Reptile & Amphibian Forums

does anyone know a url that explains brumation in detail. my BD is just over 3 weeks old and seems to be sleeping alot latley. if not sleeping he's just laying there with a blank look or eyes barley open. the lights in his tank are on for about 14 hours so he shouldn't notice the change in lighting outside, but i notice him trying to sleep before the lights go out and it takes him longer to wake up when the lights come back on. he used to wake up as soon as the lights went on... is this normal behaviour or should i change the timer setting for the lights?

If your Beardie is only 3 weeks old, and acting like that, I would take it to a vet immediately. From what I understand, Beardies don't brumate until they are much older. I'm not sure of the age, but I'll make a guess at 1 year approx? How is he/she eating? What do you feed? have they pooped recently, what type of lighting, type of substrate? I know these are questions that will be asked. I have very little experience with bearded dragons (I only have my one, and he's about 4 months old) but the symptoms you desribe sound like those of a sick animal.
Let us know how he does?
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1.1 Ball Python
0.0.1 corn snake
1.0 Bearded Dragon
0.0.2 fish
1.2 cats
3.1 kids
1.0 husband

he eats about 3 crickets every two days, sometimes more sometimes less. but now i've got him on t-reex pellets which he seems to like. i'm using calci sand as a substratebut he's been like that before i switch from paper towels. i'm using repti-glo 8 for light and a repti glo 75w lamp for basking. its around 105 in the hot end of the tank and about 74 - 76 in the cooler side.

he's active when i take him out of the tank and seems normal. maybe he's just lazy and likes to take it easy. there isn't much for them to do day in and day out in their tanks... i'd take him to a vet but i live in a small town and they don't seem to know anything about reptiles. i'm moving to a bigger city in a few days so i'll check around there.

At that age get it to a vet. Make sure its eating crickets greens and is getting a vitamin supplement, water,etc. But to be sure get to a vet

Beardies that young do NOT brumate. They tend to at around one year of age and older (Some a couple months younger also)

Check all your temps in your tank, etc. I would also make an appt at the vet, especially if all your temps, etc are correct!

>>does anyone know a url that explains brumation in detail. my BD is just over 3 weeks old and seems to be sleeping alot latley. if not sleeping he's just laying there with a blank look or eyes barley open. the lights in his tank are on for about 14 hours so he shouldn't notice the change in lighting outside, but i notice him trying to sleep before the lights go out and it takes him longer to wake up when the lights come back on. he used to wake up as soon as the lights went on... is this normal behaviour or should i change the timer setting for the lights?
>>
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Lisa
www.beginnersbasics.com

Just a couple quick thoughts....

1. A 3 week old dragon needs to be eating a lot more then 3 to 10 crix every two days. At that age they should be easily eating 25 or more per day. Ours eat 50 to 100 a day.

2. 105 is to low for a basking spot. Increase a basking spot to 110 to 115 degrees (making sure the ambient cage temps do not exceed 90'0s on warm end and low 80's or so cool end). Young dragons need hot temps to increase appetite and stimulate feeding responses.

3. Increase your lighting. From that picture the cage looks to dark. If the cage is dark the dragon will not realize it's time to get up and move around. Combine that with low temps and your dragon will appear to brumate - even though he's not brumating, just has improper amounts of light and heat.

4. Switch off of sand and back to paper towels. At this age I don't recommend using sand, but regardless of what I think, he should be on paper towels or newspaper right now to monitor his stools and for ease of chaging/cleaning the tank if he's sick or has parasites.

At only 3 weeks of age it's pretty critical you get your dragon up to speed fast. Since he appears normal and everything when taken out of the cage, my guess would be your cage is too dark. Dragons need bright light to be active. When you take him out he may see more light or be exposed to that and it wakes him up.

Vet is always a good idea. I would get him to see one right away. But if nothing else, increase your heat/lights and i bet you will notice a difference. If you don't, he's probably got parasites or other problems and would need to be seen by a vet anyway.

brandon
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Dragons by Nature

Great point about the amount of light..... I hadn't noticed that in the picture

>>Just a couple quick thoughts....
>>
>>1. A 3 week old dragon needs to be eating a lot more then 3 to 10 crix every two days. At that age they should be easily eating 25 or more per day. Ours eat 50 to 100 a day.
>>
>>2. 105 is to low for a basking spot. Increase a basking spot to 110 to 115 degrees (making sure the ambient cage temps do not exceed 90'0s on warm end and low 80's or so cool end). Young dragons need hot temps to increase appetite and stimulate feeding responses.
>>
>>3. Increase your lighting. From that picture the cage looks to dark. If the cage is dark the dragon will not realize it's time to get up and move around. Combine that with low temps and your dragon will appear to brumate - even though he's not brumating, just has improper amounts of light and heat.
>>
>>4. Switch off of sand and back to paper towels. At this age I don't recommend using sand, but regardless of what I think, he should be on paper towels or newspaper right now to monitor his stools and for ease of chaging/cleaning the tank if he's sick or has parasites.
>>
>>At only 3 weeks of age it's pretty critical you get your dragon up to speed fast. Since he appears normal and everything when taken out of the cage, my guess would be your cage is too dark. Dragons need bright light to be active. When you take him out he may see more light or be exposed to that and it wakes him up.
>>
>>Vet is always a good idea. I would get him to see one right away. But if nothing else, increase your heat/lights and i bet you will notice a difference. If you don't, he's probably got parasites or other problems and would need to be seen by a vet anyway.
>>
>>brandon
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>> Dragons by Nature
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Lisa
www.beginnersbasics.com

my mistake, i meant to say he is just over 3 months old not 3 weeks. he used to eat what seemed to be a million pinheads not so long ago but my pet store couldn't keep as many as i needed instock so i decided to go to normal crix and just cut them in half. if i fed him any more i think he would explode. as for the lighting, i'm not really sure how to get it brighter. are there different types of lights that are brighter than the rest? the pet store in town only had two types and i chose the one with the most uvb rays(repti glo 8). there isn't enough room on the tank for another light...

you cut your crix in half? LOL... ok no comment on that one... i would try ordering crix online from somewhere like reptilefood.com. You can order 1000 of the proper size for like $20 or under shipped normally...

It's up to you about the lighting.. but the more lighting the better. Most UVB lights don't put off enough light, they put off a faint light with high UVB. We always use doulbe floursecent strips.. one for the UVB, and one for just a regular cool white normal flourescent bulb.

We but our fixtures at hardware stores for like $15.. then like $5 for a cord and wire it ourself and they work great. I'm sure you could buy a dual strip made for reptiles but it would probably be quite a bit more. It just really helps to have bright light... makes all the difference in the world with dragons.

Just my opnion.

brandon
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Dragons by Nature

My beardies that are 8 inches long, eat small crickets and they eat about 50 to 100 a day. 3 is WAY too small of an amount. He should not be full after 3 crickets, that WAAAY to low...ya i think you get my point, lol.
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~Julie~

...these aren't small crickets, they're the full grown ones...3 or 4 of them are almost the size of his torso. i'm not about to feed him 50 to 100... ya... i think you get my point, lol...................... i don't cut them in half anymore. i was just worried that he'd choke and die. anyways, the two strip lighting is a great idea. thanks brandon