Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Trying to see if anyone has a clue about a beardie that I have. She is 9 inches and 2 months old. I got her about two weeks ago and a few days ago I noticed that her eyes are a bit watery and she is not as active as the others that she is in with. She does not gape, and she eats about three crickets a day(same as when she arrived). She usually sits with her eyes closed but not usually lying flat, more in a normal upright position. I'm not sure if she is sick or not because she does eat. Thanks in advance for any input.-Scott

You need to provide much more info. What is enclosure size and temps.? Are multiples housed together? Are you supplementing and with what? What UVB are you using? Is it the straight tube or a Compact fluorescent? How often are you feeding?

She is in a 20 long with four other beardies her own size. I use paper towels as the substrate, offer crickets four times a day, moist repcal pellets once a day, kale once a day. She only eats the crickets even though I offer the other foods first. I dust crickets with calcium/D3 powder. Liquid vitamins are put into a saucer with fresh water daily. I do see her drink sometimes when I fill the saucer. I use a Zoomed 75 watt incandescant over the basking area that gets to 110. The beardies crawl over to the area after the lights kick on and after 45 minutes or so, they spread out around it to find their comfort zone. I also use a 24" 10.0 UVB bulb. Lights are on for 14 hours a day. The cool side of the tank is 85 during the day. I'm going to try putting some regular human type eye drops in her eyes to see if it might be some foreign matter that can be flushed out, although I do let her bathe a couple times a week.

The first thing I would do is separate that dragon. Stress can be causing her problems. Also I really feel that a 20L is way too small to have 4 beardies in. Also if she is sick you don't want to spread it to the other animals. Otherwise, the husbandry seems OK. I would get the basking temp. up to 115 at the hottest point. I am concerned that with so many beardies in a small enclosure none are actually getting ideal conditions. It's hard to have a large enough basking spot for 4 beardies of that size and still have the conditions necessary for thermo regulation in a 20L.

How are you measuring your temps?

I also am not familiar with "liquid" vitamins. Often beardies soak in water and I wonder if the vitamins in the water could be bothering her eye. I assume your calcium is no phosphorus? She really needs to eat more crickets. Salad is of lesser importance at this point. Make sure you are "gutloading" the crickets prior to feeding them to your babies. Gutloading is feeding the crickets nutrients so that your dragons get the benefit of what's in their gut. Flukers sells a grain product that is sold in pet stores. You can also feed them some greens and use apples for moisture. The waxy cube stuff sold is garbage.

I would separate her...unless they are newborns a 20L is too small for all those dragons. Having that many dragons together will stress them out - and also will make it hard for each dragon to get the adequate basking time that they need. Uusally the more dominant dragon(s) will get the basking time and will thrive - while the others do not.

Her appetite is very low if she is only eating 3 crickets a day. This is probably due to stress.

I would separate her into her own tank (and ideally, for the health of the dragons - separate them all) and give her a couple stress free days to relax, then offer food again.

Try offering different feeders too - silkworms, roaches etc.

Also, once she is separated i would have a fecal sample checked as beardies will often get parasites when they are stressed - a coccidia or pinworm (or any parasite) overload would also lead to decreased appetite.

Bear in mind that if you choose not to separate the dragons now, that you should separate them soon. Do you know the sexes of all the dragons? If you do not - then they need to be housed separately until you know for sure because if you have multiple males they will start to fight as soon as they mature (likely, before you are able to tell the sex) or if you have a male and female(s)they will start breeding before they are fully mature and this is dangerous to your female. The dragons will ultimately fare better, especially at this critical growing period - if housed individually.
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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 am able to sex them. I will keep the males by themselves when they show signs of maturing.

Is there any problem with offering young beardies freshly shed superworms? I'm talking pure white, just out their skin superworms. I have a bunch of them and there are always some that have just shed.

I'd wait till at least 12". The best live food for babies is well gutloaded, appropriately sized crickets anyway and I wouldn't let them develop a taste for something else too soon.

