Reptile & Amphibian Forums

and by late I mean like right now? My female has been acting wierd lately with not eating / pooping as much, and digging CONSTANTLY. She is not pregnant as far as I can tell (she has never been introduced to any other dragons anyway). I re-arranged her cage yesterday hoping to change stuff around a bit for her hoping to "wake her back up" but it kinda went the other day. She has since stopped digging, but has made a burrow out of a new rock cave that I have put into the tank. She dug for a bit to clear out the sand in the bottom of it, then curled up and went to sleep and has been there since yesterday. Any ideas on if she could be brumating or if something else could be wrong? I almost want to take the cave out of her tank to see what she does, but she seems so rested and peaceful sleeping there.. What do you guys think?

she may have eggs in here even though never been with another dragons. feel her belly for marble like objects, those are eggs if they are there.

late brumation is possible. temps can effect this and lighting can also. make sure she has plenty of light, not just the like from uvb. i use UVB and a household 60watt bulb for my heat lamp. if the cage is bigger than 3-4 feet long you may need another bulb just for some added light. i used to use ceramic heat emitters but as we know they dont give off light, and this was a problem for me and my dragons. they couldnt tell if it was day or night.

hope this helps

removing the cage may help. i dont like too many things in my cage that they can hide under for this reason, specially with babies. they seem to spend too much time under there. i do provide areas to get away from the heat but not to hide.
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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 I tried to re-arrange things like I said to spice it up hoping it would get her to start being active again but that obviously didnt work. She has plenty of light (1 uvb strip light, and 3 different basking spots with different wattage bulbs) but she doesnt really bask that much on the sticks. Its almost like they are too hot for her or something even though all of the temperatures check out between 95-108 (she never really has been a basker anyway.. just a runner) I'm not sure what is going on. I guess tonight I will remove the cave and just see what she does on her own once she gets up and moving around. Any other ideas?

Female dragons can lay infertile eggs, whether they are near or been with a male or not.

THough late or early brumation could be possible, (as Australia is heading into their winter now), it may not be what is going on. Best thing to do is get a fecal to a vet for tests just to eliminate parasites. A vet examination wouldn't hurt either.

Check your basking temps with a reliable thermometer (digital with probe or tempgun) just to make sure they are warm enough. Also, if her basking areas are too narrow for her to properly climb on and feel secure, may be a better ideal to switch out the basking spots for wider more secure basking spots. A good basking spot will be as wide as her body when laying down, with a bit of room to spare, is best. Try not to make them too steep either. THough bearded dragons can climb, most don't like to bask in a vertical position too much, so keeping basking spots no more than a 90 degree angle works well.

Try not to make too many changes to her cage, that can stress her and make her less likely to bask and eat. Best to keep things as much as they were before (though still good to switch to wider basking spots if yours are narrow). Other things could be stressing her as well, such as changes outside of her cage.

To rule out her being with eggs, feel her stomach area for any lumps or firm oval objects. These could be eggs. If you do feel eggs, provide her a proper egg laying bin with moistened sand/vermiculte or potting soil (moist enough to clump when squeezed but not for water to actually ooze out).
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PHLdyPayne