Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A few days ago, i moved the holdback dragons up from small crickets to slightly bigger crickets, but obviously not too big. They ate yesterday and the day before, but when i came down today to feed and clean their cage, i saw small cricket bundles everywhere, and im geussing they threw all their crickets up. They did not eat today either. This is very unusual, and im very worried. Was there something wrong with the crickets? Did they not take to the bigger crickets? Im frustrated and confused, because i go out of town tomorrow and i leave the dragons in the care of my friend who said he would drive over and feed them in the afternoons. Anyone? Thanks

-----
David - Kevin
--KDRKreatures--

3.3 Bearded dragons (Rocco,Chong,Big Bob,Artemis,Cheech, Anna Nicole)
2.2 Eastern Box Turtles (Snappy, Mercuria, Gizmo, Galapago)
1.0 Ball Python (Carson)
0.0.8 Red Eared Sliders

0.1 Timneh African Grey (Roxy)

KDRKreatures-Home Page
Email

Did you change anything else? Are your temps right? Often if the temps are not high enough to digest the dragon will throw up the food so that it will not rot. There are more serious conditions that cause regurgitation, but you should rule out the obvious first.

Dragons have a highly developed cardiac sphincter and do not usually regurgitate without a BIG reason.

Do you have any other symptoms? How may dragons involved?

Hey David,
There are two things that I have noticed that relate to your problem.

1. When I buy a new beardie of course I quarantine them and they get to eat as many crickets as they want. So I have observed two beardies throw up from what I beleive is just overeating.

2. I have also observed young beardies throw up once or twice within the first day or two of switching them to a larger size of cricket. I hypothesize that they get too excited when they see the new larger crickets and end up eating more than they should. Another idea I had was that they might also be throwing up b/c of their body is adjusting to the new amount of chitin they are trying to digest. The surface area(chitin area) increases several fold when a cricket grows.

These are just my hypotheses but it could be something more serious as Kakadu says, but when you change a variable like the size of crickets I would definitely consider the changed variable before more seriuos health problems. If the problem persists beyond 2-3 days I would seek a professional opinion.

Full body Orange/Red Holback from my last breeding

-----
AlphaDragonZ
www.AlphaDragonZ.com

AWESOME lil fellow !
-----
___

Eve

She is 9 weeks old 12.25 inches and 69 grams.

-Randy
-----
AlphaDragonZ
www.AlphaDragonZ.com