Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just recieved a bearded dragon that is almost two years old and is only 13 inches total length and is so skinny, so far it ate some dusted greens, the owner said that it ate once a week and he only fed it ten crix and some iceberg lettuce and had not eaten for almost 4 weeks, it seems fairly healthy it is still active, eats greens drinks standing water and basks, should I wait a few days to offer it some crix? and is the stunted growth permanent? or can it still recover and get larger. Any thing else that i should try to use to get him going good.
thanks
tony butler

Oh my....I don't have any advice for you as I'm a newbie, but I just wanted to say thank you for rescuing that poor little guy. I hope that he make a full recovery and lives his life as a fat, happy, healthy dragon with you.

He wasnt really a rescue, it was my younger brothers friends, his mom called me and asked if I would take a look at it, so I did and I told her that it was in bad shape, she went on to tell me that she bought it from petsmart 2 years ago for christmas, and that they told her to feed it iceberg lettuce, and crix once a weeks, I then showed her my big male at 24 inches he is massive for a petco purchase, and told her that it should be close to this size at two years, and she asked if I would take it, then I told her that I would take it and get it healthy but I wasnt going to give it back, then we agreed that I could take the lizard and leave the cage with her, now he is here and seems happy, I am going to name him corey since I am a huge SLIPKNOT fan, but he wasnt a rescue and I am not going to take some credit that I dont deserve
thanks
tony butler

I would say in a way yeah u rescued it. but anyway. in the moring when normaly feed your other beardie offer this one food to. if he eats a little great if he eats it all EVEN BETTER. but i wouldnt se the benift of holding off feeding him crix. he may not eat do to the move tho.
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1.0.1 Green Anole(tedo, bubbles)
1.0. Tremper Albino Leo gecko (Brut)
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon(AXE)
1.0.0 Toy poodle( Cho lu la)

0.1.0 Girl Friend

I thought about holding off from crix due to the fact he hasnt eaten anything in almost 4 weeks, and I thought that by giving him small ammounts for a few days would be less damaging to his stomach, But I have never seen a beardie drink standing water like this before, he was chugging for almost 15 minutes straight before he went to bask, I tend to like him alot, he is not very figgity, and trying to flee, I put him on my bed, while setting up his cage and he just walked up to my pillow and perched up there until I was done,
thanks
tony butler

he is probably in brumation if he hasn't eaten in 4 weeks. I would get him a basking spot on the high temperature range...like 110-120. Try feeding him 4 times a day so that he doesn't get bloated and throw up the food from one mass feeding. I bet some good ol' UVB would turn him around really well.
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a free range dragon is a happy dragon

hi,
as epxlained in the first post, iceberg lettuce was given to your dragon. Iceberg has no nutritional value it is all water. throw it in your salad but not your animals. give him dandelion greens , collard greens, mustard greens, romaine. and try some repcal pellets also combined with the greens and give him crickets or any other live foods available if you want. if you are still worried about his health and he is not eating. you can try feeding him with a feeding tube. take the repcal pellets and soak in som water until moist, put in food processor, add a little extra vitamins and belnd it up. intil it becomes a paste, you may need to add some more water during this process but you dont want it too runny just enough to where it can plyable to put in tube. the tube is a pladtic suringe with no needle, you need to cut off tip with scissor a little so the food dosent clog up. the easiest way to get the food in the tube is from the opposite end of tip. spoon some on the end and push in with finger until filled then put the plunger thing in and your ready to go. to feed try to put a dollop on his nose and see if he will volenterally eat, if not try to get the tip in the corner of his mouth and squirt some in this usually gets them to start eating. I often do this to a select few dragons i have now and if any baby dosent look healthy. it really works try feeding your guy 2 times a week like that more if necessary. I hope this helps good luck
Rich Banfich

www.designrreptile.com

Thanks for the info, I am aware that iceberg has no nutritional value at all, and as for him not eating in four weeks, it is because they havent tried feeding him at all, she didnt even offer it food, they did not care about it at all, I only wanted to know if I should offer him small ammounts of crix, so he doesnt get bloated and puke it back up,
thanks
tony butler

he just ate 15 med-large crix and hasnt spewed it yet, he loves his greens, and seems to really like carrots, he will go through the veggie bowl and pick out the carrots reminds me of my big male, when he was young he would only eat the green pellets and not touch the other pellets at all
thanks
tony butler

