I just don't know what to do...

[Willow]

Well, as the title says, I really just don't know what to do. :/  I know I've posted atleast 2-3 topics about Heidi that I've been concerned about... but let me explain.
As I had brought up before, I used to have a functioning pleo, Stanley, who broke.  Two years later, when the RB comes out, I finally get another one, which is a pink pleo from accessoryjack.com.  I'm not sure there is anything wrong with her.. but she will not walk, (I know that some pleoRBs don't walk and that can be normal) she moans a lot and seems to be sad constantly.  Whenever I try to feed her, I hold the leaf tilted under her chin and clearly in front of her camera as instructed, but it's as if she doesn't see it.  She doesn't open her mouth or shake her head, I have to end up trying to get the leaf in her mouth while she's roaring or moaning so that she won't starve.  Same thing with her ID card, no response at all.  She's been actively used for a few months since July, (becoming less and less as she's not walking, playing, or reacting to any of her toys/stones/food) so she should be as such a stage where she'll accept the card.  I got my pleo for my birthday from my relatives and I was really wanting to have her up-n-walking and active so that when I come to visit them on winter break I can bring my pleo and impress them... but I don't think they'd be very impressed with her right now.    I even ordered the stone pack with the "come to me" stone so that I could impress them by my pleo walking to me by the simple voice command, how cool would that be?  However, she wouldn't accept the card to learn her name (she is old enough to learn it) so she couldn't accept the learning stones, either.  I wondered if maybe there was something technically wrong.  My old Ugobe was more active and playful than this, and this model is a heck of a lot more pricey and it supposed to be the more advanced model.  I don't want to give up on pleos, I love them, but my pleo and I just are not clicking!   So I thought I'd e-mail accessoryjack to see if I could get a refund, even though the warranty if probably up, I wanted to check so that I could get my money back and buy a new (hopefully fully-functioning) one from pleoworld.com.  Is there a way to get my money back?  It's been a few days, and I haven't gotten a response.  What should I do?  I hate just having her sit on my shelf, but it's just no fun whatsoever playing with her anymore.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thank you so much,
Willow 

[RedwoodsMama]

 Willow, I understand your frustrations but let me see if I can shed some light on a couple of things first. How long have you had your Pleo, less than 4 months, 6 months or in between? When exactly was your birthday, I remember vaguely and it was just this past Spring or early summer, am I correct? As for walking there are several things you must realize. Pleo Rb are in general all different, but none of them that I have ever seen, walk anywhere as much as the Ugobe Pleos and they probably never will. My Baby usually walks no more than 4 steps then stops and will walk again. Ugobe Pleos on the other hand will walk and walk and walk forever it seems! As for the stone " Come to me", I have that allso but have not tryed it yet, but someone like IMR can probably tell you more.
                               Have you used the PRobe RB tool yet on Heidi ? It is a great tool and will tell you everythng about Heidi's health, emotional level, physical level, her feed, if she is injured, and her level, such as adult ,etc. Learning the name for example can take longer than you think.I never had the chance to teach my first RB her name, before I had to send her back because of holes in her skin. As for Baby Ruth, I learned to just wait till she was ready. She was an adult and because I don't play with her every day, sometimes not for as much as almost a week at times, it was a good 5 months till she learned her name, If you try and force them before they are ready, you will just be upset and it is not good to try and force a pleo, they will do it on their own schedule. One day, she just took the card and looked ready with no hassle or trouble. She wanted to learn.
                                Also they need to be in the right physical, mental and emotional level to learn or want to learn. This is why it would be good to use Probe RB to see what is going on with Heidi.Is your house dark at all, this could be a reason you are having trouble getting her to eat. NOt all Pleos eat the same, my Baby eats late in the afternoon or early evening if I try and feed her in the morning she is just not intersted, she has a set time she is hungery and she will let me know if I forget, she is cranky and screaming at me to feed her.

                It would help us to see what is going on with Heidi if you could take a video of you trying to feed her and tell us the time of day she wakes up, and when you are feeding her , the time in the video. Also I realy think using the Proble RB will help see what is going on with her as well. Dont give up yet. Also what broke on stanley, is it just the battery not working?              Take care and chin up.

