Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Lastnight I ended up with a 7mnth old beardie who had been owned by a young kid. He hadn't been supplementing her at all and had only an incandescent bulb on her tank. He said he was feeding her only crickets and she had just started to eat a little lettuce.
Her cage was very dirty and the water dish stank. I stopped and got her an infared heat lamp and some wax worms on the way home. I clean the obvious poop lumps out and scrubbed her water dish with hot soapy water.
She didn't eat lastnight, but I'm not surprised. She did climb up and bask under hte lamp for a while then went down to a shady corner of her tank to curl up and sleep.
She appears thin, but otherwise healthy. No signs of bone disease and she is very strong and active.
Tonight I plan to offer her some vitamin coated crickets and some shredded carrot.
My questions are basically on how best to bring her up to health. I plan on supplementing her with vitamans and calcium for almost every feeding to start, then scale back after a month or so. I will get a UVB light when I get paid next and give her a good 14hrs of that each day as well as leavign the infared on 24/7 to keep her warm.
Since she sleeps curled up in a corner should i get her an under tank heater for added warmth? My house is cold in the winter and the infared keeps her general temp at 70ish.

Any help or hints would be appreciated. I want to do right by this little gal, she's had a hard start.

Definately get a UVB source on her ASAP...... Make sure that her supps are not just vitamins but caslcium with D3 as well... she will need that more so than the vitamins. I would advise against the carrots for now as they are very high in phospherus and that causes absorbtion of calcium to be blocked. I would also immediately start her on parazap tea and run that treatment for two weaks toget her digestive track back in order and get rid of any parasites that are more than likely present. Take everything out of her cage and bleach then rinse and repeat 2 or 3 times letting it air dry between each then after bleaching use a anit bacterial liquid soap to wash again to remove any bleach residue that may be there. I just found out about a product called minerall 1... it has many trace mineralls and mineralls as well as calcium with D3 which aid in bone and skin developement that would definately be benefiacial to her after the care she was recieving. Just because there are no visible signs of MBD doesn't mean it's not present... adding this supp and a UVB source will help her immensly along with the vitamins and proper food.... Her appetite at first will more than likely not be very good but the parazap tea will help with that as the supps and UVB start aiding in the back to normality care she will recieve...

I would let her eat all she wants too... It will take around 4 - 6 weaks I would say for her to start getting back on track if you use this above... Also she is more than likely severely dehydrated... get some electrodize, pedialite or something of a similar nature and give her a couple syringes of that a day along with the parazap tea and also I would soak her in warm water at least once a day for a week or two as well....

70's for a night time temp is OK but if it drops below that there is a chance of resiratory infection and with her immune system being crap right now she would more than likely get it. Also on lighting she needs light intensity and a red bulb doesn't provide that... You will need to add some more light even if you have a UVB flourescent and a regular bulb in the fixture it really isn't enough... you need at least one more dome light for good light intensity. She will be more active and receptive to food if the light is brighter. I'm sure you know but day temps need to be 80-84 cool side and around 110 for a basking temp. With this care she should come back very well. Also, check out www.beautifuldragons.com for a list of veggies that will bewtter suit her right now.. I recomend collard greens, endive and turnip greens with some yellow squash and a little orange or red bell pepper for some color but not too much of the color just a bit........

I know this may seem like alot but she is in bad shape and the first week with the cage cleaning and stuff will be the worst... once things line out a bit you shouldn't have to deal with most of it so much....

Keep us posted and let us know how she does...

Later,
Robert
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Great spirits have always been recieved with violent opposition by mediocre minds. Albert Einstein

Thanks, I am headed out in a few minutes to get her some vitamins. My husband is geting the UVB light tomorrow after we dig up one of my old aquarium lights to put the bulb in.

Another question. We have a green house that stays in the upper eighties at least all summer long, but it is also real humid most of the time. How would a beardie do in those conditons? My husband is thinking of making a real big lizard run on the bottom of the shelves so she'd have at least a 10 x 3 ft run to play in all summer long.

These guys are a desert type dwelling animal and I owuld think that high humidity wouldn't be good for them at all. Plus there would be no way UVB rays culd be soaked up by from the sun and with that much space there is no way to insure uvb lighting would be sufficient... and with the amount of improper care I would not recomend putting this dragon only d3 supps as a source of D3... I would definately keep her under UVB lighting. and not to mention there wouldbe no basking spot for them to digest thier food?
Just my opinion...

Later,
Robert
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Great spirits have always been recieved with violent opposition by mediocre minds. Albert Einstein

I thought the humidity wouldn't be good, but it doesn't hurt to ask the experts. She is doing much better today with a good tank cleaning and some hydration. We dusted 5 gut loaded crickets with the Minerall and she snatched them all up. I also put in better perchs so she can get within about 10inches of the basking lamp. She enjoyed that and spent quite a while up there after munchign her crickets.

FOr now she will get wax worms int he mornign and crickets at night with greens available at all times.
Tonight we will give her a bath.

Good luck with her ... I'm glad she's eating. I'm not really an expert but THANKS!! LOL Keep us posted on how she is doing!

Later,
Robert
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Great spirits have always been recieved with violent opposition by mediocre minds. Albert Einstein