# Would a lizard starve itself to death?



## Red123 (Mar 3, 2010)

People say that animals like cats/dogs will not starve themselves to death if you offer food that they would prefer not to eat and that they would eventually eat what was being offered. This has got me wondering. Does the same apply to reptiles? Will a lizard eventually eat something that it repeatedly turns its nose up to and walks away in a sulk?

Say for example a lizard was fed continuously on mealworms, not ideal but some people use them as the only food source. Then all of a sudden this person stopped offering worms and lets say offered crickets and only crickets. The lizard refuses them as it's only use to eating worms. Would this lizard get hungry enough to eventually eat them or if worms were not offered would it slowly starve itself to death.

Thankfully my lot eat a varied diet but it has got me wondering :2thumb:


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## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

I don't think a lizard would starve itself to death out of being fussy. It might hold out until it lost a bit of weight though. For my own experiences every lizard I have ever been told "only eats locusts" or "won't eat salad", has come around to a varied diet within a few weeks. Every lizard I have seen in a severe state of malnutrition/underweight has been so because of underlying health problems, or not enough food at all.

Now snakes on the other hand, they will starve themselves to death even if food is offered especially some newborn hatchlings which sometimes just seem to have no will to eat for no discernible reason, even if the enclosure is perfect and every type of prey is offered, even live pinkies etc.


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## Fizz (Jan 18, 2014)

I dont believe that they would starve themselves to death out of fussiness... however thats not to say that an underlying condition might cause them not to eat and eventually kill them. If a lizar was not eating and losing weight I would definitely get to the vet imediately rather than wait it out until it starts eating again.


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## Red123 (Mar 3, 2010)

I would like to think everyone would get their lizard checked out if it stopped eating possibly due to ill health. If the lizard ate when offered its favorite food though but turned its nose up at the new food. It's very tempting to keep offering what it will eat rather than stick to the new food. It can very stressful to watch your pet refuse food, and in our eyes as humans starve themselves. Been there done that :lol2: 
Yeah I know snakes are totally different. Just can't fathom out why hatchlings starve themselves to death. :idea:Maybe they are a bit like premature babies, they often don't have the sucking reflex maybe snakes have a similar problem and have not developed the feeling of hunger :idea:


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## Melissa88 (Oct 28, 2009)

I've never heard of a lizard doing it without an underlying problem, but I have seen it with snakes. I've known of a few wild caught and even a captive bred Saharan Sand boa(s) that starved themselves to death rather than taking de-frosted rodents for example no matter what method was attempted. Hearing of that and seeing it once in person myself is the reason I won't touch that species unless it is captive bred and confirmed to be eating solidly on frozen/thawed. Some I've seen can also be insanely picky on rodent type and size as well.


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## Salazare Slytherin (Oct 21, 2009)

I would have to say no, my own experiences are very similar to everyone one else's here.
I think one of the big problems of exotic animal keeping is the mentality that "if they are eating they are healthy" that's not strictly true or ultimately black and white since ill animals can still eat and healthy ones might not.

I have had some lizards (notably iguanas) not eat anything I've offerd for months, my current males story which can be found here, he was extemely fussy, we learned shortly after his arrival his kidney function was impaired and due to being seriously dehydrated (picky with his food items and having fallen into his breeding season at the same time, there was great concern whether he would pull through that, it did require vet intervention and multiple rounds of fluid support. 

I took a gamble, has kidneys were already impaired, he was used to eating meats and a load of other crap, if I had given in an continued to feed him foods his kidneys couldn't deal with that would have killed him , if I continued to offer fresh fruits and veggies, and he didn't eat them, that would also have killed him. 
I decided there was nothing for it, he takes the veg or he dies either way, it actually took nearly 3 months for him to even try a bit of leaf. 

I was working entirely on the assumption that no animal should starve itself to death if there environment is right if he did die it wasn't going to be through direct starvation but more so his kidneys simply failing either way. 
He eventually got hungry enough to eat what I offered. 

I think this mentality if they are eating they are healthy is potentially and sometimes dangerously misleading, again I have had it pleanty with bearded dragons that apparently won't accept veg, simply if they are favouring higher energy food sources, and they have that in abundance they will take it, reptiles have very low resting metabolisms, so it does take alot longer for them to become hungry enough to try other food items, but if they are always fed their favoured food types they have no reason to try other things, I have stopped feeding them insects, and within a few days will straight away start taking their veg items, never failed. 

I honestly have no problem starving out a lizard ontil it is eating what it should be, in the way it should be. 

Providing there are no external influences ( such as environmental issues or underlaying health issues, no lizard should starve itself to death, and even if they were wrong I would continue to argue it highly probably wasn't starvation in most cases since reptiles of all kinds are masters at conserving energy for extended periods of time and the cause of death is most likely stress. 

D mader addresses this very thing in his book reptile and exotic medicine, stress is a very strange thing to have put on a medical history if one dies since, if a vet actually can't suss out any real known cause they are likely to put down stress, and I have never seen or herd of one case, ( with my own animals) or with any vets on this forum, that the cause of death was in fact starvation. Saying that however I would be very interested if there is a case) 

I have had malnourished animals die unfortunately and most notably in one case a water dragon that died the very night she arrived, I would still say that was a case of prolonged exposure to an incorrect environment, since the one that did survive, had the will to keep fighting, 

Once an animal has reached a state of mental decline trough prolonged exposure to the incorrect environment, there usually is nothing much anyone can do, but I would still stand by its highly probably stress and not starvation. 

