Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello. I have a young female bearded dragon that stopped eating about ten days ago. She has maintained good body weight, but she has been very inactive, hiding frequently. Today, when I looked in her cage, she had hidden herself under three inches of sand.

I use adequate heat and UV lighting for her and her juvenile male mate. They live in a 125 gallon aquarium and are fed mostly crickets and worms.

Can anyone supply any answers? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Josh

How old and and what size are they?

This is the time of year when many beardies begin to settle down and brumate (rest for the season). Two of my older girls are currently nothing but tail tips sticking out of hides and have been slowing down for several weeks now. Babies and young juveniles don't usually brumate--too busy growing. But if she is of a good size and close to a year, yours may be doing so.

Alternatively, if the male and female have been housed together and are old enough, she may be gravid (pregnant). Please don't house them together, if you are. Perpetual breeding is not healthy for females, and on top of that, if she is under 18 months she is too young to be healthily bred at all.

If she is brumating, you need do nothing except continue to offer a bit of food in case she feels in the mood, and give her a drink once a week or so. She'll come out when she feels like it. Some people choose to reset their light timers to a seasonal 'less light time-more dark time' pattern at this time, and offer caves or other hidey-holes but it sounds like yours has already made her own.

If she is gravid she will need excellent nutrition and calcium supplementation/UVB to remain in good health. Egg production depletes the body of nutrients and calcium, which is of greater risk in still-growing females. Then, if this is the case, you will also have to figure out what you wish to do with any fertile eggs.

Best,
michele
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4.3 Bearded Dragons (Rescues)
1.0 Corn snake (Rescue)
0.1 California King
4.5 Royal (Ball) Pythons (3 rescues)
1.1 Dogs (Rescues)
2.0 Cats (Rescues)
2.2 Humans
No, it's NOT a big house

A juvi female over 5 months old should not be housed with a male. She is too young to breed, producing eggs at her age will rob her growing body of essential nutrients and minerals.
Neither is it healthy for the male - there are several reports of juvi males having difficulty retracting the hemipenes after mating, usually resulting in injury and amputation.

Your female is hiding because a) she is gravid, or b) she is intimidated by the male and is hiding. It is most probably both.
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Ross

0.2 Bearded Dragons (1 Yellow, 1 Chris Allen/Sandfire)

Didn't even think of her being intimidated and going into hiding. Duh. He's right, this is another very real possibility.

Please separate them, for their sake. Dragons have no need to be social with one another and housing a male and female together (or two males or two females with dominance issues) is to run serious risks with their longterm health and well-being.

Best,
michele
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4.3 Bearded Dragons (Rescues)
1.0 Corn snake (Rescue)
0.1 California King
4.5 Royal (Ball) Pythons (3 rescues)
1.1 Dogs (Rescues)
2.0 Cats (Rescues)
2.2 Humans
No, it's NOT a big house

Okay. I was not aware of the dangers of housing a male and a female together, strangely enough. Thank you all for the feedback. It is likely that intimidation is a factor; I had assumed that from the patterns I noticed, but was not sure how to handle it.

Josh

Thanks for being open to advice. Take her out as soon as you can get another (even very basic) housing setup.

Actually, since she is probably the more stressed and therefore delicate right now, I'd remove the male and leave her in place. If they aren't too large yet you can probably get away with putting some sort of not see-through divider and making two tanks out of the one large one as a temporary measure. Just be sure to have two separate basking lights etc, of course.

Offer her food (no mealworms) as normal, add a dish of greens and veggies for her to eat as she wishes. It may take several feedings for her to feel secure enough to come out and hunt. Dust everything well with calcium (no phosphorous added) and vitamins. Gutload crickets with high calcium foods if you use crickets. Make sure she stays hydrated and has ample access to UVB. Reduce your handling of her to the minimum required for feeding and maintenance until she seems to be her old self again.
(You probably do all this already. This all sounds very basic, and I'm not meaning to talk down to you, just to stress the importance of providing extra-optimal care during a potentially fragile time.)

If she is gravid, it's unlikely eggs would be healthily viable from a very young female. Hopefully, they did not have a chance to actually mate before she retreated from all the pestering. If she does lay, really ramp up the nutritional support to help her get back into her own growth--high quality foods, extra protein and calcium.

Best,
michele
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4.3 Bearded Dragons (Rescues)
1.0 Corn snake (Rescue)
0.1 California King
4.5 Royal (Ball) Pythons (3 rescues)
1.1 Dogs (Rescues)
2.0 Cats (Rescues)
2.2 Humans
No, it's NOT a big house

Another concern here is genetics. If the male and female were obtained from the same pet store or breeder, it is highly likely that the two dragons will be related. Inbreeding is heavily frowned upon, especially in beardies where the genetic pool is already very limited.
Unless you are 100% sure these dragons are not related, the offspring if she is gravid may well show sign of inbreeding such as poor growth or curly 'pig-tails'. It may sound harsh, but unless you are ready to raise the babies and keep them (its hard enough to find home for healthy dragons let alone inbreeds) you may wish to consider freezing the eggs.
Lets hope she's not gravid, just feeling dominated. That way you can separate them, and they'll both grow up into healthy happy adults without any stress.
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Ross

0.2 Bearded Dragons (1 Yellow, 1 Chris Allen/Sandfire)