Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a male bd that was with a female a couple months ago. It was my freinds female and she was seperated from him for a few weeks then introduced she was doing fine and still is but when she was introduced my bd reduced his feeding a substantialy, understood because he was in mating mode for about 9 days when they were seperated he still didnt feed like he use to and he barely ate crickets now he doesnt eat them at all. He was still eating mealworms and salad but now he's not eating at all and is very lathargic most of the time. He hasnt lost a great deal of weight but has lost some. he was close to 600g and is now about 525g, I dont know how much of that 600 was feces but it cant be 100g.This also started in the summer when I realized the house wasnt being heated and the AC as on most of the time and it gets pretty cool at night, I noticed his enclosure temp went lower than in the winter months about 10 degrees. Ive been trying to turn a night light on for about a week now but no changes. Also his uv light is about 6 months old its an exoterra 8.0 his basking temp is about 118 and the cool end is around 70-80 degrees during the day. Thx for any help.

My suggestion is either turn off the AC in the room your dragon is in (if you have window inserts) or close off the vents if you have central air. This way it won't get as cool at night (or just raise your AC so it doesn't chill your house as much...which probably be best, save money on the electricity bill)

Losing nearly one sixth of his total weight is rather high though it could be due to breeding mode. I suggest taking him out of his cage, cleaning it down completely, washing everything, put in new substrate etc. Put your dragon back in, make sure the temps don't' drop so much at night and offer his favorite meals a day or two later. If he still doesn't eat and continues to loose weight, a vet check may be needed....

Giving him a nice warm soak to make sure he rehydrates will be a good ideal as well. Another question..this female from your friend, are you sure it was healthy and disease free?
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PHLdyPayne

I don't really understand your post. I do think that some dragons like to live with other dragons. It just makes their life more interesting. But if your friends dragon was there nad then gone I doubt that's very significant.

I am concerned about the weight loss and would do something about it. A good size adult poop is 20-25 grams max. So losing 10% body weight in a short period in my eyes indicates an illness. I would bring your dragon and a fecal to the vet.

If the cage temp (on the hot side) has been dropping you could be getting him started on a brumation cycle. This would cause him to reduce or stop eating. Then the reduced intake could explain the weight loss maybe. Usually this only amounts to about 30 grams not 75. I'd really only consider this after you have a vet exam and fecal. I have fecals done on all my dragons prior to brumation time just to be safe.

Sorry about the confusion about the weight loss but it was more of a guess. I was really going by the size of his belly. He didnt eat for about three weeks. That started the day I came back from vacation. During two weeks he defecated about 6 times wich is was he was doing all along. Since I came back he has only eaten greens twice and pooped once. Well I took the advice of changing out the substrate wich I did and didnt have extra so I lined his cage with newspaper for now. It was an instant change he started walking arround very energetically ate salad and worms and kept looking for more than as I was cleaning his branches I noticed there was mold on them could this be a contributor and how can I prevent it I think it might be the ac causing condensation I have central air so theres no way to bring it down or shut it off without having the house become too warm for my family. An d the title of my post BD was just for fun!

I can't under stand how there could be mold in his enclosure. The A/C would not cause condensation in a warmer enclosure. A/C lowers humidity and if your house is say 50% humidity @ 72 degrees then your dragons enclosure at about 90 ambient is only going to be about 30 percent humidity. Way to low to produce mold unless the branch was sitting in water.

I think you really need to recheck all of your husbandry specs. The basking spot should be about 105 for an adult. The ambient on the hot side should be about 90 and the cool side can be as low as room temp.

I would buy a humidity guage. High humidity can cause respiratory infections as can the mold you found I'm sure.