I would be questioning my whole husbandry routine if any reptile of any kind starved itself to death, in an environment where there are minimal predators protection from disease and parasites, temperatures are always more than optimal and controlled, generally less stress, since nature is a cruel and unforgiving place to be. 

If they starved themselves away in an environment like that, there's something definitely seriously wrong with the animals overall health or environment.


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## Red123 (Mar 3, 2010)

Some very interesting experiences being posted. :2thumb:


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## CloudForest (Nov 27, 2013)

Anorexia is a known condition in almost all animals, in some its "psychological", sometimes its caused by toxic substances, viral infections, immune deficiencies, the list of ways for it to occour is almost endless....but Anorexia can and does kill animals


one example I can think of relating to snakes, is hatchlings which don't start feeding and need to be assisted (although only loosely "anorexia" in this context)


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## Red123 (Mar 3, 2010)

So could a lizard suffer with anorexia because it is not fed what it has always been fed or likes. Or would it be more likely that anorexia would be caused by some other factor.


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## CloudForest (Nov 27, 2013)

Red123 said:


> So could a lizard suffer with anorexia because it is not fed what it has always been fed or likes. Or would it be more likely that anorexia would be caused by some other factor.


there are lots of causes of Anorexia, addiction to a particular food could be a cause (fat content of some insects for eg)


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## Tongue Flicker (Oct 26, 2014)

Unless your lizard has crypto (in cases of some beardies & leos), is in heat due to breeding season, ovulating, is parasite-loaded due to being WC then i don't see any other reason why a healthy lizard would just starve itself to death.


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## dakotapotts (Jul 21, 2013)

I have a crested gecko that I took from somebody who had one and couldn't take it to college with them. Xerxes (the gecko) came to me eating only crickets and baby food. I was told he absolutely would not eat the Repashy CGD. I did the baby food for a week or so before I made the switch to Repashy. It was maybe two weeks of feeding every other night before I started seeing the Repashy disappear. Now he loves the stuff. I save the caps from water bottles to use as disposable feeding dishes and if I hold one in my hand, he'll climb up and eat it right out of my hand. 

He also loves crickets and wax worms. 

I did have a lizard starve itself to death -- but it was sick and after many vet bills and continual treatment, I could not solve the underlying problem which was an eye infection. I did oral antibiotics, eye drops, many substrate changes, warm water soaks, everything I could, but without being able to see, she had no instinct to grab any food, even that which was held right in front of her face. She died the day after I started making calls about local places offering euthanasia.


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## Red123 (Mar 3, 2010)

So alot of people seem to make a switch between an addictive food and a different diet within a couple of weeks or so but two weeks is not very long. What about the people who claim that their lizard has not eaten for several weeks because they will only eat one particular insect. Could this be due to being 'fussy eaters' or is it unlikely a lizard would take things to this extreme? Though I guess if anorexia was the cause of not eating then it could go on for months though. If the refusing to eat was caused by something other than a addiction to food, if illness and husbandry are ruled out as a cause maybe a bad experience with a live insect. Could a lizard have emotional scars from being bitten by a cricket or locust for example?


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## Salazare Slytherin (Oct 21, 2009)

Red123 said:


> So alot of people seem to make a switch between an addictive food and a different diet within a couple of weeks or so but two weeks is not very long. What about the people who claim that their lizard has not eaten for several weeks because they will only eat one particular insect. Could this be due to being 'fussy eaters' or is it unlikely a lizard would take things to this extreme? Though I guess if anorexia was the cause of not eating then it could go on for months though. If the refusing to eat was caused by something other than a addiction to food, if illness and husbandry are ruled out as a cause maybe a bad experience with a live insect. Could a lizard have emotional scars from being bitten by a cricket or locust for example?



Probably stubbornly fussy, if it takes 3 months for them to start eating something else then I would do that too, healthy specimens 100% can go even longer without, providing there weight loss isn't 10% or more they can cope with it.


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## Pyrite (Oct 13, 2012)

I would not believe so. I've had a couple of experiences with bearded dragons and leopard geckos.

My first ever beardie would not eat salad at all. This was fine for the first 2-3months but eventually he had to learn so I starved him for a week. I placed a bowl of greens and he immediately came to eat and ate all the greens. Then I gradually achieved balance, 20% greens 80% insects and than flipped them over as he reached adult hood.

My second beardie I used the same method when I was switching from crickets to dubia roaches. Starve them for a week and than offer the prey item and they eat. After that he wouldn't accept anything else, apart from mealworms cause which beardie doesn't like them amiright? :lol2:

However what I experienced with bearded dragons is that they are sometimes afraid of some food items. I had read a lot of testimonies that beardies loved strawberries and kiwis. I tried to feed them these to both dragons and both of them would go bananas... not the good kind. They would flare their beard, try to bite me, wide open mouth, hiss, puff up and sometimes they tried to run for their lives and smack themselves on the wall of the vivs. It was really shocking and I never tried to feed them that again.

I had a similar experience with a leopard gecko switching from locusts and crickets to dubia roaches. At first it's the same, they reject it, turn their head away, just stare at you like you have problems, close their eyes and just outright ignore it. Eventually they get hungry and than munch down on it like there is no tomorrow.

Mind you reptiles do fast for long periods of time, ball pythons come to mind. I had balls that would not eat for about 3 months and this can be problematic.

But on a lizard, no, they are like dogs and generally would rather not starve themselves and eat their food.


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