Underweight beardie

My son's bearded dragon used to eat fine but recently in the last 6 months or so has become extremely picky - he doesn't want crickets,worms & hardly eats veggies - when he was little he would go after the worms & crickets like no other but now he just lays there & looks at them as they crawl past him - I weighed & measured him today- he is 19 inches long & only 92 grams in weight though - from everything I'm seeing online he should be like 300 or 400 grams right? Oh & he is about 18 months old if that makes a difference - so I guess my question is how do I get him to gain weight when he is so picky on what he will eat & so lazy he won't even go after the bugs

Hello,

That is a pretty low weight for is age & length. The average weight is 300-500 for that
length.
What type & brand of UVB light are you using & what are the temperatures in the tank?
If you can, post some pictures of the tank setup & your dragon. Just click on the XIMG to
upload pictures to the image gallery then copy/paste the IMG to here.
What worm variety have you tried with him? If he needs to gain weight you can get some
chicken or turkey baby food along with sweet potato or squash baby food to feed to him.
Just use a plastic dropper or plastic syringe to drop onto his nose. He should like the flavor
& lick some of it off.

Let us know how he is doing.
Tracie

this is my tank

I got him to eat a pinkie mouse this morning by opening his mouth for him and sticking the mouse just a little in there and he took it from there and ate it down & I tried that with some veggies but he just got stuff all over his face - I bought some appetite advanced stuff today as well from zilla from pet supply we will see if that will help him - something to eat is better than nothing I guess

What kind of UVB are you using and how long have you had it? It doesn’t look like a tube style light. It appears to me to be the coil style light that comes in the kit. Inadequate uvb can cause loss of appetite. It doesn’t look like he has the ability to get anywhere close enough to his light, unless you happen to be using an MVB. If it is a coil style light he needs to be within about 6 inches, directly under the bulb. Even with the tube style lights ( which are MUCH better for them) the basking spot needs to be within about 10 inches with a t5 bulb through a screen.

Also, how are you measuring temps. I see the dial type gauges in the back. Those are horribly inaccurate. Incorrect temps could be to blame as well.if you aren’t using a digital thermometer with a probe or a temp gun I would suggest getting those and making sure surface of the basking spot is 95-100,hot side air temp is around 90, and cool side around 80.

What’s done is done, but most people don’t favor giving pinkies to beardies, particularly one that small. They are difficult on their digestive systems.

Ok not to sound dumb but what is mvb - I am just using the lighting that came with the kit when we bought the tank - I will go buy a digital thermometer tomorrow to double check the heat in there - as far as the basking spot he usually hangs out on top of his rock/cave thing under the basking light- not sure how I would make that higher up so he would be closer to light though?

Pamela79":1t94zv8m said:

Ok not to sound dumb but what is mvb - I am just using the lighting that came with the kit when we bought the tank - I will go buy a digital thermometer tomorrow to double check the heat in there - as far as the basking spot he usually hangs out on top of his rock/cave thing under the basking light- not sure how I would make that higher up so he would be closer to light though?

Click to expand...

MVB= mercury vapor bulb. It’s an all in one heat and UVB. If you are using the lighting that come with the kit it is definitely not adequate UVB. I just don’t get why they don’t set the kit up correctly from the beginning, but the uvb bulbs they put I there are not strong enough, and they don’t cover a wide enough area. If you have had him the full 18 months and not replaced bulbs that can be a issue too. The UVB needs to be replaced every 6 months. Inadequate UVB can lead to loss of appetite, lethargy, and eventually metabolic bone disease. I would recommend getting a reptisun 10.0 t5 uvb bulb to cover about 3/4 of the tank and the corresponding reptisun hood, and getting a climbing branch or some other kind of cage furniture to get him within 10 inches of that light. If you can do that, and get his basking spot dialed in at 95-100, you should see improvement.

I reweighed him today & I guess I had weighed him wrong the first time he's actually 238 grams not 97 grams - yes still underweight but not as drastic & he is eating for me again today so I think he's doing better - I got the digital thermometer & better lighting so hopefully that will help him gain more as well

Hello,

I'm glad to hear he seems to be doing better.
You are probably using a compact/coil light for UVB, correct? They usually come with the
start up kits. As suggested, a Reptisun 10 T5 tube or an Arcadia D3 12% or 14% T5 tube are
very good bulbs that you could upgrade to.
The digital thermometer should be helpful so you can keep better track of the temperatures.
I hope he feels better soon! Keep us posted on him.

Tracie