HELP

Okay, so this is my first beardie. He is a few months old, gets fed crickets once a day as many as he will eat, usually it is around 20 small crickets. Our uvb bulb broke a few weeks ago and he couldn’t use his hind legs at all today, they looked paralyzed. So I researched and found it was probably a calcium deficiency because of the missing bulb so we went and got one and gave him a calcium bath and gave him drops of calcium water to drink as well and fed a few crickets too to make sure he still had an appetite. After all of this and keeping the uvb light on him this whole time, he started being able to move his hind legs again. But then we let him bask after his bath with the uvb and heat bulb and he was doing fine so I took a shower and when I came back he had fallen off of his basking spot and was on his back looking like he wasn’t able to breath till I flipped him back over. Not to mention his belly his huge right now!! And lastly he is currently shedding. Is this normal somehow or should I be concerned?

Hello,

I am sorry your dragon is having trouble!
Which type/brand of UVB did you get for him? If you can, please post some pictures of
the tank with the lighting, along with your boy so we can see his condition.
The crickets were smaller than the space between his eyes, correct? Is this the first time
he has flipped over from his basking spot?
Since he is rapidly growing, he will need calcium once daily, 4-5 times per week to help
with his bones, too.

Tracie

Hi there,

Like Tracie mentioned, you want to make sure he's getting enough calcium. You also want to make sure his UVB light is proper as otherwise he will have more trouble actually absorbing that Calcium.

What bulb did you have before? It's very unlikely that any real harm would have occured in just a few weeks time. It's likely that the bulb was old or defective, or was too far away to be effective.

Have you bought a new one yet? If you haven't we can give you some good suggestions to make sure you get a good bulb, and have it a good distance to be effective.

When was the last time he poo'd? Sometimes loss of movement in the rear legs can also be from an impaction putting pressure on the spinalcord back there.

Hope he's starting to do better for you!

-Brandon

Okay the up close picture was him last night and the one that includes the lights is from this morning. I got him the uvb last night it’s brand Thrive from petsmart and it’s 26 watt for desert reptiles. And I was reading up on impaction last night, I don’t think that’s it because he doesn’t have the lethargic symptoms, it’s like he wants to be active but his legs won’t support him. He poo’ed the day before yesterday. And this is the first time I’ve ever seen him flipped over from his basking spot like that. And yes the crickets are smaller than the space between his eyes.

Hello,

Bless him. Based on your information & just by looking at him I am going to say he likely
has metabolic bone disease & his calcium levels are very low right now.
The Thrive brand of UVB is a compact/coil light, so it will not be very effective & with it being on
top of the screen it will give out even less UVB. The coils are notorious for emitting poor quality
of UVB levels, irregular UVB & UVC wavelength frequency which are not conducive to D3
production. So he wont be able to absorb his calcium properly & his bones wont be strong. He
will also have back leg weakness & be prone to neuromuscular problems & coordination trouble,
too.
I highly recommend upgrading his UVB lighting to either the T5 Reptisun tube or the T5 Arcadia
D3 12% or 14% tube. They are high UVB output & can be mounted on top of the screen, but will
need to be at a 10 inch distance if on top of the screen. If you can get the distance to a 10-12 inch
distance from him you can mount it overhead, underneath of the screen for maximum exposure.

Let us know how he is doing.
Tracie