I would be tempted to report these people for animal cruelity. Not feeding the dragon for a month because they didn't want it anymore is cruel. They obviously didn't offer water either, given how much he dragon when you received him. I bet they had little or no UVB light either.

To bring your new guy up to shape, offer small amounts of food items. A well balanced salad (if you have a 24" male you know what foods the dragon needs ). As other have suggested, offer small amounts spread out over the day. 2-3 meals a day should be good. I would offer softer bodied insects, such as silkworms as well. They are easier to digest and are not very active, so your dragon doesn't have to waste energy chasing crickets. Giving his small size, I would offer small crickets, if you can't get ahold of silkworms, (for the silkworms, get the one inch ones for now.) smaller than you would normally offer a dragon his size. For the first couple days, just offer a few crickets (or silkworms), maybe 4-8 (more small crickets, less silkworms).

The ideal now is to make sure all his innards are working properly. I also recommend a vet check as well. He can better ac cess the condition of the dragon (if you are going to place charged for animal neglect/abuse on the previous owner, I would take the lizard to the vet right away, so they can take pictures and see the condition it was in when they handed it over to you. If you can't get to a vet in a few days, take pictures, digital or regular, preferibly one that can carry a date stamp).

Having no interest in a pet is not an acceptable reason to starve it to death. They should have still fed it properly (bad enough the petstore gave them wrong information about the care requirements in the first place. Make me really wonder, don't people have common sense? If I knew nothing about reptiles and decided to bought one, a meal once a week seems rather to little, enough so i would have questioned it, and researched it on my own. But then again I have alot of common sense and follow it, some people don't, or are just too trusting).

Once again I would suggest charging them for animal cruelity...if they are too good friends and you don't want to ruin that and if you haven't already, deffinitely explain to them what they did was very cruel and against the law. You can also explained the petstore lied, which many unethnical petstore employees do, either unintentionally (misinformation from manager/chainstore policies) or because they only want to sell to make a commission or just don't care. Proper education of the public is very important to make our herps happy. For a happier closing note, deffinitely ask them to contact you if they have any questions about reptile care in the future and to verify/disapprove petstore information either before or after buying another reptile. This way you can either tell the the correct care information or at least research it for them and give them the proper care information.

Sorry, post wound up being longer, but I hate to see people letting animals suffer because they lost interest in them. It's not just done with lizards, its done with all animals, common every day ones and exotic.

In this day and age, it's not that hard to find a new home for a pet. An ad in the local grocery store is easy and free to do. There are many online ad sites to use that are free or very low costs. There are also the 'auto trader' sized classified booklets available. Free to put up an ad in most of them, if nothing fancy. Newspapers will also put up free to low cost ads, especially for 'free to new home' type ads, or low cost items.
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PHLdyPayne

they had no idea what they were doing, they were informed inaccuratly, they had no UV, which is fine, I personally dont use it and never had, but that is a totally different subject

they had a heat rock, fish pebbles as the substrate, no water(the employee said they didnt need water...WHAT!!!...I think that is the number 1 thinkg on any animals survival list) Like I said, he is not sluggish, or inactive, he is quite the opposite, After I read your post earlier at work I stopped at the repitle store and got some silkworms, which he ate 4(1 inch) worms and ate 4 baby crix, dusted of course, I just hope that his small size can be reversed the smallest beardie I own is a 19 inch female, and she is just under a year and a half, this guy is 2 years old and just over 13 inches...can it be fixed? or is he stunted permanetly
thanks
tony butler

Hey its good news that he is eating, im not sure but hopefully he will catch up in size. i know that if he was calcium deficiant and had metabolic bone disease the curves in the tail or back are not reversable. in any case you definately saved his life! good luck and keep us posted.
Rich Banfich

www.designrreptile.com

From someone who works in a pet store, I want to thank you for taking this little guy and hope he grows some for you.

