I brought home a 6" BD the other day for a xmas gift. Its been eating crickets and mealworms great. yesterday I noticed it had straight legs and was weaving it head. I immidiately thought it might be an impaction due to a pig-out session it had with large mealworms the day before. I thought it was a gonner and bought another one. It's still kicking (alive)and I soaked it this morning in warm water with good results. It passed a normal looking stool. I just tried to feed it a red earth worm, it tried to grab it but acted as if it was near sighted missing the target and was still weaving its head. WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH THIS THING? It did eat some greens this morning also.
note, heat is from bottom plus a hot spot in day. room temp is 63f at night but the bottom heat is on. estimated cage temp at night is 70's.
Reptile & Amphibian Forums
Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.
sick dragon
Replies (2)
What kind of lighting to you have?
-----
Cheryl
No mealworms for young dragons. Offer small crickets(no bigger than space between dragon's eyes) 2 times a day, all he can eat in 5-10 minutes. Dust one insect feeding a day with reptile multivitamin, Calcuim d3 powder. Offer wholesome greens (collards, dandilion, endive, etc. see www.beautifuldragons.com under nutritian for a great list on healthy greens and vegetables to give your dragon).
For basking temperature (using temp gun or digital thermometer with probe), it should fall within 95-115F, leaning towards the high end for young dragons. Daytime air temperature should be in the low to mid 80'sF, cool end in the 70'sF. Night time temps can safely drop around 65F. basking bulbs can be regular household bulbs of an appropriate wattage to reach the ideal basking temps. Typically a 75W bulb works good for a 35gal tank, depending on height of basking spot, overall cage temperature etc.
IN addition to the basking light, you need a UVB producing bulb, such as Repti glo or repti sun, 5.0 or higher. Mercury Vapour bulbs can be used as well but these are best in larger tanks as they need to be at least 18" away from the top of the basking spot and put out some amount of heat as well.
Since you now have two dragons, make sure they are housed separately to make sure none can transfer parasites/diseases to the other, neither stressed out the other, and ease of monitoring their overall intake of food and health.
I also suggest taking a stool sample from both dragons to your reptile vet to check for parasites. Also, research, research, research. The bearded dragon forums here are a great source of information, just read through 2-3 days worth of posts and you will get about 75% of the care requirements for dragons, at least, if not more. Reading caresheets from the forum sponsors and member sites will also reveal much of the basic care requirements for your dragons.
-----
PHLdyPayne
