I have a 5-6 month old that I picked up from Petco (don't hate me for it) 4 weeks ago, this Sunday. He's already almost tripled in size, has had 3 bouts of shedding, first his neck, then around his snout and mouth and from the look of the skin, his tail or abdominal region. None of which seemed to be a large amount of skin. He's really big on zooming around my bed and apartment when he's out and loves climbing around pretty much whatever he can jump to or run to before I pick him up. So I transitioned him in to a 40gal tank on Sunday. I understand a new environment causes stress, lose of appetite and other behavior changes, but over the last 3 days Nigel Thornbelly has shown some behavioral changes. He is no longer his happy zooming self. He's eating less, when I feed him before I leave for work he'll usually eat 5 or 6 crickets before I leave and the rest of the 15-18 while I'm gone. Recently he'll eat 1 or 2 and there will still be crickets in his ta k when I come home. He's also spending more time flattening and napping.
His skin has gotten grayish, when I first brought him home he was had cream, brown and tan colors. He's been spending more time on the cool side of his terrarium. I put a hammock in the corner (same location as the 20gal tank) of his tank and a new fixture which is a hollow log held up by 2 stone stacks next to that. He is laying under his hammock in the shaded part of his tank. Yesterday he spent the evening there, after about 2 hours of him not moving I became a worried owner and called his name. Usually hell cock his head to me when i do, but he didn't flinch. So I opened the screen and called him again and again no response. I decided to move the new stone log fixture which his foot was on, something like this always get a reaction from him, but again nothing. My first thought was..great how am I going to explain to my gf that I let Nigel die... well, I pet his head, again no response so I went to pick him up. The moment I had 2 fingers under him he shot up and looked around as if he has no idea where he was or what was going on. In addition to him spending his night on the hammock and again his evening in the corner, he has not been eating much. I put 18 crickets in his cage this morning before work, I feed the crickets a mineral and calcium feed so I don't dust them anymore, buy because he hasn't been eating I wanted to see if it was because they weren't dusted or if he jjst counted see them because of his new environment (flooring. Shadows, logs and stones) so I dusted 7 of the 18. Needless to say the dusted crickets were gone when I got home and some of the undusted. However my girlfriend text me mid day saying that he had thrown up some cricket parts.
After speaking with the local exotic pet hospital, it came down to a few options.
1) because of the new environment he is over stressed and the light isn't appropriate for the 40gal tank he couldn't digest his food so he regurgitated it.
2) he's over eating, which is possible because this morning I removed a high peaked stone/cave from his tank because he wasn't using it and the crickets were hiding in and around it so in addition to his 18 crickets for breakfast, the hidden ones and the 10 my gf gave him when she got home. He found out the hard way what over eating will do.
3) while very rare, but possible. He is beginning his burmating cycle.
To combat some of these options, we bought stronger bulbs, removed all the crickets from his tank and held off on feeding him this evening, replaced the thermometer (instead of putting it near the heat source we put it in the middle of the tank, by recommendation, but I think that's an inaccurate way to ensure proper temp) and just let him be for the night.
I did quite a bit of reading in burmating and it seems like this is the answer, I know with the recent changes in temperature outside (going from mid to high 80s and low 90s to 40ish over night to mid 70s during the day my apartment hasn't been as warm and his tank temperature has been fluctuating between 90-100 during the day to 80-95 in the evening and over night varies from 75-90 depending on the outside temperature. I have his tank in the warmest room of the apartment. Even with a 100w bulb I cannot get his tank to stay at or above 100degrees.
Any advice for this would be appreciated and your thoughts regarding his behavior as well
His skin has gotten grayish, when I first brought him home he was had cream, brown and tan colors. He's been spending more time on the cool side of his terrarium. I put a hammock in the corner (same location as the 20gal tank) of his tank and a new fixture which is a hollow log held up by 2 stone stacks next to that. He is laying under his hammock in the shaded part of his tank. Yesterday he spent the evening there, after about 2 hours of him not moving I became a worried owner and called his name. Usually hell cock his head to me when i do, but he didn't flinch. So I opened the screen and called him again and again no response. I decided to move the new stone log fixture which his foot was on, something like this always get a reaction from him, but again nothing. My first thought was..great how am I going to explain to my gf that I let Nigel die... well, I pet his head, again no response so I went to pick him up. The moment I had 2 fingers under him he shot up and looked around as if he has no idea where he was or what was going on. In addition to him spending his night on the hammock and again his evening in the corner, he has not been eating much. I put 18 crickets in his cage this morning before work, I feed the crickets a mineral and calcium feed so I don't dust them anymore, buy because he hasn't been eating I wanted to see if it was because they weren't dusted or if he jjst counted see them because of his new environment (flooring. Shadows, logs and stones) so I dusted 7 of the 18. Needless to say the dusted crickets were gone when I got home and some of the undusted. However my girlfriend text me mid day saying that he had thrown up some cricket parts.
After speaking with the local exotic pet hospital, it came down to a few options.
1) because of the new environment he is over stressed and the light isn't appropriate for the 40gal tank he couldn't digest his food so he regurgitated it.
2) he's over eating, which is possible because this morning I removed a high peaked stone/cave from his tank because he wasn't using it and the crickets were hiding in and around it so in addition to his 18 crickets for breakfast, the hidden ones and the 10 my gf gave him when she got home. He found out the hard way what over eating will do.
3) while very rare, but possible. He is beginning his burmating cycle.
To combat some of these options, we bought stronger bulbs, removed all the crickets from his tank and held off on feeding him this evening, replaced the thermometer (instead of putting it near the heat source we put it in the middle of the tank, by recommendation, but I think that's an inaccurate way to ensure proper temp) and just let him be for the night.
I did quite a bit of reading in burmating and it seems like this is the answer, I know with the recent changes in temperature outside (going from mid to high 80s and low 90s to 40ish over night to mid 70s during the day my apartment hasn't been as warm and his tank temperature has been fluctuating between 90-100 during the day to 80-95 in the evening and over night varies from 75-90 depending on the outside temperature. I have his tank in the warmest room of the apartment. Even with a 100w bulb I cannot get his tank to stay at or above 100degrees.
Any advice for this would be appreciated and your thoughts regarding his behavior as well
