Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Our little beardie was a cricket eating monster and two days ago...stopped eating. She is still lively and is drinking water but she slowed down on eating. I think I saw a hind leg twitch as if she might be needing calcium. The crickets she was eating before had been dusted. She really likes mealworms but I had pretty much removed those from her diet in favor of crickets and mustard greens primarily. Should I maybe feed her some dusted worms so at least I know she's eating and getting calcium? She seems pretty lively and just shed.

I think I may have discovered our culprit. I'm using two lamps to heat her cage, one is a red heat lamp and the other is a "Exo Terra" Sun Glo lamp. I just notice that the bulb advertises UVA but no mention of UVB. DOH!!! Her warm side is around 95-100 deg and her cool side is about 75deg. She likes to sleep and take shelter in false plant I installed on her cool side. I just purchased an additional lamp an ESU 18" cover with "SuperUV" lamp that emits both UVA & UVB. Additionally she drank two droplets of ExoTerra "Electrod3ize" supplement. Given this little beardie's perchant for worms and my concerns about her not eating, she was offered dusted mealworms and unlike the crickets that she didn't express interest in, she gulped down 4 in quick succession. My daughter did report seeing another leg twitch though.

Advice?

I was reading in "The Bearded Dragon Manual" about Neo-Calglucon. How much to give and how often? I have a message into a vet that accepts reptiles but no call back as of yet.

but FIRST let me give a warning against that supplement I mentioned. Right after my beardie ingested a drop she had a full on seizure. It was REALLY scary. I thought she was dead. It probably only lasted 10 seconds and now she's fine but wow...

I got into the vet and she said the beardie looked great the inside of her mouth and everything was fine. Luckily this vet had experience with young dragons w/calcium deficiencies and she said everything looked great and she was nice and fat. While the vet was holding her the dragon had a little tremor but this time with her head. Just to be on the safe side she gave a supplemental injection and will call me in a week after she does more research. She mentioned a possibility that the beardie has neurological issues. She seems fine now. Petsmart where I got the supplement took it back no problem and listened to my concerns. Everything on the list of ingredients looks innocuous but....?

ive seen this in beardies that are fed insects too big for them. it affects their spine and back legs, like the twitching you mentioned. dont know if this is the cause of yours doing this but i know its happened before. i see it alot in a petshop near me that i dont like very much.

i wish her a speedy recovery, good luck
-----
Beach Beardies

3.4.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)

Thanks for the well wishes..I'd been buying crickets at PetSmart but they only come in two sizes. I've been buying "small" but some are pinhead and some are a bit bigger. I've been trying to weed out the to big ones but maybe you're right (I'm using the space between her eyes as a guideline).

She's still poopin' so I took that as a good sign. One definite plus of the UVB bulb...it really brings out her color.

oh man petsmart crickets??? thats a fortune. 100 crickets cost me 10 bucks there when i was DESPERATE.

www.ghann.com you can get counts from 500-2000 depending on size you want. usually 11.49 per thousand depending on size also. i buy like 6000 crickets for around 65 dollars.
-----
Beach Beardies

3.4.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)

Yeah, tell me about it! I authored a thread down below as to where to buy crickets. Hopefully she will be back to pounding crickets by the handful here shortly and I can buy some in bulk for her. She is still very active in her cage and is actively thermoregulating so I think the set up is good (now that I have that UVB bulb to go with the other bulbs). I wish she'd eat more greens though. She obviously checks them out and walks through them but she doesn't like to eat them in front of you. I leave her alone then go back in there and can see where she's tromped through them. It's so warm in there that they wilt pretty quickly though.

try some worms or crickets on top of her veggies and greens. add some colorful stuff too like strawberrys, blueberrys, blackberrys, a little shaved carrot, mango, etc. dragons love colors, especially red.
-----
Beach Beardies

3.4.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)

For veggies I've been mostly using mustard greens but always add something else in there too. The first couple times she really dug strawberry and she had little strawberry stains on her belly and feet. I've also tried carrot and brocolli. Since I know she adores mealworms I've tried putting them in the dish...she pretty much runs up, eyes the dish, then picks out the worms then scampers off. Given how fast stuff wilts its hard to tell what her faves are. Tonight I'm going to serve up greens, sweet potato, carrot, apple and some dusted worms (I want to make sure she eats something before she sacks out and then I'll try to go back to crickets tomorrow).

Ghann's looks GREAT. I need to get something to keep all those crickets in. I have what looks like a milkshape cup with a tube in it but 50 crickets in there leaves pretty much no open space on the ground...for 500? I guess I'll maybe get a rubbermaid or something...what do people use who buy crickets by the thousand?

i just use deep rubbermaid containers with egg crate. i used to cut the center of the lid and use window screen but they chewed through screen and kept getting out the loose sides of the lid. so i changed over to some off brand container that is really deep and needs no lid or screen. just provide lots of gutload, potato peices, and basically anything u feed your dragons. they love the dry pellet dragon food, and if the crickets get it the dragons get it too. i buy my gutload in 1 gallon tubs for 44 bucks from my local petstore who orders it for me. cheaper this way for me.
-----
Beach Beardies

3.4.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)

how deep? I plan on using a lid and keeping it nice and dark in for them mostly, but I don't want them going bezerk and hopping out when I go to feed them.

dont know the exact height but i used to use the 28 gallon tub i think. they dont jump out when getting them out too much its when left alone they crawled out the sides where the lid doesnt clamp down
-----
Beach Beardies

3.4.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)

Personally I don't recommend mealworms for any dragon under 6 months of age. Even then, I wouldn't feed too many mealworms or too frequently. However a variety of insects is just as important as a variety of greens. Small newly molted superworms are a better option than mealworms but typically very young dragons are still too small for even small superworms.

