Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey-

Does anyone feed their bearded dragons rhubarb. i know i can't feed him the leaves but the root or stem is fine to eat. i mean humans eat it . i just don't know if it has any nutritional value or not.

secondly what substrate do you think i should switch to. i used to have astroturf in my water dragons cage and leopard geckos cage but since then now use kitchen towels which by the way they and i love... easy to clean, soft, etc... but my beardie still has the dreaded calci-sand... which isn't that bad just that it turns his feet the color of the sand and gets all over his veggies...which in turn he could accidently ingest... What would you suggest.. astroturf, towels, newspaper, playground sand.... i know all are good... i just don't know how to decide.. newspaper has black ink which i know will get all over his feet.. astroturf pills, towels bunch at the sides, and he will likely ingest the sand.

and finally i don't know if any of you have a water dragon but i've been to the vet numerous times with her and we can't figure out whats wrong. i thought she had parasites or mbd because she was so small and skinny for her age(she is 2 1/2 years and only 15 in long).. plus she has persistant sores(which have gone away for now) in her mouth and twitches.. plus she doesn't swim anymore and i have to pratically force her to eat and bath. her cage temp is high and so is humidity. her fecal came back clean... i just don't get it. she did have a lung infection when she was a baby but that was about it. she is quarinted from the other big dragons which are all very healthy... am i missing something ???

alissa

Rhubarb is very acidic, so i'm not sure how this will affect their stomachs. It may be best to stick to greens and a bit of other veggies once in a while (eg: carrot, pureéd pear etc)

For subsrate, at an early age, i used compressed wheat pellets. Digestable if swallowed (Because we all know what a baby beardie's aim is like) so won't cause compaction. Word of warning though. Make sure to replace it often if you keep your vivarium humid, as it gets mouldy in wet conditions after a while. When they've grown up, change them to softwood chip (nothing poisonous, like cedar or pine). This gives the added benefit of helping with shedding. My beardie's are enjoying it.

I've never kept a Water Dragon (Although i'd like to) but from my experiences, a varied diet helps growth. For instance, my Blue Tongued Skink was from a clutch of two eggs, that my local shop had bred. I brought one, and shortly after, another guy brought the other. The pet shop checks up on all their lizards after a period of time if they don't see the buyer in the shop (I end up sitting in there for hours talking to the people there) They are both around a year old now, and mine is twice the size of his. This is because, all his was fed on were snails and lettuce. My BTS's diet consists of anything from red pepper, Cos lettuce, Bok Choi (in small amounts. Full of vitamins but known to block calcium absorption) banana, strawberry, Butternut squash, mango, papaya, mushroom, pear, different greens, cat food and the occasional live food (He doesn't seem to digest them too well)

I'm not sure what you feed your dragon, but this is just a pointer from my own experience. If you have any more information on the diet of your water dragon, please let me know.

thanks - i figured rhurbarb was to acidic but thought i would just ask...my beardie usually like to eat greens, grapes, melon, and peas... he's not a big fan of carrots. i have 4 water dragons and although they can eat greens and veggies it is really hard to get them too. the only veggie i can get them to eat is squash. my sick water dragons is being fed gutloaded crickets and mealworms.. I'm trying to get her to plump out a bit...heat is good she has a daylight, uvb light, and a night light...and she is hydrated... i dunno .. thanks everybody for your imput

Due to the formation of calcium oxalate crystals

Toxic Part: Leaf blades.

Symptoms: Nausea, violent vomiting, nasal
bleeding, stomach pains, headache,
backache, weakness, difficulty in
breathing, and burning of mouth and
throat. Death occurs rapidly if
large amounts of leaf blades are
eaten.
Garden plants

-----
TheClassyLizard

Paper is a good cage liner. I like it cause there is no possible way of impaction. I'd rather be safe then sorry. It's easy to keep the cages very clean, and sanitary, and is also cheap. One thing you might want to do is lower the humidity. This by itself can cause the lung infections, and breathing problems. I would double check your temps and make sure every thing is alright 105-110 basking spot 75-80 on the far side. Also dehydration can cause the dragon to be lathargic. Make sure the greens are nice and wet, mist them with extra water, and try and get it to drink a little. Sometimes my dragons seem to get into a little funk, and just the water alone gets them to perk up. hope this helps some.

for a water dragon. Got confused thought you were asking about a bearded dragon. Also the temps that I suggested are not right.

I am just wondering if some sort of scurvy or similar could be the cause of your water dragon's problems. I'm sure I've read some where that persistent mouth sores can be a symptom of that. Maybe you'd want to try a different vitamin supplement? And I would say try some parazp as well, even tho she has no parasites it might boost her appetite. Good luck.

Scurvy is caused by lack of vitamines...such as Vitamine C (may only be VC but I don't remember for sure...but my guess would be Vitamine C deficiency causes scurvy).

As for sores on your water dragon, not sure if that is the cause or something else. Sores could be caused by strees, rubbing against logs, rocks etc. due to either stress, ichy skin (skin infections) or even mites. If your vet has already checked for these and eliminate them, hard to say what it could be. I suggest posting the symptons and what has been done by your vet on the water dragon forum, maybe those who have more experience with this type of reptile will be able to give you more advice.

For bearded dragons, a good substrate that is easy to clean and doesn't look to bad is plain white papertowel. Washed playsand is often used for adults as well though most feed them in separate containers or put down a sort of 'placemat' under their food dish to help prevent sand getting kicked into the food. (papertowel would do for a placemat). I remember reading one poster't thread stating he used the vinyl tablecloths as a substrate, it being easy to clean and more decorative. He/she bought a 'non slip' version which gave good tracktion for the beardie. He/she also indicated it was pretty cheap as well.