Quick question...

What about properly gutloaded roaches and silkworms as staple feeders for young beardies?

I ask because my new beardie is not hugely fond of crickets...he doesnt mind them, but mostly he is lazy and prefers food he can take from a bowl. He will eat crickets, but not with as much vigor as he attacks the roaches and the silkies. As a result i have been feeding him primarily gutloaded blaptica dubia from my colony, and silkworms, with crickets a couple times a week to add some variety.

I've never had to do this with a beardie - my othrer beardies have always relished crickets...so i just want to make sure he is getting the proper nutrition.
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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 think it's fine. Appropriately sized roaches should be just as nutritious as crickets.

You can only feed silkworms, silkworm food so I'm not as keen on them. But, last December I took in a 27 gram dragon that for all intensive purposes is paralyzed, I was told she was 7 months old. She cannot chase crix or roaches obviously. He primary food is baby silkworms. Occasionally, I help her to eat crix, but she gets frustrated easily. I also leave a small salad with her full time.

Today she weighs 68 grams and is 1 1/2 years old. I'm not sure you can call her a success story but she does well on mostly silks.

Last year I hatched a deformed dragon here. I was sure he/she wouldn't live through the first day. So I named him/her Princess so he/she wouldn't die without a name. lol.

He turned out to be a boy so I renamed him "Kaden" which means strength. One side of his body is deformed and he has little use of 2 of his legs on one side. Again, I fed him primarily silkworms. His weight gain stayed about the same as his normal brothers. Today, he has learned to use his back leg (it has no knee) and gets around well enough to chase crix. He weighs over 500 grams and is 15 months old. Maybe this is a better silkworm success story. lol.

Thanks so much! That makes me feel better The problem im running into now is that he doesnt really want to eat much other than silkworms - im probably gonna have to start breeding them!

Im gonna try to start convincing him to eat more crickets
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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 took her to the vet yesterday along with a fecal. The vet says she has coccidia. He gave me a sulfa drug to treat her and her tankmates with. Just curious, does anyone know if parazap is effective against coccidia?

Parazap is a good preventative and helps promote healthy gut flora. Some claim it does actually treat parasites but I am not convinced it is better than using vet subscribed treatments. After you finish treating your dragons as per the vet, using parazap is a great way to help regrow beneficial gut flora and stimulate appetite as well.
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PHLdyPayne

Sulfa drugs can be very dehydrating...so make sure to keep him well hydrated with frequent soaks during the treatment

Parazap or acidophiliz are good for replenishing the gut flora after the treatment. I personally recomend acidophiliz, simply because it tastes good and they will accept it readily, whereas parazap tends to need to be forced.
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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

All dragons have coccidia...this is natural.

Stress plays a huge role on the amount of coccidia that are active and unhealthy to the dragon. From reading into the previous posts it looks to me like housing with more than one animal is the source. Separate this dragon from the others if you have the means to do so.

High-levels of coccidia can be controlled w/o the use of treatments simply by using methods to reduce stress. This includes housing, diet, and temperatures.

If you do need to supplement, I agree with Mim that acidophiliz is a great product. I use with all of my dragons to keep a good amount of healthy bacteria in their system. I'm not sure how effective it would be in fighting a dangerous level of coccidia but it does improve a bearded's overall health.

Coccidia is naturally occuring in the Beardies gut - but if they are stressed and the levels increase to a super-infection then they will need to be treated in order to get the levels back under control.

If the stressor that caused the levels to increase are not removed then the coccidia will increase again.
-----
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

Hi Scott,

I 2nd BDlvr's advice on separating her from the others. Sounds to me like she just needs her own space for a while. Symptoms like barely-open eyes as you describe are usually related to stress. Being the newest member to a 20L with 3 others is more than likely causing this.

If you have the means to provide her with another cage for a while I would recommend it. Give her some time in her own 20L to get adjusted. Within the next 2-3 days of isolation her diet should improve greatly.

-Kevin