Almost 2 weeks ago Toothless began shedding. A day or two before he began, he ate a really big dinner. Usually he doesn't clean his "plate" but he did this time. Since then he really hasn't eaten anything.The only thing I've seen him eat is a small piece of banana. He has also been spending more and more time on the cold side of the tank. I'll post a picture of his current set up and give some information that I think might be helpful and hopefully someone might know what is going on.
Recently I was given an awesome job/training opportunity by my brother so I had to move a couple hours away. The last month or so TL has been traveling with me on the weekends when I head back home. He usually travels in a little pet carrier and I stuff his actual terrarium in the back of the car. I didn't want to leave him with my brother because he has 7 month old twin boys, and I didn't want to have him worrying about lights and heat for TL. Anyway, last week we decided this moving every weekend was getting to be a bit much and came up with a new plan.For the three weeks he isn't shedding he stays home with my parents and I visit him on the weekends, and on the week he sheds he comes down to my brother's so I can keep an eye on him. Last week he began shedding so this week he has been with me. So he has been traveling a good bit.
Anyway, for the week he was home, my parents told me he wasn't eating and since he's been down here he hasn't eaten anything but a slice of banana. We have been giving him food almost every day to try and coax him into it but it is going untouched. Tonight I tried giving him dog food(his favorite) and he acted very weird: he came up to the dog food, maybe took a VERY VERY tiny bite, licked his lips, wiped his face, and walked away. That is NOT like him. He normally plows into dog food and chomps away. Normally he loses his appetite some when he starts shedding, but never this much or for this long.
He has also been spending more and more time on the cold side over the last few months. In the set up above, you will see some basking rocks. Over the first 6 or 7 months I had him he would usually bury himself under those rocks. Over the last few months he has seemed like he is having trouble getting comfortable under them and instead opting for either A: under that big water bowl B: under the bark around the water bowl or C: under the log. Whenever I get him out he feels so damned cold. The otber night I woke up around 5 am for some reason and he was actually sleeping, uncovered, on the left side of the cage. He has NEVER done that. A couple times he has slept in the log, but he has never done that out in the open. It scared the crap out of me.
At the beginning of this month he was at the vets and the vet looked him over and said he was doing good. In fact, other than the not eating and sleeping on the cold side he has been acting like his normal self. I will mention that I haven't really seen any urates (those are the little white things that come out with the pee correct?). I saw a tiny one when I looked today, but this just doesn't seem right.
Anyway, at this point I am at a loss. I don't know if the not eating and hiding on the cold side are related or if they are two separate problems that need to be addressed.
So I guess my questions are
1. Any thoughts on why he isn't eating?
2. How long can they go without food?
3. Is this something he should go to the vet immediately for?
4. Any ideas on how I could remake this set up to make it more comfortable? I thought about replacing the basking rocks with one of the tile basking spots Katrina uses, and I'm also really starting to get the sh$5s of the spotty heating of that heat lamp. I was thinking of either going to a ceramic heat emitter or under the tank heating. Any thoughts about this? How would you heat this set up? The thing that really sucks is that I bought him a really large custom set up (that you guys helped me build), but because I should be getting an apartment in the next few months I didn't want to set it up and then try and move it. If it means him feeling better though I will go ahead and set that up at home and just buy him a new one when I get my own place.
5. How much of a 36x18x18 cage should be hot? The spot directly on the basking rocks is probably in the low to mid 90s but the rest of the cage seems to be much colder. The meter on the cold side says high 70s low 80s but I don't trust it very much.
I apologize for the rambling nature of my post. Most of my time this last month has been spent either traveling or training for this new job, and between that and stressing over him being "sick" it is really starting to get to me.
