Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All...three days ago I had two 7 month old BD siblings. I house them in a 75 gal tank. One of the BD's was about half the size of the other. For the last 2 to 3 weeks, the smaller one began burrowing under a rock. I would take it out and it would bask awhile but eventually burrow under again. It seemed to eat adn defacate fine and was alert when out. It dies 2 days a go for no apparent reason while under the rock. Yesterday, the sibling started the burrowing behavior. I took both BD's to the pet store today where I bought them and had the manager, also a BD and frilled dragon owner, examine them. He could find no reason for the death and said neither had mites. The larger BD is alert and healthy looking. I am concerned for my remaining BD and was hoping someone has seen this burrowing behavior and can give me some advice on what to do next to keep my other BD from the same demise. Any suggestions? Thanks a bunch, Kathy

A lot of times dragons burrow at night to sleep. And If it is really hot they will even burrow during the day. but especially around this time of the year they go into burmation(reptile hibernation).

A couple suggestions for you
If you have rocks in your cage put them on the bottom glass then fill with substarte. If you put the rocks ontop of the substrae the dragons can be injured or killed if they burrow under them.

Also it is very important that you house dragons of the same size together, or individualy. What most lickly happened is the smaller one died from being too stressed from its larger dominant sibling. The dragon that is larger will be more aggresive when it eats and take the best basking spots. Even chase the smaller dragon. This will stress the smaller dragon out and it eventually will not get all the food it needs and proper basking. Not to mention constant stress. So if you plan on keeping more then one dragon then defintly think about housing them in seperate enclosures.

peace,
nate

Giving the size difference between dragons, it is very possible the little one was very stressed by the larger one, hence why I always tried to hide and wouldn't bask on it's own. Most likely it had alot of parasites caused by the stress etc. You can't tell if a dragon is infected with parasites by looking at it.

Some young dragons fail to thrive for many reasons, reasons that you may have no control over at all. To find out what actually killed the small dragon, if you haven't frozen or disposed of the body, keep it refrigerated and have a qualified reptile vet do a necropsy on it.

You will need to take your living dragon to a qualified reptile vet and have a fecal done, to ensure it is fully healthy.
-----
PHLdyPayne

What could a person expect to be charged for that procedure?

If you take the animal in then it usually runs a lot more then if you just took a fresh fecal sample in. Some vets only charge between $5-$15 but if you bring the animal in then add another $20-$50.

peace,
nate