed crickets and mealworms most of the time.

Your best bet is to start with taking some fecal samples to the vet. Have the vet perform a float and a smear test on all the samples to make sure there are no internal parasites. Your basking temp already seems ok, so being too cold can be ruled out. Observe them for a duration, and make sure the other Anole isn't stealing all the food or ever bullying the other. Make sure all prey items being fed are small enough. I would recommend you stick with crickets, omit mealworms for good, and occasionally give waxworms as a treat. Other items you can try include greater bee moths (what waxworms pupate into), nymph lobster roaches, and small silkworms. Varying the diet helps toward preventing fussy eating.

Make sure you're using a good 5% UVB 33% UVA fluorescent (Repti-Glo 5 or Repti-Sun 5). Dusting of the insects once or twice a week with a good multivitamin and non-D3 calcium is recommended. Herptivite and JurassiCal are what I recommend. Also make sure the insects are attractive to begin with, meaning keep them healthy and fed on fresh foods. Sick, smelly, dehydrated and dying insects aren't very appealing even to opportunistic eaters.

If the fecal samples check out ok, the other Anole isn't bullying, and you already have a good fluorescent light that is less than a year old, than there is probably an issue with the bugs and/or stress from a miscellaneous source.

All in all, not feeding for a few days leads to their stomach getting the best of them most of the time. But it's been 10 days and you claim your Anole doesn't even show interest in food. My guess is he's either ill, being bullied, or is stressed. You should probably quarantine him as well, and there provide him with small dishes of soft bodied insects such as waxworms, or even small silkworms. Petri type dishes of meat or fruit flavored baby food would be nice as well, these will keep him from starving and dehydrating.

~ALanolis

Follow Ups:

Anole is not eating... shortydsm 05/03/03 (1)
- Anole is not eating... ALanolis 05/04/03 (0)