Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I purchased an 8 week old beardie about a week ago. She has hardly eaten at all. She will not touch the crickets, won't eat any veggies, and she has only eaten some meal worms that I have hand fed her. Now she is refusing those. She hides and sleeps most of the day, rarely coming out to bask unless I get her up and mist her. She tested positive for one type of parasite, which she is being treated for and almost through with her medication, but she still is not coming around. According to her reptile vet, the heat is right, she has a good UV light, etc. Any suggestions? I fear she is not going to make it another week at this rate.

this isn't much help to you...but someone here will help you I'm sure. If your beardie doesn't recover, I think you should be able to get your money back from the vet.

I've had to take my beardie in to the vet and I ended up paying a good $400. He gave us medicine that didn't work, and about month later he came around and was (and still is) doing fine.

If he looks dehydrated, you may need to give it some gatorade. A syringe (without a needle of course) is and easy way to drip-drip it right on the nose.

Does the belly look bloated? Is it possible that it may be blocked? You said that you have been feeding it mealworms...(superworms?) sometimes these can get blocked in the digestive tract. If this sounds like the problem try a warm bath to encourage defication.

What is your substrate? Although an 8 week old is probably ready for a real substrate like sand, when ever you have a sick dragon you want to switch to something like papertowel until they are better.

Pictures really help us here otherwise it is just a random guessing game.
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a free range dragon is a happy dragon

Beardies absolutely hate change and will commonly go off their food for a week or so when something big changes (like moving them to a new house). Also the meds (I'm assuming either albon or panacure) are well known for knocking them off their food and dehydrating them. Keep her hydrated, try some pedialite and drip it with an eyedropper or syringe in addition to the mistings and baths. Stop feeding mealworms, the shells contain too much chitin that won't digest and will impact your baby over time, stick with crix, roaches, silkies and salad. I personally don't trust all vets after seeing some of the idiotic advice they have given over the years, why don't you post your temps, substrate, bulb types, etc. and we'll just double check them for you. I personally won't treat babies for parasites until they are settled in but since you're almost through the treatment I'd stick with it. Here's a recipe for a slurry that might help get her through

1 part repcal juvie pellet (ground in coffee grinder)
1 part veal babyfood
sprinkle of Ca w/d3
enough pedialite to make it soupy
nuke it for 30sec
let cool to room temp and add more pedialite if necessary
feed with needless syringe, basically drop on their nose and they'll usually lap it right up, sometimes you have to gently pry that first drop in.

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Heart Mountain Herps

You can try force feeding. I've done this mainly to get beardies to eat dry/moist pellet food. I pull the side of the bottom lip down gently and put a moist peice of food in between. Usually the dragon will open his mouth and the food will fall in and they realize how yummy food is! I've also dont this with carrot shavings that come in salad packs and stiffer peices of lettuce.

i had some trouble with mealworms a few weeks ago, my eardie absolutely loved them and i made the mistake of getting him the superworms because he refused to eat anything else. pretty soon he started throwing everything up and when he wasnt doing that he was hiding and sleeping. make sure you get the medium meal worms, after i took him off of the larger ones he perked up considerably and he is now eating veggies, crickets and roaches. (i had to get over them for his sake!) also, be sure you have a calcium/vitamin supplement to dip the crickets in. you can also sprinkle it over lettuce if she won't eat crickets. i also think you should post your light stats, ive heard some crazy stuff from vets, not saying that yours doesnt know what they're talking about, but after one told me that tap water was fine for misting i tend to be a little suspicious. you might want to make sure you're using distilled water in your mistings, i have found that to work well. also, if your beardie is about to shed, she will go off her regular eating schedule, and you said she was on a parasite treatment, that might have something to do with it too.
I really hope this was even the least bit helpful, and i hope she will be okay! please update this letting us know what happens.