BEARDED DRAGON NOT EATING SUPER SKINNY BUT VERY ACTIVE

keennneeth · Feb 22, 2017

so a month ago i have purchased a bearded dragon, id say he was atleast a month old. ever since i have not seen him grow/shed at all and he's hardly eating. a couple days i have purchased him a 5.0 T5 reptisun uvb tube, it was 24 inches. before that i had a coil uvb light. he hardly eats, maybe a cricket or two a day if i get luckily but he does poop normal and atleast once per day . he's super skinny as what i think and the weird thing is that he is super active. id say he is about 3-4 months old and he's about 5.5 inches and i don't know what to do anymore

i do offer him greens in his tank every day but he doesn't eat any, i bought him calci worms today and he hasn't touched them. i do mist him 2-3 times a day and he is super hydrated. right now he is kept in a 40g tank with a basking light that is 75 watts. so now i'm just trying to figure out what to do, please help.

AHBD · Feb 23, 2017

Hi Ken, sorry that your baby is having trouble. Did you get him from a breeder or a pet store ? If from a store, are the other babies there still active and have they grown ?

What exact size were the crickets you fed him, better yet if you can take a pic of one next to a dime post that here. When you offered calci worms, did you put them in a bowl in the tank or drop them on the floor right near him ?

Things to try, Smash a small cricket until the guts come out + rub lightly on his nose. Get some baby food squash, chicken green beans [ no added ingredients ] and offer via syringe or eyedropper. See if you can get some carnivore care supplement from a vet or online. If you know a truly experienced reptile vet you might opt to take him if he doesn't eat more by the weekend.

One more thing, he may not be getting enough uvb from the 5.0, if you can hang it inside the tank that might herlp. Best wishes to the little guy !

keennneeth · Feb 23, 2017

AHBD":3jo87s7w said:
Hi Ken, sorry that your baby is having trouble. Did you get him from a breeder or a pet store ? If from a store, are the other babies there still active and have they grown ?

What exact size were the crickets you fed him, better yet if you can take a pic of one next to a dime post that here. When you offered calci worms, did you put them in a bowl in the tank or drop them on the floor right near him ?

Things to try, Smash a small cricket until the guts come out + rub lightly on his nose. Get some baby food squash, chicken green beans [ no added ingredients ] and offer via syringe or eyedropper. See if you can get some carnivore care supplement from a vet or online. If you know a truly experienced reptile vet you might opt to take him if he doesn't eat more by the weekend.

One more thing, he may not be getting enough uvb from the 5.0, if you can hang it inside the tank that might herlp. Best wishes to the little guy !

i can't take the picture of the crickets but they are about dime sized, maybe a little smaller. the other pets have grown , i got him at petsmart. and the calciworms are basically dead, they don't move i recently bought them yesterday from the petstore thinking they weren't moving because they were cold, (they were in a fridge) so i thought they had to warm up so they had faster motabolism but they still don't move. but i tried to hand feed him the calciworms but he showed no interests, he only likes his crickets and they are normally gut loaded with veggies. the uvb 5.0 is right over his basking spot so it is fairly close so i am not sure. i recently purchased a reptisun tube which is the 5.0 , before that he's been using a small coil uvb light . ever since he's been a little bit more jumpy and active but this morning he ate 4-5 crickets before i left for school. so do you think it might've been lack of uvb?

AHBD · Feb 23, 2017

O.K, that definitely is an improvement and yes, it's related to better uvb. I see that he can get close to it so even though it's on top of a screen he will get better uvb as long as he spends time basking up on his log. See if he'll eat a few more crix when you get home.

keennneeth · Feb 23, 2017

AHBD":q2ufh6ce said:
O.K, that definitely is an improvement and yes, it's related to better uvb. I see that he can get close to it so even though it's on top of a screen he will get better uvb as long as he spends time basking up on his log. See if he'll eat a few more crix when you get home.

i will thanks a lot!

Drache613 · Feb 23, 2017

Hello,

He sure is a tiny one!
Are you using the T5 or high output Reptisun 5%? Is that correct. That should give off pretty good UVB. How close is it to him & is it mounted directly beside the basking light also?
The crickets need to be smaller than the space between the eyes, to avoid impaction issues.
How is he doing this evening?

Tracie

keennneeth · Feb 23, 2017

Drache613":wafbxsub said:
Hello,

He sure is a tiny one!
Are you using the T5 or high output Reptisun 5%? Is that correct. That should give off pretty good UVB. How close is it to him & is it mounted directly beside the basking light also?
The crickets need to be smaller than the space between the eyes, to avoid impaction issues.
How is he doing this evening?

Tracie

he is pretty close i have a log so he can climb up into the basking spot and so he can get better uvb, i am currently using the T5 HO reptisun 5.0, and today i haven't really monitored him eat but before i left for work i left him a mini salad and put wax worms on the bottom , he ate the worms for sure because they were gone but i'm not completely sure about the salad, i'm hoping he does get better though

kyleena29 · Feb 23, 2017

Hi, you really need the 10.0 not 5.0. The 5.0 are meant for other animals that don't need as much uvb. It can be confusing there is a "T5" 10.0 and "T5" 5.0. You need the T5 10.0 one.

keennneeth · Feb 23, 2017

kyleena29":2486y3re said:
Hi, you really need the 10.0 not 5.0. The 5.0 are meant for other animals that don't need as much uvb. It can be confusing there is a "T5" 10.0 and "T5" 5.0. You need the T5 10.0 one.

i'll try to pick one up asap, it's been a month since i had my little guy and things have not been the greatest for him, thanks a lot!

kyleena29 · Feb 23, 2017

I'm not sure what thermometer you are using but I see a stick on in there which is not very accurate. I would suggest either getting the infrared-gun type and/or digital with the little probe that can sit at the basking spot. He needs the basking spot to be at least 110 F and the cool end 80-85. Temperature can also affect their appetite.

BEARDED DRAGON NOT EATING SUPER SKINNY BUT VERY ACTIVE

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