Illness/Sickness: Is my Tiger Sal sick??

[firedreams]

Hi,

I purchased a pair of juvie Tiger sals (A. Mavortium?) approx. 2 weeks ago. While one sal ("Yellow") is very outgoing and gregarious, the smaller sal ("Grey") seems listless and has refused food for over a week now. Grey has eaten twice since purchased - a piece of nightcrawler on the first day, and a butterworm and a small earthworm about 4-5 days later. Now that it has been over a week since she last ate, I am becoming worried. Grey spends most of her time just lying around, often in the open, and does not register much response when offered food. She does freak out when picked up (which I realize is a stressful event for a sal), but otherwise she rarely moves. I am worried that she is sick. Can anyone out there advise?

 

[FRANCOIS]

She kind of looks skinny (?)... what set-up do you have for them? Temperature? etc...

 

[firedreams]

They are in a ten gallon glass tank, substrate is a mix of topsoil and cocoa fiber. They have a water bowl and some hides. Temp. is about 20 degrees celcius.

 

[FRANCOIS]

Did you check for possible wounds? Does her eyes look nice and healthy if you compare with the other one?

 

[firedreams]

Her eyes look milky compared with the other one, although perhaps moreso right before she sheds.

She doesn't seem to have any obvious wounds.

She looks less developed in general - she has a hint of a flat ridge along the top of her tail, rather than a rounded tail.

 

[FRANCOIS]

So she really won't eat anything? Have you tried crickets? Do you have some calcium supplements?

 

[firedreams]

We have some calcium supplement although we have not given her any as she does not seem interested in the regular foods. We have not tried crickets yet; so far she has been offered butterworms, waxworms, small earthworms, and nightcrawlers.

 

[FRANCOIS]

If you have a yard and access to slugs (make SURE they have not been in contact with any kind of slug killer / pesticides / poison) try one, they usually find them irresistible. Anyway, maybe she is just stressed out or recently morphed. Two weeks is not that long yet.

 

[mytimemic]

Try crickets also. I have yet to find anything my tiger will eat other than cricket. After I first got her I tried several types of tasty morsels & she went hungry. She didn't even eat simply out of hunger. I dust the crickets in reptocal.

 

[firedreams]

Thanks guys!

The garden is unfortunately snowed in right now, but we amazingly did manage to find a black slug in our indoor topsoil! We will try it tommorow and see if she will take it.

 

[firedreams]

She finally ate!! Thinking that we were going to lose her, we placed grey in an isolation tank 2-3 days ago. We brought some crickets home last night and she very enthusiastically ate 2!! Today she looks much fatter and her colouring also seems to have started to turn towards yellow. I offered her another cricket today and she took it readily, but then couldn't seem to swallow it, and finally coughed it up. I'm going to try some smaller crickets next time (these were 3/4"), as it seemed that she had trouble with the antennae. Still, so glad to see that she may be okay afterall!!

 

[Kaysie]

That's so great to here! Maybe try something like waxworms too. Fatty foods (in conjunction with other healthy food) will help her put on weight quickly.

 

[mytimemic]

That is wonderful news.