10 yr. old beardie won't eat

zoeodette · Jun 5, 2018

Hello everyone.. Unfortunately, my 10 year old male bearded dragon has completely stopped eating. For the past 2 weeks or so he has completely refused any sort of food, which is not normal. I have tried changing his food source from dandelion greens to collard greens to fruits to really anything I can think of.. I have tried giving him squash baby food and I've tried hand feeding him, and he just refuses anything I have to offer.. He will drink though. A little bit about his set up: He has 2 heat lamps, one is a light basking, and one is a ceramic. He has a reptisun 10.0 UVB bulb (tube not coil), and it is only acouple months old. His temperatures in his cage range from 75 degrees on the cool side to 105-110 on the hot/basking side. Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.

ALSO, I have posted on this thread about his illness and growths in his mouth and I do not think that is the problem.

CooperDragon · Jun 5, 2018

Sometimes they go through picky phases like that. Has he started losing weight or losing volume in the fat pads on his head or at the base of his tail? Try enticing him with some brightly colored food. Maybe order a small container of hornworms and see if that goes over well. My guy loses his mind for hornworms and silk worms.

zoeodette · Jun 5, 2018

@cooper dragon, It doesn't look like he is losing any weight. I can post a picture of him so you can see if he looks too skinny.. Is it normal for them to not eat for this long, he has never done this before.. Also, he completely refuses to eat any sort of insect and has been that way for years. I replace his protein with alfalfa powder as suggested by Tracie.

zoeodette · Jun 5, 2018

That's the best I could do, I didn't want to disturb him. Also, I know his eyes don't look good, that is part of his illness he has had for awhile.

CooperDragon · Jun 6, 2018

He looks pretty good in terms of size. Since he's sleeping it's hard to get a handle on how alert he is which is an indicator of health. If you have a kitchen scale I would use that to start tracking his weight. Weight loss trends can be subtle so it's good to have a chart and some hard numbers rather than guessing visually. Weight loss can be quite far along before it's easily noticeable.

zoeodette · Jun 7, 2018

Somewhat of good news, I got him to eat 2 full dandelion leaves with a little bit of honey and colloidal silver (those are what I use to treat his illness), and a couple drops of water. It's not a whole lot but it's a start! Just hoping he will keep accepting some amount of food. But a weight chart is a good idea, last time I weighed him, around January, he was about 400 grams. I will add though that he spends at least 80% of his day sleeping, and I'm not sure if that is the reason as to why he doesn't eat on his own..

CooperDragon · Jun 8, 2018

If he's sleeping that much then his metabolism is probably pretty low making his food requirements less.

FinleyMW · Jun 8, 2018

Have you tried butter worms? They’re like giving them mars bars for breakfast.

kingofnobbys · Jun 9, 2018

herpaboost
http://vetafarm.com.au/product/herpaboost/
given by feeding syringe might help get him eating and active ….

how old is the UVB ?

zoeodette · Jun 9, 2018

That makes sense that he wouldn't be very hungry if he is sleeping so much. But I haven't tried butter worms, since I live on a small island in Alaska the bugs that are available to me are extremely limited. Also, he just isn't interested in any sort of insect.. I bought him 500 crickets a couple months ago and he didn't even look in their direction, so unfortunately I don't think he would go for a worm.
Also my UVB is about 5-6 months old, possibly older. Do you think it needs to be replaced? (It's a reptisun 10.0 UVB tube, I think t8). I have tried syringe feeding, but since me and him both had a HORRIBLE experience with his baytril and a syringe he hates the syringe now.. So I try to feed him baby food on a soft baby spoon. But like I said, he is taking dandelion leaves so the baby food is not needed anymore. ( Thank you for everyones help! It is beyond appreciated.)

kingofnobbys · Jun 10, 2018

zoeodette":249qelui said:
That makes sense that he wouldn't be very hungry if he is sleeping so much. But I haven't tried butter worms, since I live on a small island in Alaska the bugs that are available to me are extremely limited. Also, he just isn't interested in any sort of insect.. I bought him 500 crickets a couple months ago and he didn't even look in their direction, so unfortunately I don't think he would go for a worm.
Also my UVB is about 5-6 months old, possibly older. Do you think it needs to be replaced? (It's a reptisun 10.0 UVB tube, I think t8).
<<< that's likely a big part of the problem , a 10% UVB fluorescent source will decay and be only as good a 3 to 4 % tube at the end of 6 months.
Time to replace it, if it's a T8, consider retiring the T8 reflector hood and replacing it with a T5HO reflector hood and going to an Arcadia T5HO 12%UVB tube ASAP …. this will boost his metabolism very promptly (higher levels of UVA) .

I have tried syringe feeding, but since me and him both had a HORRIBLE experience with his baytril and a syringe he hates the syringe now.. So I try to feed him baby food on a soft baby spoon. But like I said, he is taking dandelion leaves so the baby food is not needed anymore. ( Thank you for everyones help! It is beyond appreciated.)

zoeodette · Jun 10, 2018

Can I still use the Arcadia T5HO 12%UVB tube without the t5ho reflector hood? The hood I use for his current UVB is bolted on the inside of his terrarium and I don't know how easy/if it's possible to replace. Also, can I just use a T5 reptisun instead of Arcadia, for some reason I can't find one that will ship to Alaska, or the shipping is over 50$..

zoeodette · Jun 10, 2018

Since the UVB isn't doing much, I took him outside to get the real thing and he seemed to enjoy it. He perked up a little bit and even ate some dandelion greens on his own! I definitely will be replacing his bulb ASAP. He is now enjoying a warm bath to get hydrated and hopefully help with his stuck shed.

kingofnobbys · Jun 12, 2018

zoeodette":wd0nrpr4 said:
Can I still use the Arcadia T5HO 12%UVB tube without the t5ho reflector hood? The hood I use for his current UVB is bolted on the inside of his terrarium and I don't know how easy/if it's possible to replace. Also, can I just use a T5 reptisun instead of Arcadia, for some reason I can't find one that will ship to Alaska, or the shipping is over 50$..

yes …. will need to be about 6 inches from him without a reflector hood.
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=235611
effect of a reflector in the hood
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/fluorescenttubereflectortests.htm

will be held to lid with 2 or 3 screws , just a matter of undoing these and the t8 hood will drop out, a sparky can likely modify the existing hood from t8 lamp holders
http://www.lightingaustralia.com.au/uploads/452/st345-fau---mau.pdf
to t5ho by changing to t5ho tube holders
t5ho holders http://www.lightingaustralia.com.au/uploads/451/289_sn-15-tr.pdf

buying arcadia t5ho 12%uvb tubes , I've bought from http://www.reptile-specialist.co.uk/uv-tubes.html and had no problem getting them shipped from UK to me (Australia) , so Alaska will not be an issue ….
check out their arcadia t5ho slimline kits …. these include an arcadia t5ho tube of your choice in the price ….ask them to supply a UK - USA adapter and you'll be good to go in a week or less.

10 yr. old beardie won't eat

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