Need help please

I adopted a pair of dragons from a coworker who’s daughter was no longer interested in them. The female is 4 yrs old, male is 3 yrs old. They came together in a 30 gallon tank with all of their supplies. ? obviously this is not enough space for them so I temporarily placed them in a 40 gallon breeder tank that I had while I’m getting my 75 gallon tank emptied that had fish in it and set up for them.

Here’s the problem: the male is CONSTANTLY trying to mate the female, she’s always trying to get away from him. I’m also not able to tell if she’s eating. He is a bully most of the time. I really just plan on separating them at this point. Yesterday I found a dried yellow egg in the tank, she’s lethargic at times and like I said we never really see her eat because he pushes his way in. Do you think she’s sick? Depressed? Do you think separating them will solve this? Please help - I’m new to keeping bearded dragons and don’t want to lose this little girl! Thanks!

Michele

Hello,

I'm glad that you rescued these two! and Yes, they absolutely MUST be separated for the rest of their lives. Especially since the male is bullying the female. You can Move the male to a 100L tub until you get another tank for him.

You don't need to move the female anywhere right now because she is stressed enough and any more stress could possibly kill her.

I'm pretty sure that the female might be sick due to her being dominated by the male. Since you mentioned that she is lethargic I fear that she could possibly be egg bound.

Has she been digging at all? Could you please review their setup? What is their UVB lights? are they T5 or T8s? Coil/Compact or Tube bulb? What are the temperatures in the cage? How much do the male and female weigh? How long are they?

and Could you please post some pictures of The male and female, Their tank setup, and Their lights? https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/

I Hope that the female gets better!

-HippieLizards.

I have a Reptisun 10.0 UVB T5 HO strip light on top of the tank as well as a 100W Basking light - ZooMed ReptiBasking. I leave them on 14 hours each day and have them on a timer because I work shifts and otherwise it would be a mess! ? my temperatures seem to stay between 70-80 on the cool side and up to 95-100 when the basking light is on. It never drops below 70 on the cool side at night and about 86 on the warm side. I have an undertank heater and tile in the tank for substrate. Here’s a picture:

Here’s my male - we’ve been calling him “Bob” due to all the head bobbing.... ?
He is almost 19 inches long and weighs 14.9 ounces

Here’s Little Miss (haven’t come up with a name for her yet, didn’t care for their names the previous owners had given them)
She is about 17.25 inches and 12.1 ounces

She often lays across their rock... every now and then I see her digging, but it isn’t very often and it’s usually at the side of the tank

Does like to lay in the water dish at times too! The previous owners only kept a very tiny bowl of water in with them and misted them frequently.

Here’s the egg I found the other day

Previous owners fed them salad, dry bearded dragon food, dragon bites moist food and crickets/superworms.

I’ve been offering all of the above, however they have not touched the moist food so I often omit it. I also have been giving them dubia roaches. They gave me a list of favorite salad items, which she doesn’t even seem to eat a lot of unless it’s when I’m not watching.
I did get more lights so that Bob could be moved and I can better monitor her. It also seems like her vision is poor, I know they had the red and blue lights on their tank when I got them. I removed them immediately - I don’t know if there is truth to it or not but I read somewhere that the red lights damage their eyes? She definitely struggles catching crickets. I plan on keeping her tank very simple.
One more thing: when you look at the tops of their heads - his has the “fat pads”, hers does not, I’m assuming that’s just because she’s obviously not eating enough, is there anything else I can do for my poor little girl? Thanks!

Michele

The setup looks pretty good, but definitely get the male out of there soon. I haven't seen my own male dragon breed with my adult female yet (although its probably a very stressful event) but when he tries to get out and over to her he tries so hard it still stressed her out so much I had to put paper towel taped on the outside of all ends except one.

If the female will eat try increasing her food levels, offer tons of insects daily. Not like in the 60's or something but 15-20 a day is a good amount to keep her weight up.
Although superworms are a bit fatty but can definitely be beneficial when you need to fatten a beardie up.
I'd probably also increase dusting to probably 5x a week for calcium and then multivitamin 2x a week.

When my female suddenly laid somewhat fertile eggs a few weeks ago we went to the vet and he gave us some liquid calcium which turns out was very helpful. Upping her calcium a lot is definitely helpful and seeing how everyday after laying her clutch she'd get a bit stronger and try an force the syringe out of her mouth was pleasing to say the least.
Although my female never missed a meal (although she was a bit hesitant to eat the first couple of days) so she was getting a good bit of calcium supplement from her food the liquid calcium did help a bit and it could probably help you, especially if she's not eating at all it could be a good way to get more calcium into her.
However someone a bit more educated on egg laying can be of more help as this is only what I have done, and this is only the first clutch I ever experienced.

As for the fat pads some beardies have really pronounced fat pads and some don't. My male has really large fat pads on his head meanwhile both my two girls seem to lack it a bit. However it was very noticeable when my eldest female lost weight as her fat pads were sunken in and you could even see the slight ridge of her tail.

Bob is in his new home!!! ????


Of course it’s not done, tiles need cut, light fixtures haven’t come so he has a really lousy UVB temporarily, but the important thing is that they are separated ? and so far he seems to approve, we’ll see what happens ?thanks for the advice!

Michele

Wow, The two beardies are in MUCH better condition then I thought! I Do agree with VenusandSaturn though. You should get her calcium and weight levels up in case she is carrying eggs.

Although the female does look a bit sickly. Has she eaten at all ever since you separated them? What are you feeding them now? Has she black bearded at all? How active is she? When was the last time they pooped?

I do think that they (the female especially) should be visited by an EXPERIENCED reptile vet. Here's a list of vets that treat reptiles: http://www.anapsid.org/vets/

How are they doing today?

-HippieLizards.

So one day into the big separation/move I’ve learned that my little princess is a tricky one! She almost immediately perked up, I’m not sure how much she ate, but she did eat some salad AND insects. I heard her splashing around in her water bowl at least 3 different times throughout the day! I’m pretty sure I saw more activity out of her today than I’ve seen in a week, so I’d say she’s quite the little actress when Bob is around and bothering her ??? I’m still concerned about her weight loss and will be watching her closely over the next few days/weeks but I’m pleasantly surprised at the big turnaround in her behavior in such a short time. I simply cannot believe what big personalities these tiny creatures have! ?

Michele

Bath time

Let me out mom!!!

Look how pretty I am....

That's WONDERFUL that she's getting better!! She's very pretty and healthy looking now. I Think she's happy to have been separated from her bullying tank mate.