New(ish) Buddy, need help?

[Samiialexxis]

Hey guys, I am new here but have used a lot of the information provided when getting my new friend. Admittedly I deal with a bit of Anxiety so my concerns could be completely irrelevant but I figured I would come to you guys to see. I got my friend Casper here from out local reptile store the first week of July, this first picture is when we first got him.


Now my curiosity is coming from his current shape - I am just wanting to make sure that Casper is healthy and fine. To be honest I am unsure if he in fact is a "he" but I am going with it for now. He looks quite bloated. He did poo 2 weeks after we got him after the information I found on here about warm baths, but now he is back to being quite engorged on the sides. I know they obviously get bigger as they get older, I just want to make sure he is healthy and everything is fine.
The second picture was taken after about a month of having him.

The third was taken a week or so ago.


He did poo again two days ago, so that is twice since I have had him (July 5th) but he is still looking rather poofy. His diet is a mix of the pellets and nightcrawlers. The last two pictures were taken today

[monster]

Hi, from the last picture yes he is very full and these balls on his sides are usually a sign of impaction. He more then likely didn't poop everything out the other day. I would keep giving him warm baths and try to put a few drops of pure honey into it, this usually will make them unload there poop build up. when you done with the honey and water just give another warm water bath without honey to get the residue off. How do you feed him? do you use tongs or just drop it in front him? The lumps are pretty big and I'm guessing hes maybe eaten some of that moss, if I were you I would remove the moss and remove the woodchip substrate in the first picture. These are both not very recommended substrates to use, you should be using cocofibre. Even when your not feeding the way these guy eat if hes moving around and his eye catches a piece of the moss moveing of to the side from his movements he may try to eat it thinking its food. Besides the lumps in the last picture from all the other pics he seems to look healthy. And what kind of pellets are you feeding him?

[Samiialexxis]

Hi, from the last picture yes he is very full and these balls on his sides are usually a sign of impaction. He more then likely didn't poop everything out the other day. I would keep giving him warm baths and try to put a few drops of pure honey into it, this usually will make them unload there poop build up. when you done with the honey and water just give another warm water bath without honey to get the residue off. How do you feed him? do you use tongs or just drop it in front him? The lumps are pretty big and I'm guessing hes maybe eaten some of that moss, if I were you I would remove the moss and remove the woodchip substrate in the first picture. These are both not very recommended substrates to use, you should be using cocofibre. Even when your not feeding the way these guy eat if hes moving around and his eye catches a piece of the moss moveing of to the side from his movements he may try to eat it thinking its food. Besides the lumps in the last picture from all the other pics he seems to look healthy. And what kind of pellets are you feeding him?

Hi there! Yes I removed the wood chips in the first week after all of my reading. I thought the moss was okay but I will get cocofibre tomorrow and swap it out. It makes complete sense what you are saying being that he is a pretty aggressive eater. We only feed him out of the tank in a Tupperware container with tongs however, he is really hyper and jumpy when he eats so it is very possible that he might have swallowed something undesirable. We are feeding him portions of night crawlers as we don't want to feed him more than he can handle, as well as the pellets are zoomed pacman frog food mixed with chlorinated water.

[Samiialexxis]

Also, is this the right substrate to purchase then?

http://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcost...B&gclsrc=aw.ds

[monster]

Yeppers that's the stuff, I buy the compressed brick of it that comes in a pack of three. I find you get more this way then the loose stuff. One brick fills a 10 gallon perfect I find and since there is three bricks it lasts a few months if you do the once a month cleaning. I would try to hold off on the feeding till he poops again so it doesn't make him worse. And if you do the honey trick you want it to be pure honey like the billy bee stuff. If you feed him in a separate enclosure is there a chance the pacman food wasn't expanded enough after the water was added and it expanded more in his stomach. I have never used it so I'm not 100% sure how it works. Or as I mentioned he might of thought a piece of moss was food and he ate that.

[Samiialexxis]

Yeppers that's the stuff, I buy the compressed brick of it that comes in a pack of three. I find you get more this way then the loose stuff. One brick fills a 10 gallon perfect I find and since there is three bricks it lasts a few months if you do the once a month cleaning. I would try to hold off on the feeding till he poops again so it doesn't make him worse. And if you do the honey trick you want it to be pure honey like the billy bee stuff. If you feed him in a separate enclosure is there a chance the pacman food wasn't expanded enough after the water was added and it expanded more in his stomach. I have never used it so I'm not 100% sure how it works. Or as I mentioned he might of thought a piece of moss was food and he ate that.

This is all really great information - thank you so much for it! So the bricks of the coco fiber can you also get from petco? I just want to make sure I get the correct stuff tomorrow - today was his eating day and he seemed quite hungry so I did feed him but I will lay off until he does poop again - as for the honey, this is something I should be able to get from a regular grocery store correct? If not where would I find it. I have became quite attached to my little buddy so I want to make sure I am addressing everything correctly. Thank you so much!

[monster]

Ya you should be able to get the bricks at Petco, and the honey at the grocery store or anywere that sells groceries should carry it.

[Samiialexxis]

Ya you should be able to get the bricks at Petco, and the honey at the grocery store or anywere that sells groceries should carry it.

Hey there, I just wanted to check back in. We switched the substrate completely and also bought some of that calcium powder. So I am a bit concerned still. When we first got him he was impacted and with many honey baths and gutting all the substrate out of the cage he pooped - but when he was impacted that time he did not even want to eat, he rejected it at all costs. This time around he wants to eat. He is not rejecting food and as soon as he is brought out of his habitat that is what he is expecting. With the cocofiber substrate it is making it hard for me to tell if he has went or not but I fed him a super small pellet today with some of the calcium. Attached are some pictures:

So this is the new setup with new cocofiber substrate


And this was him a few days ago with the new subtrate


Now here is him today - is he still impacted? The fiance says that he is looking a lot better, and like I said - it could just be my own anxiety, but I just want to make sure we are taking care of him properly. He is looking better and the skin is more loose and less engorged, but what do you think?

[monster]

Hi, ya he looks fine now man you could give him something to eat. Sometimes they will stop eating and sometimes they don't know any better and they will just keep eating. with the cocofibre ya its a little more hard to find the poop but you should be able to find it if he went. If hes moved check the old hole, when they poop in there hole they move to make another. Or if hes very active just skim your hand across the substrate or what ever you use to pick up the poop, sometimes they will cover it by walking over it while exploring at night. When they get bigger this doesn't happen as much because they literally become lumps on a log and lose that baby energy. All in all he looks better and actually looks nice and healthy from the new pictures so ya I would let him eat.