Starting to get serious concern for cherry head hatchling weight loss.

Baoh

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By the way, from the photos in the ID thread, your animals have somewhat thin limbs and it looks like they have very narrow to no recent growth lines. That is aside from what appears to be fungus on the plastron of the one. To me, the loss of lean mass (thinning limbs) is a warning sign to pay strong attention to.
 

xirxes

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I have been feeding:
mazuri 2 x weekly @ 5 pieces split to 10
Strawberries 1x weekly 2 whole sliced
grape leaves 3x weekly shredded
grapes 1x weekly 5 split to 10
cactus 1x weekly 5 1' slices
carrots 1x weekly 5 1/4' rounds

Thats it. i remove all the food from previous day, and there is ALWAYS some leftover. Some of these foods are hardly touched: carrots and cactus to be sure.

Is this a correct amount of food? I do see them come to it and eat it daily, and they eliminate each evening.

If this is enough food, temperatures are 79-87F temps, 60-95% humidity low-high throughout the week, with nightly soakings what else is there to be done than get them inspected?
 

xirxes

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As to the thin limbs, i do not have a comparison but they do appear thin to me as well.

The one that has what looks like shell rot, i do not believe it is. He has had this since first arrival, and i treated it 2x daily for a month straight with:
rinse, dry, apply with cleaning disinfectant(chlorhexidine), dry, treat with antifungal treatment (clotrimazole). There was no noticeable change throughout nor after treatment and it is not spreading nor becoming soft shell on plastron.

Ill see if i can post some top shots for any signs of growth rings.
 

xirxes

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Here is as close as I can get to timeline shot on the smallest for 9 weeks to compare growth/limb size loss. Any suggestions recommended!

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xirxes

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also the most recent group video of them. As you can see they all eat when given food, so im just not sure what im doing wrong.

 

xirxes

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And to be clear i am officially freaked out now that i am failing my hatchlings even though i spend half an hour with them every single day, doing everything in my power to give them the good life. Please take a look and advice appreciated.
 

Bryan

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That fungus that Baoh mentions concerns me and ties into what I said in regards to the humidity being too high. If you look at the weather in Bahia Brazil, the humidity is not 90-99% every day. For now it is showing in fungus and not in respiratory infections, if you have them come down with RI's it will be costly and potentially deadly. If it's not fungus as you maintain then do you have hard water there? Usually the hard water will discolor their head scales as well. Baoh is a very good person to listen to, when he speaks my ears perk up as I know that he knows his stuff.
 

xirxes

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I do indeed have hard water here, but I only use RO water for anything in this system, including their misting and soaking.

These hatchlings have had discoloration on the light side near growth rings from day one, also on top of shells.

Anyfoot suggested that it may have been egg residue or some such.

I am not ruling out fungus, but what else can I do than what I've done for the fungus already? Also he is the only one that shows this on plastron, and it is not softening, nor spreading in 6 weeks of tracking, also it does not brush or scrape off.

Here are a few reference photos of discoloration from even before they got to me
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Second pic was taken June 15th, when I started month long treatment, with no change.
Compare to yesterday's photo
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xirxes

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Updates:

I decided to get a hold of some dewormer and a tiny scale to get proper dosages and treat the hatchlings preventatively.

I was unsuccessful in getting each to consume its full dosage on food, so I can be assured that they got less than their measures dosage, which definitely leaves them on the safer side of things.

I administered first treatment last Sunday, and I will administer the followup treatment on Wednesday with a method I'm sure will work better to get full dosage in.

All that being said, every single tort gained weight this week, the smallest only 1 gram, but the second smallest put on 8 grams (40-48g) and the most stark improvement was the second largest gained 11g in one week (47-58g)!!!

I did start adding soaked mazuri daily, as well as more water filled fruit (4x weekly, cantaloupe, watermelon grapes blackberries or blueberries), as well as adding a second feeding location in enclosure.

I cannot account for exactly how much the medication changed things, but I will definitely keep an eye on things after next dose.

I did precise measurements and the smallest is 31g at 2.15in, which puts him exactly in healthy line with the calculation for dehydration vs obesity (Scl in cm)^3x.191, and the rest are at or above now too.

Will update in two weeks.
 

xirxes

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Follow up dewormer dose given last evening. Better results of hatchlings consuming most of their meds, I would say 70% of intended dose actually taken.

Now the waiting game to see results over time. The largest two are really pulling ahead, feel much heavier over last three weeks.
 

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