Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I bought a female bearded dragon several months ago. Compared to my other beardie she was always a bit strange. She wasnt as agressive about her food and she positioned herself in awkward ways. She likes to spread her legs out completely straight and leans her head far back.

She is about 10 inches long. She lives in a 40 gallon tank with paper towel substrate. She has a wide range of temperatures including a 90 degree basking spot and a cool spot of about 75 degrees. Along with her heat lights she has a UV light. She eats crickets and mealworms.. sometimes hers veggies (usually collards, carrots, green beans, and apples).

Basically she doesnt eat much, doesnt poop much, sleeps alot, and does the wierd tilty head thing. I'm afraid she might have some neurological condition... maybe ate a cricket that was too big before I bought her...

Any comments are appreciated.. thanks, Marie

The condition your dragon has is known as 'Stargazer's Disease'. It is caused by a couple things, nutrition imbalance or a neurological disorder. Only a vet examination can tell which one she is suffering from.

From the description of your set up I can see two things wrong. Her basking spot is too cold, it should be at least 95F. For young dragons it is best to have the basking spot between 100-115F and older dragons seem to like it around 95-105F. A basking temp of 90F means your dragon can't properly digest her food, hence why she doesn't poop often nor have a good appetite. Which leads me to believe your dragon is suffering from the treatable cause of Stargazer's disease (nutritional imbalance). Also, mealworms don't make a good food source for young dragons, they tend to cause impaction and don't have alot of nutritional value to them. They are ok as an occasional treat but shouldn't be a staple. It is better to wait till she is at least 10" long and offering newly molted superworms as a treat.

My suggests, increase the basking temperature into the 100-110F range, either by lowering the basking light, raising the basking spot (in your case, I recommend lowering the light instead of raising the basking temp, she may not have as good balance and you don't want to risk her falling off her basking spot). Or increase the wattage of your basking bulb. (use household flood type bulbs, these are much cheaper and just as effective as pet store basking spots).

Make sure you dust your insects with a complete multivitamin and mineral powder once every day. If she doesn't perk up in a week or appears to get worse during that time, take her to a vet.
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PHLdyPayne

I will definately up her temp and vitamins. If she does have the neurological kind will she die? I'm sure theirs not much for treatment.

Is she eating by herself ?
i just put one down we got from a friend he thought we could try and care for her .. but she would not eat by herself so i had to put her down . i miss her already =

I'm sorry about your lizard! My girl is eating on her own and she really perked up today because I increased the heat in her cage. I live in Vermont and its been really cold around here lately.

That fact she is eating on her own and is perking up with the higher temps is a good sign. Make sure she gets extra minerals with her insects and if the odd head tilt goes away she will be fine. If it persists after a week or two, I suggest taking her to a vet to better assess her. He can do blood work and test for any nutritional deficiencies and give appropriate treatments.

Right now I think it is too early to tell if she will have problems later on that may lower her quality of life.
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PHLdyPayne

Hi
what kind of uvb lichtning you have?
if its a flurocent then it should be not farter away then 12 inches,r else it not give enough uvb/uva
also what kind of calsium you use???
and i would drop the mealworms .
and raise baskingspot to 110-115 .
the symtpoms sounds like impaction maybe due low temps and giving mealworms r lack of calsium /uvb/uva
mealworms r hard to digest and when temp is low then its very hard to digest .
byeeeeee
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