Anorexia Playbook

Anorexia is the most common worry a new gecko owner brings to email. It is also the most commonly over-diagnosed crisis in keeping. Healthy adult leopard geckos skip meals routinely. Cresties tolerate fasts well. The Anorexia Playbook distinguishes behavioral skipping (annoying but harmless) from medical anorexia (sick and getting worse).

The playbook frames weight as the deciding signal. A gecko that skips meals and holds weight is not in trouble. A gecko that skips meals and loses 10 percent of body weight in four weeks is sick until a vet says otherwise. Everything else in the playbook is the structure that helps the keeper know which of those two cases they have.

What the document does:

It defines what anorexia means and what it does not, names the five most common causes (stress, low temps, brumation, pre-shed, food fatigue), gives an immediate-action checklist for today, and sets clear thresholds for escalation to VET NOW. The vet-visit section lists the documents to bring and the prevention section reframes anorexia as a husbandry-routine problem in most cases.

What is included:

• Definition of anorexia versus normal meal-skipping
• Five common causes ranked by frequency, with species-specific notes
• Today checklist covering weight, temperature audit, humidity audit, shed signs, food rotation, and starting the Feeding Log
• Six vet-now triggers including 10 percent weight loss, dehydration, juvenile refusal past 7 days, adult refusal past 4 weeks
• What to bring to the vet (Feeding Log, Weight Log, Daily Husbandry Log, photos, fresh stool sample)
• Recovery tracking guidance for the 14 days after eating resumes
• Brumation versus disease guidance for winter leopard gecko cases

Format and how it works:

Word version (.docx) for editing and a PDF version for printing. The print version lives in the kit binder. The playbook is written to be read once during a worrying refusal episode and referenced again when patterns repeat.

Why this version is different:

Most reptile anorexia advice is either "feed it different food" or "see a vet." This one builds a real decision framework with weight as the deciding signal and brumation explicitly framed as normal. New owners who follow the playbook avoid the panic visits and the vet visits that arrive without data.

Who this is for:

For gecko keepers managing an active refusal episode and for breeders sending buyers home with a real anorexia framework before the first 2am email. Pairs with the Feeding Log, Weight Log, Symptom Triage Flowchart, and the 7-Day Monitor Protocol.

Get the playbook on its own, or open the bundle for the full kit at volume pricing.