Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My BD is healthy and happy. Basking spot is at about 110F and ambient at about 87F. He is in a very large home with tile/sand. He is about 297grams and I am guessing about 11 months or more. He has been doing great on his sheds and eats moderitly, not pig at all. I give him about 30 crickets give or take on his activity and is supplied with a collared green/butternut squash salad at all times. The crickets are gut loaded and dusted with calcium and once a week I dust them with a multivitamin.

Now that the basics are covered this is where I am a little concerned. His upper tip of mouth does not sit even with his lower lip tip. To me it seems to be getting more pernounced as the weeks go by. As well he is not eating as much but is maintaining his weight.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated, I will try to get a good picture of his mouth later today.

There could be a couple of things going on.

Mouth Rot and MBD are the two that come to mind right off the top of my head.

What types of UVB lighting are you using and how old is it?
Is his food Dusted? With what?
Has he ever had a parasite test?
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www.midnightdragons.net

I agree with the above poster...the misaligned bite is a common symptom of metabolic bone disease. Could you give the specs of your UVB bulb? Brand? How old? How far away from dragon?

How often are you supplementing with calcium, and what brand?
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1.1 Bearded Dragons
2.2 Leopard Geckos
1.0 Uromastyx (Mali)
1.1 Corn snakes
0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake
1.0 Bairds Ratsnake
1.0 Rosy Boa
1.1 Green Anoles
1.1 House Geckos
0.0.2 Flying Geckos
0.0.1 Red Eye Tree Frog

I use a coil UVB it is 5.0 not sure of brand this is going to be replaced in the very near future (just finishing off his new cage) with tub lighting because I already know the coil is not good and it is only about 3 months old it is about a foot and half away with no screen.

I dust all his crickets with Fluker's Dietary Supplement Repta-calcium and once a week he gets T-Rex Dragon dust ICB. I do not dust his food there is no need, that would just be an over dose of calcium. He eats his collard greens everyday and enjoys his squash.

The coil variety of UVB bulbs are very poor quality and offer little to no usable UVB, this is likely your problem.

I would buy a repti-sun 10.0 or repti-glo 10.0 (the fluorescent tube variety) asap.

The changes to his jaw thus far are irreversible, however a good UVB bulb should stop any further changes.
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1.1 Bearded Dragons
2.2 Leopard Geckos
1.0 Uromastyx (Mali)
1.1 Corn snakes
0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake
1.0 Bairds Ratsnake
1.0 Rosy Boa
1.1 Green Anoles
1.1 House Geckos
0.0.2 Flying Geckos
0.0.1 Red Eye Tree Frog

Yes, the coil bulbs are a bad choice. Regardless a 5.0 only gives UVB to a maximum of 12" assuming their is no screen or other obstruction. I would replace it right away with a 10.0 that will give usable UVB to 20" unobstructed.

Also, is the Calcium you are using Phosphorus free?

There is no need to dust salads, I think that's what you were saying when you referred to food.

I took in a rescue of unknown age about 2 months ago. His lower jaw was significantly longer than his upper jaw. You could see his lower teeth and the inside of his gums even when his mouth was closed. He has made significant improvement. His lower jaw still protrudes but I can no longer see his teeth or gums when his mouth is closed. I have no idea the age of this dragon but would estimate he is a few years old. With the age of yours I think there is a very good chance the condition is completely correctable.

So Cuddles (I know a real beardie name there, my girls named him ) is basking in the glory of a 10.0 UVB tub lamp!!! My husband and I took it extremely seriously when we were given all of your advise. Our BD is extremely important to us and with the help of all of you we plan on keeping him a happy BD.

BDlvr - thank you so much for all your great information and guidance. You deliver it in a way that personally I can relate it, and thanks to your guidance my husband and I built and have our BD in a very similar set up as yours and he is a very happy guy.

Thank you all

You are very welcome Im sure Cuddles loves his new light!
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1.1 Bearded Dragons
2.2 Leopard Geckos
1.0 Uromastyx (Mali)
1.1 Corn snakes
0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake
1.0 Bairds Ratsnake
1.0 Rosy Boa
1.1 Green Anoles
1.1 House Geckos
0.0.2 Flying Geckos
0.0.1 Red Eye Tree Frog

Glad we can help.

Those coils are extremely bad. I had a person call me recently about her dragon. She said that it was having seizures. We went over her setup and I found that she had a coil bulb and that her Beardie could get within 8".

We yanked that out, started her on a liquid calcium and replaced with a Reptisun 10.0 at 10" I believe that she kept the UVB on for shorter periods of time.

Since the switch her dragons seizures have gone away.

Why the liquid calcium? Well those bulbs don't give off a usable UVB. There bodies process the Calcium in part by the UVB. It was, and still is, my belief that the seizures were casued in part by a lack of calcium, which helps control the muscles.

The good thing is that once you get your setup going properly you don't have to change it. You only have to maintain it. Like replacing the UVB tube every 4 months and cleaning. The hardest part about caring for a beardie, if you have never owned one, is getting the setup "dialed" in.

Ernie
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www.midnightdragons.net

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