Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Keep in mind this is my experience and may not be typical for all dragons.

After having my dragon on T-Rex VGM supps. and collard greens daily for about a month or two my dragon started slowing down dramatically. He would no longer dig and was inactive. I noticed his joints seemed to be stiff and he also seemed to need to try harder to poo.

Right before I decided to take him off of the TRex supps. he had been constipated for 4 days and when he finally did go his urates were ROCK hard, unlike before. I also noticed his back, towards his hind legs and to the left side of the spine seemed to be swollen.

I thought maybe he was getting too much calcium so I took him off the collards and Trex supps. and gave him romain lettuce for about a week. The swelling seemed to go away, he began to dig again and was pooping daily. His urates seemed back to normal as well.

After a couple of more weeks of Romain with some collard mixed in but no TRex supps. I decided to go ahead and put him back on the Trex supps with Collards daily again. Two weeks into this regimen he became constipated again and also began to swell in the same spot on his back. He also became inactive once more and just didn't seem to be himself.

In my opinion, with my dragon, there is something in the Trex supplements my dragon cannot handle. It seems like there is something happening to his kidneys when I feed it to him and he becomes constipated.

This is just to share my experience with the TRex VGF supplements. My dragon may very well have some condition which causes him problems that others may not experience with the supplements.

I don't really know what is going on here but thought it would be best if I shared what has happened with my dragon and see if anyone else has experienced anything similar. This whole thing kind of sucks because either there's something abnormal about my dragon which will eventually take it's toll or there's something in the supps that will eventually take it's toll on others dragons. Personally, I'm inclined to think my dragon may have a problem but I keep an open mind with these things as there have been surprises in the past with manufacturers of reptile products.

Time will tell as long as people share their successes and failures when dealing with something new.
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Rob Talkington

thanks for sharing, it is something that is good to know so we can keep an eye on pour BDs. It is my expierience that some BDs have different needs than others. With 200 babies all being raised with identical husbandry some did better than others. For some of our BDs I have found that they do better with other BDs in the cage, some do better in a bigger cage, some actually do better with artificial UV as opposed to real sunlight.

To provide variety in diet we give pellets and salad with t-rex. Some will eat pellets plain, some won't. Some will only eat pellets when they are on the salad. They all seem to love the t-rex and fortunately have not seen any problems after one month of use.

Different strokes for different folks. I think it's important to learn from your experience and keep a close eye on our BDs when introducing anything new and different. For those raising babies crix free and those feeding live as well, don't assume all BDs are the same. make sure they are eating and pooping good.

Thanks for this valuable info
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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

For the people who are seeing symptoms how old are your beardies?

Ocho is almost 2.5 years old.
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2.0 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.0 ferret (Playstation)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

And are you guys also using uvb lights and what are you using for a staple?

I use the repti-sun 5.0, and feed mustard/collard greens, rep-cal pellets, squash, and occasionally mango, kiwi and spring mix. For insects I feed gutloaded crickets and sickworms when I can get them.
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2.0 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.0 ferret (Playstation)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

The dragon that just died was 6 months old, fed crickets, collards, romaine, squashes and a good vareity of greens, veggie and pellets.

He was under a florescent tube light, I think it was a repti-sun (sorry not absolutely sure, but I will ask the owners)

Again, he was taken to and spent two days at a very good herp vet, they got the impaction out, but it was a lot of urates alternating with solid feces, something I have NEVER seen in a bearded dragon impacted or constipated. HE passed away 3 days later, he still did have small knots on joints, but was going to the bathroom fine.

Its always possible this dragon processed or absorbed or lack to absorb things properly.

PLEASE NOTE: the maker of this product has clarified that they SHOULD NEVER be mixed with other supplements. We have asked to have that added to the label, hopefully to avoid other complications. We also talked to a wholesaler in Florida that sells this product and also has many bearded dragons themselves, they were using both and not aware this was not advised. They are inquiring further from the maker.
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www.reptilerooms.com

>>And are you guys also using uvb lights and what are you using for a staple?

The smaller dragon is 8 mos old and my larger dragon is 9 mos old. Both have MVB bulbs and were fed repcal pellets and collards, dandelion or turnip greens. Both dragons are fed silkies and the occasional super. I dusted both the pellets and the greens with Trex VGF. I did not dust the silkies with anything. I'd like to point out my larger dragon has rarely eaten the silkies, maybe 3 a week. My smaller dragon eats a ton of the silkies. My smaller dragon didn't seem to be as effected as my larger dragon.
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Rob Talkington

complications on these. He addittional was given Calcium dusting twice a week.

Really sad, he became consitpated, not only stiff joints but also small knots near some joints.

The owner was concerned and brought him to us a week ago Sunday, he spent 2 days at the Vet, and that is documented if anyone wants to verify it. She is Dr Carolyn Kohn at Bayshore Animal Hospital in Bradenton, Florida.

He was constipated with urates and grandulars, he had a slight bump on his back area from the impaction and several small knots on some joints. His front legs hardly bent and were stiff. They got the impaction moved through, but he passed away a few days later.

His diagnoses was over supplementation
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www.reptilerooms.com

My adult BD has been fighting giardia for over 2 months now, with no signs of improvement. I switched him to T-Rex about 2 weeks into his treatment. The pros are that he weighs more and is more colorful than he's ever been. The cons are that he eats less, has become lethargic, and seems constipated dispite having diarrhea.

After his next follow up, if there's no improvement, I'm gonna put him back on regular supps and see if anything changes. He's never had this much trouble fighting giardia, and he's never gotten lethargic with it or lost appetite, and the supps are the only thing that changed. I don't know why it would cause this, if it's the cause, if it will work or not..... but it will be interesting to see if he feels any better and is more regular with the Rep-Cal supps. It's worth a shot.
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1.0.1 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.0 ferret (Playstation)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

At times I help care for a number of Bearded Dragons that range in age from 5 years to 4 months and I myself have an iguana. We started dusting with the T-Rex ICB and VMF about 2months ago. Since I don't live with them I see the dragons every other day and I have to say that I have noticed a huge difference since starting these supplements. These beautiful healthy dragons are shockingly different. They and I mean all of them were lethargic, hiding, not as interested in food. It was scary the way they changed. Well, anyway I suggested that we stop using the T-Rex ICB and VMF for a week as this was the only recent change, just to see if it was the dust that was affecting them. Well, let me tell you after three days of not using the dust it's amazing they are basking eating and out and about again. I dumped the T-Rex in the trash and am back to using what I have used successfully for the past 3 years, so much for a new miracle supplement LOL. Is it healthy to supplement two feedings a day 7 days a week with this kind of supplement with all the different probiotics in it?? IMO this is were the problem may stem from i.e. too much of a good thing.