Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Everyone,
I was reading through all of the helpful posts and am writing to see if anyone has any advice to a problem of my own.
I recently purchased two dragons. One probable male about 6 1/2 and another female around 8 1/2 inches. The past few weeks the smaller one of the two has been acting strange.
He has VERY erratic movements and at times will lean over to where his sides are parallel with the ground. He has also spun in circles and actually flipped over once. It seems as if he's looking at something that isn't there. When feeding he often misses crickets that are an easy catch and never hunts them down, instead just eating the ones that venture in front of him. Daily he probably eats around 6 1/4inch crickets. The bigger of the two is eating fine. Except none of which are eating hardly any greens. Both are watered twice daily until the stop drinking.
I was afraid that the bigger was intimidating the small one. But they never show aggressive behavior and often share the same space. I have even taken the bigger one out to let the small one to feed on his own which doesn't seem to make a difference.
My terrarium is a 20 gallon with calci-sand for substrate. There is a small heat rock, piece of driftwood and half-log for cover and basking. There are 2 heat lamps keeping the basking temp at 105 and the cool temp at 80 in addition to a 24inch uvb running all day. At night I have temps at 80 with a 70 watt exo terra night bulb. cover.
The small ones behavior almost seems like a neurological problem, but may just be normal behavior around a bigger individual. Has anyone else had this experience or any advice to give? Thanks a LOT!

Norm
nhaley3@aol.com

This is definitly not normal behaviour for a beardie that's being harassed by a bigger one! I have no experience with such symptoms myself, but it sounds like something neurological. Have you read the discussion on "stargazing" further down on this page? I think there were some good links there.

This probably has nothing to do with it, but I would definitly get rid of the calci-sand, and use normal, washed playsand instead. The calci-sand may cause big problems, possibly death, if digested by a beardie. Also, if the heat-rock is the kind I'm thinking about, with an electric cord attached to it, I would unplug it right away, as they are known to cause bad burns on beardies' bellies. Beardies don't feel heat from below, so a source of heat should always be above them, allowing them to feel it and adjust to it. You can still keep the rock though, but just as a regular basking rock, with no heat emitting from it.

Hope you find out what's wrong with the little one! I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

I'm no expert, but what you've said sounds like stargazing which is usually a symptom of a greater problem (often neurological). It can be recovered from depending on its cause, but it is often fatal, and needs to be addressed immediately. From everything I've read, we don't know a lot about stargazing because it's a symptom of many different types of problems ranging from virus to bacterial infection, to head injuries. You may need to seperate your dragons, talk to your vet about it.

Also, what kind of food are you giving, you may have induced problems from too large of prey(which can cause both neurological disfunction and impaction). As a rule, young beardies should not be fed anything larger than the space between their eyes.

I would also stop using calci-sand, it is known to cause impactions, and other problems. Many people here use screened, washed playsand, and others just use paper towel or repti-carpet(as long as it has no loose threads). The latest popular idea (from one of our own on this site) has been to use non-slip shelf liners as they're cheap, and easy to clean.

Here's a link to Melissa Kaplan's article on stargazing.

http://www.anapsid.org/stargaze.html

oh yeah, and get rid of the heat rock (or unplug it), pretty much all they do is either burn or electrocute things.

Some young beardies will not eat greens. I know some of our babies ate them, and some did not. As far as your other concerns, I have to agree with the other replies.... I would go to the vet. Hope this helps

Angie

Thank you for all of the replies and help. I really appreciate it. I will look into a vet. visit asap. (Hopefully I can afford it. How much does a trip cost on average?) Does anyone know of the steps taken in curing stargazing? As for anyone else that has any input or experience feel free to give insight. Thanks again.

Norm