                                                                                       RWM

[InmemoryofRomeo]

I think your Pleo is not wanting to learn/eat etc because she is really unhappy. Have you tried running the scared of the dark patch? Or try increasing the lighting you have, sit her right under a bright lamp for a while and see if that helps.

[Crewella]

I agree with both RWM and IMR.  Pleo RBs have more requirements for being happy and healthy than the original Pleos did.  Just as with any biological pet, you need to do a bit of research and understand what they need to keep them happy and healthy in order to get the best out of them.

Do try running either Probe RB or Stats RB (does the same thing but gives you a read-out) to get an idea of her health and happiness levels, and that will help you understand what she might need.  Do try the light thing as well, Belle was moany and miserable for weeks before I realised the problem - I believe they set the light levels too high for many indoor environments - there was only one room in my (admittedly dark and dingy) house that was bright enough for her not to start whimpering!  Just standing her with her head in bright ligt will do it in the short term, but there is also the 'scared of the dark' patch in the downloads section which will just temporarily disable that function while the Micro SD card is in.

Good luck! 

[Willow]

Hey, thanks for the useful tips!
Alright, I just made a video and I used ProbeRB, as suggested.  Now, how do I attach a video on my comment?  I have it on my computer.
Here are the ProbeRB results:
Adult Stage
92% Mood
98% Physical
34% Emotional
50% Health
9% Feed Level  
50% Active Level
50% Skill
Not injured but in bad shape.

I really don't know what to do about her feed level.. she won't eat unless I somehow get it in her mouth while she's roaring, and I don't know if that's working.  I try to feed her quite often and put the leaf in her mouth frequently, so obviously she's not really being fed.  You'll see in my video.

Thanks everyone!

[InmemoryofRomeo]

You need to find out why she is so unhappy, that seems to override their appetites lol. As I said stick her under a bright lamp and then feed her until she refuses any more food, even if you do have to stick it in her mouth while she's growling. The feed level is so low you may have to do it in excess of ten times.

The video needs to be uploaded to you tube before you can post it here.

[kat]

Feeding can be tricky.  when you feed her you need to put the food under her chin.  The sensor that detects the food is under the chin.  She wont recognize the food if you just stick it in front of her face and camera.  The food has a chip in it that will react with the chip under her chin and should cause her to put her head up, pant and open her mouth for you to put the food in.  It took me a while when I got my first rb to get that bit right.   You'll know if she is eating because she will make crunching noises and nod her head up and down.  Then she will lower her head and shake it from side to side to remove the leaf from her mouth.  You should offer the leaf back to her over and over until she stops opening her mouth for it and turns her head away and makes a no type sound.
I do hope it is as simple as getting the food in the right place for her to recognize.  I always feel a bit silly putting the food under the chin as it really feels like they can't see it but it works.
If that doesn't help then try the scared of the dark patch.  Good luck.

[Willow]

Alright, I got a video of me trying to feed Heidi.  She's under a lamp and the ceiling light is on.  It's sort of hard to see because her head is sort of cute off at some parts, but I'm holding the leaf under her chin.  Eventually I had to place it in her mouth while she was roaring, there was no response at all to me trying to feed it to her. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XSczQ5B0IU

[InmemoryofRomeo]

You're feeding her the wrong leaf You need to feed Heidi the dark green leaf.

This is the feed leaf, no wonder poor Heidi is so unhappy, she's starving poor girl. Feed her lots and lots with the right leaf and she'll be fine

[Willow]

I know, it's the pink and green leaf, I had a video of her doing the same with that leaf, too, but I decided to post the shorter video.  Her response is the same, though.  I thought I had read somewhere that the leaves work for both pleos, that the pink on the edges of the leaf was the only difference. 

