At what point do I force feed...

[Alicewave]

This is my second winter with Murtle and she fasted a lot last winter but it seems like she is fasting more so this year. She has eaten at most one insect a week for the last month or so. Even waxworms she wont eat more than one. Now it has been almost two weeks since she has eaten anything. SHe still has her fat pockets but she has dropped from 76 grams to 68 in about 2 months. At what point do I cave and give her some jumpstart? She is over 3 years old. Could it be that at her age she just doesn't eat as much as she used to?

[Emily-Fisher]

I currently have the same problem but my blizzard dropped to 5 grams and she doesn't have fat pockets! What I do is go to the store or vet and buy some syringes(without the needle, of course) and because of your leo's size, feed your leo 0.5 millelitre of meat baby food in the morning and to wash out her system like you should do every winter, give her 0.2 millelitres of pedialyte at night or in the evening. After doing this for about three days, try putting some mealies in front of her and if she refuses them, crush the mealies into paste and give that to her. Whatever you do, try NOT to force feed the mealies, pedialyte or baby food unless you have to. What i do is put small blobs of baby food under her mouth and then she just licks it of no stress or anything. I also do that with the mealies and pedialyte. If you can't find a store that sells pedialte, just use gatorade instead. Hope this helps! -Emmie

[Alicewave]

Emily, I have a suggestion for you. Not sure how old your blizz is but it sounds like she needs some help. Go to www.herpnutrition.com, call the number and ask for Enteral Insectivore Assist Feed powder. It's got just the right nutrition for Leos, it's cheap and you just mix it with water and syringe feed it. I had to do that with my rescue who was 8 grams at 6 months old. I had great success with it and I found that she regurged less with it than she did with the chicken baby food.

[Youkai]

What do you mean by flushing out their systems 'like you should' every winter? Do you mean brumating? Because if so, they certainly do not have to be, not even for breeding. If not that, what did you mean?

[Alicewave]

Speaking of Brumating, I wonder if Murtle's encounter with Seneca got her breeding hormones going and now she is brumating. I would think that except she has been very active at night.