Reptile & Amphibian Forums

HI ALL.. I rescued 4 bearded dragons on Sunday, all in HORRIBLE shape. One was so bad off it died within a day. Very deformed and emacitated. One is an adult with a rotten tail, looks as if a rat chewed on it. The other 2 are young, yearlings maybe..
I doubt if any of these dragons have ever seen a UV bulb. All are Half starved, deformed, mite ridden.. BUT the surviving 3 look like they should pull through.

Out of all, only 1 is eating. I have them in a 55 gal tank, with heat emitter, desert UVB strip. Temp is 90 on hot side, 80 on cool side. At the moment, I have pure pedialite in water bowl, but all they do is stand in it.

What can I do to get them to eat?? What might be the problem?? I will be force feeding a mix of jumpstart and pedialite this weekend if nothing improves. But is there anything I can do to stimulate them??

ALSO, WHat do I NOT feed Beardies?? I know herp care, but never raised a dragon..

I am researching everything I can find on beardies, but can't find anything on how to bring them back from hell..

If anyone can help with any of these questions.

Thanks in advance,

Harpy

Were they all housed together before you got them? If they were housed seperate then you need to do the same as the stress of the other dragons may be causing some not to eat. Especially since your post seems to say that 1 is larger. I personally would seperate all of them until their health improves.

The basking spot for adults (over 18" should be 105-110. 90 is fine for the background temp. on the hot side and 80 is fine on the cool side (down to room temp.)

Live food should be dusted each feeding with Calcium w/D3 (No Vitamin A or Phosphorus) One feeding a week should be dusted with a multivitamin. I use RepCal for both. Good live feeders are Crickets, roaches (no longer than the space between the dragon's eyes) silkworms, hornworms, phoenixworms, or superworms (adults only).

Here's a good source for greens and vegs.

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

But, the first thing I would do is take them to the Vet. They should have fecals done to test for parisites. Depending on the results they may need to be treated for the parasites and mites. It may be best to amputate a part of the ones tail.

Most dragons won't drink from a water bowl. I use an eyedropper to drip water on the tip of their nose and they lick it if they are thirsty.

Beautifuldragons.com has a lot of good health info as does Melissa Kaplan's site anapsid.org