Reptile & Amphibian Forums

MY EIGHT MONTH BEARDIE DIED TODAY AND WE HAVE NO IDEA WHY. MY HUSBAND BROUGHT HIM TO THE PET STORE SO THEY COULD HAVE A LOOK AT HIM AND THEY DONT KNOW EITHER. THEY SAID HE SEEMED PERFECTLY HEALTHY LOOKING. THEY SAID MAYBE THE WORMS THAT I GOT ON-LINE COULD HAVE POISONED HIM EVEN THOUGH HE'S BEEN EATING THEM FOR OVER A MONTH. ANYBODY HAVE ANY IDEAS?

If you could provide the following information we might be able to offer suggestions.

1. Substate
2. Tank Temps
3. Tank Size
4. UV light setup
5. Feeding - what when how much
6. Supplementation
7. Regularity of poop
8. Behaviour in weeks before death

Any thing else you can think of - and please type in lowercase.
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Ross

0.1 Bearded Dragon (Fuego, spent the last 10 months thinking she was a he!)
2.1 Roommates (require more cleaning up after than the dragon)

First, I'll tell you how I found him. He was outside in a ten gallon aquarium where we feed him. He's spent a lot of time out there before without any problems. I live in Upper Michigan so it's not like it was extremely hot out. Do you think I could've cooked him? In the past week he has been spending most of the time sleeping.(if that tells you anything)

we really need to know what you were feeding and how often, what supplementation you were giving, his tank setup including temps and uvb, and his size & weight. without that information we really cant even hazard a guess
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Ross

0.1 Bearded Dragon (Fuego, spent the last 10 months thinking she was a he!)
2.1 Roommates (require more cleaning up after than the dragon)

He was eating superworms, about six or more a day, and he pooped regularily except two days before his death he had diarhea. Calcium and vitamin supplements once or twice a week. His basking spot was about 100 degrees. He was always under a uvb light. Can't tell you his weight but the pet store lady couldn't believe how much he had grown. Oh, and the tank was a fifty five gallon.

It may not be that he cooked. Did you feed him anything other than the superworms? You said he had diarhea for a couple days before he passed away. Hydration & proper nutrition are equally as important as temperatures.
Cricket

did cook him. Its been in the high 80's there, inside a glass tank and a really small one at that, thats like 120f or more as it heats up
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www.reptilerooms.com

Yup, I second cooked! Outside in a glass tank what do you expect. Unless the tank was in a very very shady area and he was only there for 5 minutes. What a sad and painful way to go. Never put an animal outside in a glass tank!
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Many people don't realize how hot a glass tank or even a plastic bin can get, until it's too late. That doesn't make them a bad person. I had a local customer do the same thing. They loved their dragon & they made the same mistake and felt horrible, as I'm sure KSUVANTO does.

Let's just help them realize they made a mistake but not make them feel even worse about it.

Live, learn, & move on.
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Joel R

Coming Soon!
www.SpikesAndScales.com

Joel, thanks for your compassion. I do feel absolutely horrible and sad. I wish I could relive that day. From now on I'm sticking to dogs and cats.

We went to my wife's family's cabin in Wisconsin last week, and I had to bring the beardies along for the ride.

I brought them outside to bask, since I didn't bring any UV light, and mostly because I find it's a great Psych picker-upper.

I AM NOT NECESSARILY RECOMMENDING THIS, BUT THIS IS WHAT I DID.

I had to constantly watch the temps in the tank and cover part of it sometimes, because of high temps.

Two things seemed to work: Setting the 10 gallon under trees so it would only get partial sunlight; or setting a towel over 1/3 of the tank so they could go to the cool side if they wanted.

I also occasionally would drip water on them, to force them to cool off a little bit, and allow them to drink if they were thirsty.

For a somewhat grown beardie, he may not have had a good cool spot to go to in a 10 gallon tank.

If you had the beardie in a 10 gallon in full sun, for more than 10 minutes, and weren't monitoring the temperature in there, I would say he may well have cooked. Perhaps he was already dehydrated from soupy poopies, and wasn't in a condition to handle quite that hot of a bask.

Again, I don't have much experience doing this, so I was taking measurements and watching closely, and using water to cool them off occasionally.
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ETChipotle