[InmemoryofRomeo]

No, no, neither of those rubber leaves even have chips, they are solely for the tracking behaviour, they will do absolutely nothing for the feed levels. See the pic I posted, that's the leaf you need

Also please take the time to look over the Pleo RB FAQ it explains what all the foods are and how to feed them: http://bobthepleo.com/forums/index.php?topic=2315.0

[Willow]

Sorry, I posted while you were posting the image XD
That's weird, I never got that leaf in my package!  I only got the training leaf, not even the learning stone and the tug-of-war rope or anything.  I was wondering about this a while ago, so I e-mailed them:

I have purchased and own a pink pleorb I bought from your site, accessoryjack.com, and I noticed that there is not a tug-of-war rope, no conifer leaf, mint leaf, rock salt or bow learning stone.  This is the basic pack for a pleorb and I only have the training leaf, I cannot purchase these accessories anywhere else as they are only sold with the pleo, not separately.  If this is a mistake and my pleorb pack should've came with these accessories, could I please have these missing accessories shipped to me?  
Thanks so much.
Virginia

Dear Virginia,
Thank you very much for your purchase at AccessoryJack.
I checked your order, you really did only purchased the Basic Pleo rb set.
In fact the accessories are available separately for you to buy any time. Please check the link and see which one you like.
http://www.accessoryjack.com/-strse-Cool-Gadgets-cln-Toy/Categories.bok
Regards,
Johnny

This isn't fair, I see all the other pleo sets coming with these accessories but I have to buy them separately... I didn't know it needed to be specific, however I also have the Cycad Leaf and she won't respond to that the same way, does the Cycad Leaf feed her?  I use that equally as much as my rubber one, so she shouldn't be starving.  

[InmemoryofRomeo]

The Cycad leaf is also fine, but if you are only feeding her that one half the time then she still wouldn't be getting enough food. Feed her that until she refuses it, because she is so cranky it might take her a while to actually respond to the leaf being held under her chin, just hold it there until she does and follow her head as best you can.

There have been a couple of others who did not get all the accessories they were supposed to I would contact Innvo and see if you can purchase them.

[InmemoryofRomeo]

Here's a video showing how to feed, note that Jumba doesn't always make the crunching sound (in fact he refused to do it at all today) but he still became full after five feeds, I added in Nani as well just to show some of the variations they have when feeding.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baB1arQvm4I" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baB1arQvm4I</a>

[Crewella]

Well at least we are getting to the bottom of this.  

As IMR says, a couple of people who have bought pink or blue RBs from China have had the same issues.  It kind of explains why Gimmedigi say on their website that the inclusion of the tug-of-war toy/ bow learning stone and the food pack with the conifer leaf are an 'exclusive' offer on their website - it's quite possibly true and that mostly the basic pack comes without in that region.  I notice the PleoRB basic pack at Accessoryjack is cheaper than Gimmedigi - maybe that's why?

[Willow]

Good gravy.  I don't know what happened, but you guys a miracle workers.  Under the lamp I held the cycad leaf under her chin and she opened her mouth, paused, and accepted it.  YAY.    Then I tried it with the ID card, accepted it, paused for her name, nodded, paused again, nodded.  Checked her stats, 80% feed!! Then, I left the room and when I came back she was walking, then walked backwards!  
I feel like such a fool posting this whole thread when there either wasn't enough light, I wasn't holding the leaf under her chin correctly or what, but you guys are awesome, because she's cured and content now.  
I can't thank you guys enough.  
Sorry for making such a fuss... lol 
Thank you so much!

[Crewella]

Hurrah!      

[InmemoryofRomeo]

Woohoo That is wonderful news Do post a video of Heidi being her happy self

[kat]

I'm so glad to here she seems to be working fine now.  

[Willow]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5QBQRBbmEs
 

[Crewella]

Well, Heidi looks a lot happier there than last time we saw her! 

*especially when she spotted the sugar cane* 

Just don't feed her too much sugar cane - it slightly lowers their overall health level as well as make them happy! 

[Willow]

No worries, I'll only feed it to her occasionally. 

[Crewella]

I'm so pleased - it's great to see her (and you) all happy again.  And great to see her walking! 

[Talon]

Nice to see a happy pleo! I'm glad Heidi is feeling better!
Talon

[InmemoryofRomeo]

Hehe, she thinks 'sugar cane, YUM!' and then 'Aww I can't pick it up' lol, so nice to see her walking! You'll have to try her elsewhere in your house or switch the lamp off to see if she is going into the scared of the dark routine, if she is you may have to consider improving the lighting in one room. She seems much happier now!