Lifesadrag
New member
Hi all,
So, we adopted our guy, "Camo" a little less than a month ago. The shop owner told me he's about 8 months old. He's set up in a 40 gallon tank with a basking light & a Reptisun 10.0 T5 (I think...whichever one is the stronger one; I'm not by the box right now.). Basking temp is between 100-110, cool side is 75-80. We feed him crickets & veggies everyday & he has a good appetite (usually 12-16 large crickets once a day, sometimes eating a few more in the evenings.)
I suspect he may have MBD from the shop...when we got him, he was happy & alert, but never really pushed up on all 4s & it wasn't until I got home that I realized I didn't see a T5 or T8 over his tank; just a basking bulb. He was raised on mealworms with crickets for a treat and spring mix veggies. The shop suggested I dust calcium w/D3 on feeders 2x/week, but that seemed low to me, so I started dusting his feeders once/day with Repticalcium w/D3. Since he's been with us, he's now perked up, runs on all 4s, chews much stronger, excitedly hunts crickets, etc, but he seems to have a hump in his tail a little below his hind legs that's developed (or at least become more prominent since he's grown the last month with us). We have carefully supervised all handling at our house, so I wonder if he fell from the basking "tree" we got him and hurt it without us knowing. (At the shop, he only had rocks about 4 inches off the bottom of the tank, nothing to climb...it took him some time to get confident climbing in his viv at our house.)
Fast forward to 4-5 days ago, I noticed his beard was shedding underneath (he's now starting a full shed), and that his beard looked darker than usual day & night and slightly puffy. I know sometimes he puffs his beard up, but even resting, it looks a little swollen and dark. His front legs look a little outward turned and swollen, but maybe that's normal & he's just growing, I'm not sure.
He's so loved by our family & I just wanted to ask if you all notice anything off that you think is out of the norm that I should take him to the vet for, or if this all seems normal. He's happy, eats well, and likes to hunt now, though he spends his day basking...
Pics attached. Thanks for your help, everyone. Never thought we'd be a reptile family, but man, we love him!
So, we adopted our guy, "Camo" a little less than a month ago. The shop owner told me he's about 8 months old. He's set up in a 40 gallon tank with a basking light & a Reptisun 10.0 T5 (I think...whichever one is the stronger one; I'm not by the box right now.). Basking temp is between 100-110, cool side is 75-80. We feed him crickets & veggies everyday & he has a good appetite (usually 12-16 large crickets once a day, sometimes eating a few more in the evenings.)
I suspect he may have MBD from the shop...when we got him, he was happy & alert, but never really pushed up on all 4s & it wasn't until I got home that I realized I didn't see a T5 or T8 over his tank; just a basking bulb. He was raised on mealworms with crickets for a treat and spring mix veggies. The shop suggested I dust calcium w/D3 on feeders 2x/week, but that seemed low to me, so I started dusting his feeders once/day with Repticalcium w/D3. Since he's been with us, he's now perked up, runs on all 4s, chews much stronger, excitedly hunts crickets, etc, but he seems to have a hump in his tail a little below his hind legs that's developed (or at least become more prominent since he's grown the last month with us). We have carefully supervised all handling at our house, so I wonder if he fell from the basking "tree" we got him and hurt it without us knowing. (At the shop, he only had rocks about 4 inches off the bottom of the tank, nothing to climb...it took him some time to get confident climbing in his viv at our house.)
Fast forward to 4-5 days ago, I noticed his beard was shedding underneath (he's now starting a full shed), and that his beard looked darker than usual day & night and slightly puffy. I know sometimes he puffs his beard up, but even resting, it looks a little swollen and dark. His front legs look a little outward turned and swollen, but maybe that's normal & he's just growing, I'm not sure.
He's so loved by our family & I just wanted to ask if you all notice anything off that you think is out of the norm that I should take him to the vet for, or if this all seems normal. He's happy, eats well, and likes to hunt now, though he spends his day basking...
Pics attached. Thanks for your help, everyone. Never thought we'd be a reptile family, but man, we love him!