Putting Weight On

[mrhoyo]

Any ideas of a good way to do it? My 7 year old IJ had an issue last year where he lost a lot of weight and needed antibiotics. He's eating again now but hasn't put loads of weight on. He's been eating insects almost exclusively.

[wermy]

Canned kitten or puppy food. Try to feed a variety of meat proteins, insects alone aren't super nutritious so that could be why he's not putting on much.

[NickBrahz]

I agree dog/cat food, also if you can a few pinkies (baby mice) are full of fat so they will gain a lot of weight on them.

[mrhoyo]

I've bought some puppy food, we'll see how it goes.

[splashy07]

If he is only interested in insects, try dubias or superworms. They seem to put weight on them faster than chocolate cake puts it on me! But get him interested in other foods, just bugs not good.

[mrhoyo]

If he is only interested in insects, try dubias or superworms. They seem to put weight on them faster than chocolate cake puts it on me! But get him interested in other foods, just bugs not good.

He's never been interested in dubia (plus the mrs has banned me from breeding them again) and morio worms are about the only thing he does eat at the moment.
2 days of puppy food with no evidence of any being eaten. Will keep trying.

[wermy]

Sorry to hear he's not taking to meat. Maybe he doesn't recognise it as food yet if he's too accustomed to insects? You can try small garden or ramshorn snails to get him used to the idea of variation in his diet. Snails are usually very popular with skinks (although there is a risk of parasite transfer with wild caught snails, so be sure to keep them for a few days' observation before feeding). Superworms and pinky mice, also good suggestions from the others.

Something else I would try is to dip his morio worms in the puppy food, maybe he'll get a taste for meaty food that way, lol.