Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just bought 4 bearded dragons for my classroom. 2 of them were born probably in June and were abused, they have missing body parts. They are doing OK - not the best eaters. Any suggestions for picky eaters?

Now my real problem. The other two were healthy and came from the same father and different mothers. One was born in June and the other in July. The June dragon is a lot bigger. They both eat well and have food always available. This morning in front of my class the older one was perched under the light and out of nowhere she ran across the cage and attacked the smaller one. She had the little ones head in her grasp and wouldn't let go. I had to pry the mouth open in front of my class to free the little one. At first I thought the baby was dead.After cleaning the baby she started to move and by the end of the day the baby actually ate some crickets. The only problem is the baby lost an eye in the exchange. Why would this happen? Can I ever put the two together? Will the bigger one do it to the other two who are about the same size? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Brian

well it depends on a couple of things if you have all 4 beardies in the same cage it may have to do with how large the cage is. also you should never house two male beardies together cause they will fight and if you haven't sexed them yet that may be your problem i would seperate them for now untill you find out what sexes they are.

The bearded dragon that attacked was a female and the baby is too young to be sexed. Are there any supplements or vitamins that would help it. The baby doesn't look too good tonight.

You should probably seperate the big dragon that attacked the other from the rest. Whether or not they can ever be together can't be determined yet. First of all, it depends on the sex of your dragons. If you end up with multiple females, they can all go together. If you have any males, they should be seperate. For the time being, you may want to keep the newly injured on in a seperate container, a plastic bin perhaps. Keep it very clean. You don't want that getting infected now.
I'm also not sure what you are doing on weekends. Do they stay in the room, or do they travel home with you. If they stay in the room, do you have a timer to turn the lights on? Are you able to get in to feed them, or is there someone there who can do that for you. If not, you may unfortunately return one monday morning to find pieces of dragons missing because if they get hungry they can and will eat each other. If you are taking them home every weekend, try to keep things the same in both places so that they don't get freaked out by new surroundings.

Thanks for your advice. I am taking them back and forth on the weekends. I just got them this week. The hurt dragon will travel in his/her tank. The other three go from my home tank to their school tank. The school tank is too big to transport. Any suggestions on feeding the sick/hurt one? What to feed? How to feed?Thanks for all suggestions.

If dragons are more then 1-2 inches in size difference, they shouldn't be kept together. They will eat anything that moves and they don't care if it's another dragon.
As far as the injured little one. If he won't eat, you might try purchasing baby parrot food (Petsmart). Drip it on his nose, hopefully, he will lick it off.
That kind of trauma can cause him to stress and make coccidia levels rise, so keep him separated so it doesn't get passed to your other beardies.
This one may be better off kept at your home while recovering.
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TheClassyLizard

During the transport home, be sure they are kept warm. Maybe warm up your car before you put them in.