My third adult beardie died today. Since last early spring I had bought two adult females, complete with cage and roach colony and then later an adult male. Initially the two females were fine and then one stopped eating. I removed her to a different cage in case there were behavioral issues. Her feeding response fell, after a few weeks she died. The original cage is very large (70gal + tank) with heat pads, spot lights, and a UV lamp. Hot spot temps well over 100 F. The remaining female ate like a hog on superworms, roaches, greens, and crickets. She laid over 40 eggs in four clutches. I am rearing out 25 of these now, have more eggs to hatch, and they are all doing well. Both the male and the dwindling female died in late May. I was out of town. The egg-layer started to reject food a month ago. She would eat one cricket of roach and close her eyes to the rest. She did eat a couple of pinks, the last maybe two weeks ago. Basically she stopped eating and died.
I have 40+ years herp experience with many kinds of lizards, snakes and others. This is my first try with beardies. This mortality has me totally flabbergasted. Any suggestions?