Other good insects to offer, are small silkworms (for young dragons, bigger silks are fine for adults). Butterworms are good too but may be too big for a small dragon right now. Various species of roachs are great as well, but stick with softer shelled roaches or baby roaches of the appropriate size (ie space between the eyes). Waxworms are good as a treat but should be giving sparingly, as they are high in fat and often can turn dragons away from any other insect food. They are like candy to reptiles.

Silkworms can be ordered online as well, typically with several sizes available, small, medium, or large. Buy the small size, and a pound or more of dry silkworm chow (unless you have access to a good amount of mulberry trees. They will eat the leaves no problem, just make sure the leaves are clean of any insecticides). Silkworms are easy to keep, don't need alot of space, just keep them clean and feed 1-2 times a day with the silkworm chow (it cooks up easily in the microwave, directions can be found at www.mulberryfarms.com ). Even if your dragon doesn't eat all the silkworms before they get too big, you can let them coccoon, and when teh moths come out, place them in brown bags (brown lunch bags works best) in mating pairs, and after eggs are laid, take the males out, feed the female moths to your dragon if big enough, or other insect eaters in your pet collection, or just flush them in the toilet. Let the eggs sit around at room temperature till they turn purple, then refrigerate for about 2-4 months. Take the eggs out and within about 10 days at room temperature (time will vary depending on your normal room temperature) they should start hatching. Feed chow till they are to the size you need.

Make sure your dragon is getting plenty of fluid too, either by giving regular soaks in luke warm water, or daily mistings of the dragon. Some dragons will drink from water dishes but many do not. Make sure you are dusting insects once daily for dragons under the age of 6-8 months with a good calcium with d3 product and a multivitamine. Dragons under 6 months usually benefit with every insect feeding being dusted.

For crickets, depending on how many you are going to be ordering at a time, a small, medium or large rubbermade tub works. Of course you want larger accommodations if you are ordering crickets in lots of 500-1000 or more. Best thing to feed the crickets is the exact same greens you feed your dragon (collards, dandelion greens, mustard greens, etc) with a slice of potato, carrot or orange as a water source. Change food every day to prevent from molding. THe mold can kill off your crickets. Fish flakes, crushed low fat cat food, skim milk powder or bearded dragon pellets can also be given as a dry feed in addition to fresh greens as well. To the dry portion you can add a pinch of multivitamin powder to help balance out the cricket's diets. Make sure your crickets have a chance to eat and rehydrate at least 24 hours after you buy them before feeding them to your dragon. Many times, especially with petstore bought crickets, they are not fed at all or fed pourly, so they wind up being little more than empty shells.

A good list of what foods are best to feed to your bearded dragons, how often and how much, can be found in the nutrition chart at www.beautifuldragons.com
-----
PHLdyPayne

Junie the baby dragon seems to be doing a lot better. I just got some 1/8" crickets delivered in bulk so prey size is no longer an issue. I'm also limiting her right now to about 6 crickets per feeding and two feedings a day. I'll up it again to as many as she wants in 5 min soon but I want to make sure she's out of the woods. She is still pooping daily and while she doesn't recognize standing water, I place beads of water right on her snout and she'll drink that way..usually I visual confirm she's drinking about 4-6 droplets each time (2x/day). Her environs and her get misted as well (light misting). All her crickets are dusted and I'm dusting the food for the new crickets to gut load them.

you dont need to limit the amount fed to her/him just dont leave extras in the cage. you want him/her to eat as much as she can but the right size.
-----
Beach Beardies

3.4.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)

For baby dragons, let them eat as much crickets as they can in a 5 minute period and feed crickets 2-3 times a day. Once they are about 8 months old yu can cut back to only one feeding of insects a day but provide greens all day long. By this age they should be eating greens to some extent.
-----
PHLdyPayne

last night after the vet trip she was alert and running around the cage but didn't eat much. This afternoon she drank a lot of water (I hand feed her with a dropper)--by a lot I mean about 8 drops, and then promptly nailed about 5 crickets. I cut her off because if these symptoms were due to large prey items I didn't want to push her recovery. When I came back from fixing up new greens for her, she was obviously in hunt mode. A couple crickets had escaped and were hiding under the paving stones I use to build up her basking area. I'm going to try to leave her alone the rest of the day. Hopefully this is a great sign!

I had told the wife to buy crickets from ghann.com but she mistakenly went to ghanns.com which then linked her to americancricketranch.com. We have a batch of 500 2 week old crickets on the way!