Crestie help, suspected MBD

[Spike&Sprocket]

Not sure if this is the right place as I am very new to this forum but I am in need of some information to help me on my way,
I have kept cresteds for a year now but only two very healthy males who quite happily tuck into anything they are given

I have just been given two girls that are very under nourished, the one has a humped spine and on talking to the person that gave them to me it seems their previous owner over bred them and didn't supplement them anywhere near enough if at all.

The one is just skinny and she is eating so I am fine with building her up, the other has a really mis-shaped body, what I would class as a hump back, now my question is the friend that gave them to me when he got them they had got the shakes and were really bad, he has got them so far and passed them to me to continue their care, he had been giving them zocal d3 mixed with water in a dish and also used it in their mister, I am going to continue this but I am wondering what else I should be doing, they both took some mushed fruit last night and some cgd the humped back one brought some of the cgd back up so I left her to it as I didn't want to stress her out, they are both looking perky this morning but I now need more information on what else they really need, shall I mix some calcium into the fruit mush they get??? or into the cgd?? I don't want to overdose them but I don't want to neglect something that could be helping them along will mushing up some livefood and feeding them that help or hinder the process?
Sorry for the long post, I hope you can help

[mike]

The CGD is complete and does not need any additional supplementation. I recently faced a possible MBD problem with one of my Gargoyles and she is doing MUCH better now.

Allen recommended that I try natural sunlight, so if your temperatures are in the 70's and you have good sunlight for basking I would recommend letting them bask in a screen enclosure if you have one, some times it can get a bit hot as the sun shines through glass. Make sure to supervise them, don't just leave them out in the sun by themselves.

Another thing I would recommend is seperating them if they are housed together for the time being, just so you can keep an eye on both of them and make sure they are both eating and gaining weight.

I have never heard of mixing the calcium with water so I can't comment on that. What I will say is that you don't want to overdo it on the D3, it helps to perk them up and get them started especially if you have them under a UVB bulb or basking, but if you have them just on the CGD alone Allen stated that there is enough calcium to reverse the effects of MBD if caught early enough.

Fresh fruit mash is good as a treat but right now you should really focus on getting them feeding on CGD pretty much exclusively especially with the condition that they are in, it will do much more for them nutritionally speaking.

As for the girl with the spine issues, for that I would recommend seeing a vet because that sounds like it could be severe calcium deficiency, and if it is not too late an oral calcium supplement may be used by the vet to help correct the problem. If it is too late you can probably still get both females into better shape so they can at least have nice lives, but definitely don't breed them, they are in no condition for that.

I was hand feeding my female Gargoyle the CGD out of a syringe and she has shown tremendous improvement over the past week, she wasn't eating on her own so it is good that your two geckos are, still I would recommend seperating them for a while just so you can keep an eye on them and make sure they are both eating appropriate amounts of food and putting on weight.

[Dr Alan]

Mike's advice is good. Make the conditions right, feed the right diets, and the problems are likely to resolve, albeit with possible permanent spinal kinking.