Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My beardie, baby, has been losing weight. Today, he doesn't care that there are crickets everywhere. I have been "starving" him to try to get him to eat hs greens...anything other than crickets. He refused. Every other day, I've been giving him a few crickets to make sure he doesn't die, so to speak. Past couple of days, I've noticed his legs seem smaller. Never saw wrikled skin, as I've been told to look for, until today. Now I'm afraid he's too weak to go after the crickets. Drinking well. Would not take the cricket from my hand, but he wouldn't before either. Help! It's my 4 year olds lizard!!

If he's not eating but he will drink water, try giving hime some pedialyte several times a day. Then when he's rehydrated (in a day or two), give him some squash baby food mixed with pedialyte and calcium powder. That will hopefully give him the energy he needs to become interested in food again. A dehydrated beardie won't have much, if any, appetite. Get him hydrated and bathe him in warm, shallow water daily too. If this doesn't work, get him to the vet asap.

Good luck,
Veronica
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Beautiful Dragons

what's pedialyte? my beardie sounds like the same as this one explained...

Pedialyte is a drink used to keep children from becoming dehydrated when they are sick. It contains electrolytes and vitamins that keep them going though they may not be eating/drinking very much. (I will try the pedialyte tomorrow am...almsot time for him to go to bed.) I was able to get him to drink via a warm bath, put him in his basking spot to get him warm and then he defacated. That's good, but I'm still worried. I mixed some pumpkin mash with water and dropped it on his nose via a syringe...licked at it a little, but not too interested. Someone suggested to me to try baby food. Anyone try this? Which kinds would be the best? Did I mention that he only, EVER, has eaten a few small pieces of Romaine? I've tried fruits, fruit juice, peas, SPLIT peas, corn, carrot, cranberries...I'm running out of options! What about wax worms? I think they're too big, but that was another suggestion I got.

Ohh ok... how often should I give him that then? cuz my beardie hasn't been eating anything lately... I've been trying everything and the only thing he's interested in is wax worms. He loves them. I gave him a bit of an orange yesterday and he went after that so that was surprising (I'm wondering if you can actually feed them orange tho?) He used to not be able to get enough of crickets but he's just not interested anymore. What is wrinkled skin supposed to mean? Mine has wrinkled skin and he's definately skinnier. He's almost always tired too, and goes to sleep every possibility that he can. It's frustrating seeing my lil' guy like this. =(

Get some squash baby food (it has more calcium than carrot or peas kind) and dilute it a little with pedialyte and add some powdered calcium. You can give this to your beardie several times a day. But don't force him to eat it. My beardies will lick it off of their mouth if I place a small amount on the tip of their mouth. That's a good sign that he ate some orange. Oranges are good for them. And the vitamin C will help get his strength back. Go to my website (link below) and check out the Nutrition Content page. Here you will find lots of info on what to feed your beardie.

Wrinkled skin could mean a few things ... weight loss and dehydration. Both not good things for a young beardie. They should be growing and not shrinking.

What is your basking temp and cool side temp?
What is the temp for night time?
Have you gotten a fecal test done? This will determine if your little guy has parasites, which can cause your beardie to not eat and generally not feel well. I'd get him checked out by a reptile vet soon. Don't wait too long, it's surprising how quickly they can go downhill.

Veronica
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Beautiful Dragons

Baby beardies are reluctant to eat anything but crickets. Some people have been successful raising hatchlings on salads with repcal pellets. The pellets provide the protein that is needed for the dragon to grow. If the baby won't eat greens or pellets, then he will get his protein from calcium dusted crickets - when his strength is back. Are you feeding very small crickets (1/4" to your baby?

Veronica
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Beautiful Dragons

Basking temp is about 100. Cool side is about 80. Night temp in basking is about 75. Mercury Vapor bulb on timer, fluorescnt on other daytime hours (timer, too), and a ceramic on thermostat.
I only feed him small crickets...have tried to get him to eat greens by creating movement with meal worms. Didn't touch the meal worms. I used to be a vet tech...about 3 years ago, but didn't do much with reptiles. What is the drawback to force feeding? I did what you suggested with the squash ( used pumpkin because I had that on hand) and opened his mouth to get him to taste it. After that, he'd mainly suck the water out instead of sticking his toungue out and eating it. What about using a meat baby food to get the protein in him? Keep temps up during the night???

