Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a baby that i got on december 27th.. i have done quite a bit of research and have been told not to worry about alot of things. hes about 3 months old now. and for the first week he was eating ok.. not as much as i thought he would. he was eating about 20-35 crickets a day.. i offer collard and mustard greens every day also butternut squash i also have some dragon pellets mixed in.. i give fresh veggies 3x and offer food 3 times. sometimes more.. the last 2 days he hasnt wanted to touch but one or 2 crickets. which seems to worry me. we have had a vet check already everything is fine. hes active. basking temp is about 117 and the cool side is about 78 the temp gradually decreases to the 78.. hes on indoor out door carpet. this is what we use for all our reptiles with the exception of my turtle.. i was soaking him every couple of days this is what the breeder told me.. and i have been doing this every day the last 2 since i am not seeing him eat much. he is going to the bathroom nothing seems abnormal still active also. any suggestions?? anything i can do. i tried to get him to eat a bit out of my hand yesterday because he was doing that previously and he refused. we got the vibrating dish last night to try dont know if it will work but its worth a try i guess. i am going to make another vet appointment if i dont see improvement soon. i could be being paranoid. i dont understand why the food intake went down. i would have expected it the first couple days due to adjustment but that wasnt the case

I would cool the basking temperature down too 105 degrees using a simple rheostat from zoomed. Also if you had a vet check him plus you you did a fecal then its possibly just brumiation I would say. wait till tomorrow and try to offer worms like silk worms,meal worms and maybe a lobster roach or orange spotted roach. He will eat eventually, I guess some animals take a bit longer to adjust. later

i was told he needed a higher temp due to the age and being young. i wont feed meal worms. i just had a water dragon die from feeding them. and i dont have live silk worms available in this area. i am going to try the exo terra ones see if they work. i thought he was to young to go into burmation? thought that didnt happen til after a year. of have i heard wrong

i cant feed roaches. they are not allowed in my house. my daughter is highly allergic. it could kill her.. so thats not a choice. i was going to pick up a can of silk worms like talked about above see if he eats that.

Hi
what uvb light you use ???
some times a new one does wonders .
byeeeee

www.dragoncave.nl

its a reptisun 8.0 cuz i couldnt find a 10.0 in the area. just bought it last week. so i dont think i need a new one. i think its because he is shedding. his skin just started peeling today. so maybe thats the reason for the decrease and why he hasnt eaten to much from the start

Everything in your setup is fine. The basking temp is a little to high, only a couple degrees, but as long as he has levels to his basking spot, he can get to the temp he feels most comfortable at, having the basking temp a bit over 115F is perfectly fine.

The fact he is shedding could be why he hasn't eaten. Shedding can be uncomfortable for bearded dragons, making them go off feed. The daily soaks are a bit too much, misting several times a day should be more than enough to keep him hydrated. I suggest cutting back on the daily bathing, as this could be stressing him out and a stressed dragon doesn't eat as well. A soak once a week is more than enough with daily misting.

As he is still doing bowel movements, he isn't likely to be dehydrated or have a blockage. Not sure if you had a fecal done when you had the vet check earlier, but deffinitely something to do next vet check, to ensure he doesn't have a problem with parasites. Also, to keep down stress, avoid handling him the first couple weeks or a month or two, till he is back to eating regularly and feels comfortable. One way to notice stress is seeing alot of dark bars or splotches on his belly, normally this should be an off white with little to no markings. If his cage is in a heavy traffic area, covering up most of the viewable area (ie, if in a glass tank, the sides and part of the front can be covered with black construction paper, slowly removing them as he settles in, maybe one area per week or two. This gives them more time to adjust to all the usual comings and goings of the household.

The sight of other pets could be causing stress, other bearded dragons, lizards, cats, dogs etc.

Silkworms are a great feeder insect for bearded dragons. Though not all local petstores carry them, they can be ordered via the internet from places like www.mulberryfarms.com and other places. If you are in Canada, try www.silkworms.ca. Silkworms are more costly then crickets and other feeders, but are very healthy, have a high calcium low pospherous ratio, are high in water and protein and very easy to digest, since they have a very soft exoskeleton, being basically a catapiller. They are a little higher in fat content than say crickets, but the small difference is overweighed by the other benefits silkworms have. A variety of insects is good to offer your dragon, as no single insect is 100% complete in nutritional content, so offering crickets, superworms, a few waxworms (these are very high in fat so shouldn't be offered more than a couple a week at the most), butterworms, various species of roaches (though I understand why you can't use roaches, giving your daughter is alergic to them) and other feeder insects.

I don't remember you mentioning, but do you also dust your crickets daily with a reptile multivitamin and calcium with D3 powder? It is good to do this to ensure your dragon is getting all the nutrition he needs.

Hopefully shedding is the reason your dragon hasn't been eating much the last couple days and once he is done shedding, he will be back to eating 20-30 crickets a day and some salad.
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PHLdyPayne

so far what i have researched said 115-120 for basking spot surface temp for a baby under 4 months, thats why i had the temp i had. he ate a couple crickets yesterday plus a bunch of his salad. i was amazed how much salad he ate.. i will cut back on the bathing i was soaking once a week but the guy i bought him from said every day or everyother day til 4 months old and then once a week.. the fecal did check for parasites. i made sure i got that done. he hasnt had dark bars or splotches since the day i brought him home...his cake is in along the wall of the door in my daughters room. but i noticed the dogs made him nervous when they came in the room so i put up the baby gate to keep them out.. i also covered the side glass that faces the door to make sure the traffic since the bathroom is right next to it dont bother him.
i was going to try the dried silk worms before trying to order them anywhere.. hoping that the dried will be ok and work since its a little easier than ordering them.. the local pet store carries super worms, wax worms, and meal worms but not silk worms.. i dust my crickets with calcuim without d3 same thing i use for my turtle. since i have been told by so many that the d3 in the powder isnt beneficial they get it from the light.. i dust them one feeding a day when he eats normal.also use a multivitamin once a week.