A friend of mine came upon a bearded dragon that was left at a pet store who was lon longer wanted by its previous owners.I believe that he has MBD, but i am unsure. He has very skinny limbs, that shake around a bit when he moves. His name is Ngozi.
He also seems to have a bit of a receeding jawline because of it. and his teeth are also affected. i just want to know what the best line of defence would be to make this little guy better. i know to put him under UV full spectrum light and give him calcium, but i was just wondering if there were other things i could do. i want to do all i can for this little guy, He currently eats greens ans some crickets, but has a problem chewing. what i was going to do was make a pureee mas and feed him with a plastic eye dropper. He seems very gentle. and he takes well to being hand fed. but his teeth are so small or damaged from lack of calcium, i'm wondering if he'll need special treatment all his life or if his teeth will get better some how. (i dont think they make dentures for beardies yet.)
This is a long post, and i definitely appreciate anyone who is willing or able to help me on this matter.
I'll post a pic of Ngozi as soon as i can.
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Metabolic bone disease
Replies (2)
Best thing to do is get him to a vet. They can adminster liquid calcium directly to the blood stream, stablize any weak bones or fractures, etc. Once seen by a vet, putting the dragon under a UVB light, dusting crickets daily with a calcium powder with D3 (multivitamine 2-3 times a week) and feeding calcium rich greens (endive, collards, dandelion greens etc). ALso make sure his basking temp ranges from 95-115F to give hima choice of where he wants to bask. After a couple weeks of the daily calcium dusting, reduce to 2-3 times a week for adult dragons.
It may take months for this dragon to recover completely and deformalities of bones may never revert back to normal.
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PHLdyPayne
he has no teeth. so i have to puree his food and feed it to him through a plastic syringe. but the puree is full of dusted crickets and greens that are reccomended. I also add some water or pedialyte to thin it out. I was wondering if his teeth will ever re-grow. He is eight months old.