Your temps sound good. Yeah, you can use a meat based baby food, but meat (chicken, pork, beef) contains a lot of phosphorus. So as long as your adding calcium to it, it shouldn't be a problem for short term use. I normally don't have problems with the squash baby food because I only have to use it for a day or two or three. So protein issues aren't a problem. But in the long run, if they don't start eating on their own, yeah, it could be a problem. Try a chicken baby food and see if he goes for it. Since it's so smooth, I doubt he'll be able to suck the liquid out. Hope it works.

Oh, the only reason I say not to force feed unless it's absolutely necessary is because it can really stress out a beardie. Additional stress when a beardie is already ill and weak is not a good thing. But if everything else fails and the beardie won't eat/drink on his own, then you gotta do what you gotta do. Good luck. Let me know how it goes with the little guy.

Veronica
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Beautiful Dragons

Don't worry if a baby beardie isn't eating veggies, it's common for them to not be interested in greens when they are small, the high protein of live food is much more important than anything else (just be sure you're dusting with calcium and vitamins.).

A salad of greens and other vegetables (NOT lettuce)should still be provided, but when they're very young, disinterest in plant matter is common enough.

I would think(

Don't worry if a baby beardie isn't eating veggies, it's common for them to not be interested in greens when they are small, the high protein of live food is much more important than anything else (just be sure you're dusting with calcium and vitamins.).

A salad of greens and other vegetables (NOT lettuce)should still be provided, but when they're very young, disinterest in plant matter is common enough.

I would think(this means I'm no expert) that unless they're sub-adult to adults, you shouldn't try to force the issue too much (i.e. starving them with no other option than greens).

Also be aware that beardies can be VERY picky eaters and are rather easily spoiled, 'unspoiling' them so to speak can be a very frustrating issue.

I agree...I've found out that my spoiled beardie may have won the fight!! I was always uneasy about withholding the crickets. Now, I've just gotta get him going again. Any suggestions on getting him to eat food other than crickets? I've tried fruit juice, several kinds, and none have interested him. Created movement with mealworms. My first just wanted to be handfed, tried that...nope. Changed dishes. Changed location. NOPE! Very frustrated, but my concern is that he never will eat other foods and be "malnurished" because of only eating crickets. Tried all kinds of vegetables and fruit. Nope!

Don't worry about it when they're young, just make sure you're dusting with calcium daily and vitamins weekly. Having gutloaded crickets helps too.

Leave a fresh salad in the tank every day, and also try to put the feeders in or on the salad on the offhand chance that the beardie may wind up eating some salad too by accident and then hopefully decide it's not such bad stuff.

You're not going to get a malnourished baby beardie just cause it won't eat its greens, just give it time, it's rare that they don't eventually come around. Try putting some of your calcium powder on the veggies too, as always, juice can make a nice incentive, just keep working on it, but don't freak out. A baby beardie can live on dusted live feeders for an extremely long time before developing problems, it's usually moreso an issue once they're adults.

Baby beardies typically eat very little vegetable matter, but as they get older, they tend to start to develop a taste for it.

amazingly, most all of my Beardies eat rep-cal pellets. one in particular that was skinny as a stick and never a great eater has doubled in size since discovering pellets. Mixed in with the salad they eat it all. You can try soaking the pellets in fruit juice for 20 min before feeding or just water. mine love it either way. it's also a good way to hydrate them.
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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

First thing, you should never be "starving" a baby to get it to eat anything else. It just isn't a good idea when they are growing so fast and need so much food and energy to begin with with.
It sounds like the added stress of the starving could have brought on a parasite/protazoal infestation. Take him to a qualified herp vet immediately to be looked at. Even if it isn't parasite/protazoal you will need medical help at this point.

Wendy
Scales Premium Exotic Reptiles

Thank you for all your input!! Itried the pedialyte with a fruit baby food and he loved it (w/vitamins). So, I placed some in his dish along with the buffet of anything I could think of. He ate some on his own! I will continue to feed him this way until he's back to crickets. I'll try the pellets, too. I've tried everything else, why stop now? If he doesn't seem better tomorrow, I'll get him to the vet. But I'm encouraged by the fact that he has had some nourishment and fluids..and eliminating every day, though they are smaller than usual.
Thanks again, everyone!!