Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i had a four year old dragon set up in a mansion. he was in a 6x2x18high vision cage and had the proper uva/uvb reqiurements. the only thing that he wouldnt eat was veggies!! i had him on a diet of some repcal dry food and i would always feed him can o grasshoppers. he loved those. i would give him ocaasionly a pinkie. but i left him alone without grasshoppers for three days but he had dried food and plenty of water but when i came to see him today he was dead. i am so shocked cause if you would see him he was always pretty active and a very healthy size. i just dont get it. i mean he was pretty young. any comments appreciated.

I am very sorry for your loss...

thank you!!

I have no idea what could have happened though...sorry i couldn't be more help

you should get a necropsy performed on him, but I think you would find out that there was some kidney/liver problems involved. Those pelleted diets aren't actually very good for reptiles, nor are the canned products. Next time stick with the basics. Nice leafy greens, with live crickets, mealworms, roaches, etc. (For adults you only need to feed insects about once per week...mostly feed vegetables).

That's my advice to you. I have the same issues with my dragon not eating good foods, so I have to trick him by mixing up his food enough that he doesn't have much of a choice. Still, he won't live as long as he should have because I didn't raise him correctly, and that is my fault.

feeding a pretty much all dry diet is probably the main reason your bearded dragon died. Though you had fresh water available, bearded dragon's don't always drink freely from standing water. Pellets and the freeze dried insects have almost no water, maybe 10-12% at the most. However, I think this is a problem that has been on going for quite some and he probably would have died if you were with him for those three days anyway.

A necropsy will deffinitely indicate exactly what caused the death, providing you haven't frozen or buried your dragon by now. Keep it refrigerated and get it to a vet for a necropsy asap, the longer you wait, the more deteriated the body will be and thus, make it harder or impossible to determine cause of death.

ALso those canned insects have alot of preservatives which in the long run, may be harmful to bearded dragons. I can't say for sure, as to my knowledge no real steadies have been done on the long term effects of consuming that stuff will have on dragons.

It is always best to feed a variety of both insects and greens to bearded dragons, the more variety the better. Proper supplimentation, lighting and heating are also very important. Insects are have about 60-70% water, greens as much as 80% water and this is where dragons get the majority of their water from. Being arid to semi arid living creatures, standing water is not something they encounter often in the wild, morning dew is pretty much the only water they may encounter for most of the year.
-----
PHLdyPayne

thanks for your input. my dragon really didnt eat those pellets much, i had them in his cage but they were hardly used. secondly he 100% had the correct uva/uvb requirements and he loved i mean loved to go in his big water bowl and bathe in it. he would put his entire body under water. and i did see him drink from it. when he was younger i estimate he probably ate in his life time about 10000 live crickets. he was a fat one. but the only thing i can speculate on is those damn can o hoppers cause thats what he ate. only. i guess its my fault a bit cause i should have mixed veges in his foods but i really didnt think he would die! again he looked happy to the end and never really should any bad signs. how do you post pics i would love to post some.

It is even possible he died of old age, though 4 years is relatively young for a bearded dragon. Obesity can also be a factor, but really is difficult to say. I am not a qualified vet, heck I don't even know first aid so nothing I said is based on any medical fact, just from reading alot about bearded dragons, reading what is posted here, using common sense and rechecking facts that may have become muddled over the years.

A necropsy by an experienced herp vet is the only way to learn for certain why your dragon died.
-----
PHLdyPayne