New bearded dragon, has not eaten in 5 days

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Hi I am new to both the forums and bearded dragons! I adopted a 2 year old female bearded dragon, because her owners were moving to an apartment that would not allow reptiles.

I have had her since thursday and she has not eaten anything. Her previous owners fed her romaine lettuce, dubia roaches, and superworms. I have offered all of those, but she does not want to eat, even after 5 days of settling in. The previous owners did not have a UVB bulb with her tank,so I immediately bought one of those. She is currently in loose reptisand, although I wish to change that to a reptile matt or something similar. Currently she is in a small tank (30"Lx12"Wx12"H) and I am in the process of looking for a larger tank. The temps on the hot side are 100F (though she never goes to bask on that side) and 85 or 90 on the cool side.

I threw a large dubia roach in her tank, and it either escaped somehow, or she ate it. She is very lethargic and moves once every 4 hours, is this normal?
 

CooperDragon

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It may take an adult quite a while to settle into a new location. It sounds like the setup isn't quite right though and that could certainly contribute to problems. Which UVB light did you put in place? I would try to get the surface temps to 100-105 in the basking area with a gradient down to 75-80 or so on the cool side. That's a really small tank for an adult so picking up a larger one is a good idea. Building your own is probably the most cost effective way to do it if you're able to. For now though I'd focus on getting the lighting just right and let her adjust to that while you work on a new enclosure.

Have you tried offering her some water via drips on her nose? She may be dehydrated and if she licks the water from her nose it may help her feel better as well. Don't be too forceful with it though, just offer some if she wants it.

Can you post some photos of her? You can upload photos here https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ and post them to your thread using the XIMG button when you reply.
 

Parkerbenz

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I bought a UVB 10.0 long bulb by reptisun, and gave her a bath with 88F water. She loved it and drank lots of water. As of roght now Im turning a large shelf thats 4' wide and 18" deep into her new enclosure. One thing I should mention is that I have 3 parakeets in a cage in the opposite corner of the room, could that be the issue?
 

CooperDragon

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I doubt the parakeets are causing much issue. The larger space will be nice. Which size ReptiSun 10 did you get? Is it a T8 or a T5?
 

Parkerbenz

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She just ate 10 superworms! The previous owner mentioned that she wasnt wanting to eat her greens recently, and she wouldnt eat any lettuce but at least she is eating!
 

CooperDragon

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She looks like she's a good weight so she can go a while without eating and it shouldn't cause issue. I'm glad she ate the supers. I would limit the amount you offer though because they tend to be a bit addictive. They often hold out eating until they get supers and they aren't all that healthy aside from being a treat. They can have a tendency to overdo it a bit too and throw up after eating a lot of supers at once.

I suggest moving the log over to the side under the basking light so that has the highest UVB and highest temps for her to bask under. I'd put a hide or some kind of shade over on the other side so she can retreat there to get cooler temps and avoid UVB if she wants to as well.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
She's a nice big girl as Cooper mentioned, even a bit chunky :) so do go easy on the superworms. At times beardies that are sluggish are actually dehydrated so it's good that she drank in the bath. Sometimes they are so thirsty that they will aspirate and begin to choke, so next time[ in a few days or a week ] you can also try the water on the snout method that Cooper mentioned to give her a drink. Visually she looks healthy so hopefully she will do well for you. Time will tell.
 

Parkerbenz

Member
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Alright I wont feed her too many next time, and the water on snout method worked too. Thanks for the help on where to put things in the enclosure, and im turning that entire shelf she is sitting on into her new enclosure! I read i should feed her a variety of insects, will superworms, hornworms, phoenix worms and occasionally a few crickets work? I cannot get dubias as I live in florida and they are illegal, or illegal to ship here.
 
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