I took the time to explain to someone that their 10 gallon tank was too small for their year old beardie and that he was probably only eating the iceburg lettuce and not crickets because he was too hot. She was good, buying a 75 gallon tank and full set up on the spot (didn't want to wait for a cheaper 40 gallon breeder) She listened to a CORRECT diet and changed it. Two weeks later, she stopped in to tell me how much he has grown and is more active and thanked me for my help. Happy ending.

Okay, I admit that not all pet stores take the time or know what they are talking about but it's not always us. Some people get overwelmed when purchasing an animal and may only hear part of an explaination. Not drinking from a water bowl BUT misting two times a day and weekly baths may only be heard as not drinking water. Or you start to explain and they say they already know the care, usually from another owner who could have learned wrong. Some people just don't want to hear anything either and will keep doing what they are doing. I've had that MANY times but then again, I can't force them to change bad habits. To most, lettuce is iceburg - that's it. I no longer say lettuce, I say greens so there is no mistake.

On a good note, I give out this site to everyone who asks about reptiles and encourage them to research BEFORE purchasing. Just to let you know (and I hope I don't regret mentioning it)

Good points. It's one thing to give correct information but what people can absorb is quite another. Some people just are not good listeners, could be distracted by figuring out the cost of everything, where to put the cage, how excited to get the new pet etc. One good practice some petstores do and alot of breeders, is providing complete care sheets at time of purchase for the animal. This is useful in the new owners have something to look over at their leisure and refer to.

Unfortunately, nobody can control if the new owners do with this information. Some may file it away and forget about it, toss it out, ignore what is on it and do what they feel is right, and others just don't bother looking at it at all. Just as many people don't bother reading the manual for various devices.

As breeders and petstore owners, employees, all we can do is give the information, either verbally or take home caresheets. We can only hope the new owners take the time to read it.
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PHLdyPayne

Oh man, don't get me started, I'm a petstore employee too. People are so surprised at how involved their care is and get mad at the initial cost of everything. Usually they go to a different employee hoping to hear something easier and they never do. And God forbid you mention a vet, I mean no matter how well you take care of your animals sometimes they will still get sick. I don't know about you, but I work in an area where I get a lot of rich, snoody customers who want everything really cheap and simple. Luckily for me and probably you too, I can refuse to sell an animal to anyone, and believe me I excersise that right thouroughly.

Whenever I am selling any animal or a customer is interested in in one I make sure to explain the details and I give them a carsheet to take home.

Still though, be cautious when getting an animal from a petstore. A lot are in it for the profit and if you have any doubts, it's best to look somewhere else.
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1.0 cat named Clyde
1.0 snow corn snake named Albert
many many fish (African cichlids and tetras (not in same tank of course))

Oh, oh, and what about the people that bring their little kids that are running around, breaking things, and interrupting while you are trying to talk to them.

"Is my 4 year old is old enough to care for a reptile...." "They need heat at night? My house is 65 degrees...." "Why do I have to buy this toy? My dog doesn't like it (after he slobbered all over it for the last 10 minutes)..."

OMGosh yes, kids are deffinatly the worst. This one kid was annoying me so badly I had to walk away behind the fish wall for 5 minutes to stop myself from exploding at him!!!

On the plus side though, there was this really sweat old lady whose neighbor gave her their beardie. It was 14" and in a 20L when she got it. She left with a 55 gallon tank, a repti-sun 8.0 bulb, a new basking bulb, calcium and multivitamin dust, a digital thermometer, and some decor, oh and 60 crickets.

I
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1.0 cat named Clyde
1.0 snow corn snake named Albert
many many fish (African cichlids and tetras (not in same tank of course))