Baby beardie needs help!!!!

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Stephh

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Today is Tuesday, so it was Sunday that I bought this baby bearded dragon. I bought it for my son. But I have been taking care of it because it is not doing well. I bought two originally and one died in less than a day. It wasn’t looking great when we took at home, but they said when they get cold they are less active so that’s what I thought was going on. Anyway one left now. When I first brought them home this one Was eating crickets the way I would expect. I should mention that the pet store I bought it from told me to only use under tank heating. To definitely not use heat lamps. They said that that is a common mistake that bearded dragon owners make. Now, after talking to many people, I’m fairly certain that was incorrect. So I now have heat lamps and UVB light in the tank. I also had sand originally,The kind that is supposedly digestible with calcium I believe. Now I have reptile carpet. I had water in the tank but now I have removed it and was told to spray or soak the beardie. It has not eaten in over 24 hours now. It was a tiny lizard to begin with. I’ll be honest, I went to the store for a different pair and did purchase that Pat. I have researched that one. But had not done a lot of research on the bearded dragon. I thought I could come home and take the information they gave me and then do a ton of research and that we would be OK. Point is, I’m not sure if this baby is even big enough to of been sold. But I might be wrong about that. So, at this point I have talk to a guy at a different pet store when I went to purchase the heat lamps who filled me in on what I think is correct information at this point. It lines up with most of what I’ve read online repeatedly. I have soaked the baby in water I have the tank much warmer now than before and I have put droplets of water at its mouth and originally it opened it smelled a little bit but now it’s just dripping onto the face.. I guess I should get to a question, how do I get protein into it? I’m assuming that a huge part of the problem is that it hasn’t eaten. And I’m also assuming that it wasn’t eating because the temperature and heat were incorrect initially. I know now that they need that heat and light to be able to properly digest their food. I think I forgot to mention that initially I did have the UVB light on it. But no heat light whatsoever. Should I buy chicken baby food or something and water it down and syringe feed it? How do I open it smells? I’m sort of prying at it with the syringe but I’m afraid to hurt it, so I haven’t gotten it open yet. Is it OK to kind of pride open? I’m just looking for any advice on how I can save this I did Dragon. I thought to take it back to the pet store and tell them that it is sick and that I want my money back. But it is it a locally own family pet store that isn’t run very well that I am now realizeHas quite a few terrible reviews with similar experiences to mine. I do not think that they will be very receptive and also I really want to save this animal! Any advice from experience the owners would be so greatly appreciated!
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Hi Stepph, I'm sorry to hear about the poor things and it's so disgusting to hear how the pet store operates. Anyway, the baby has many strikes against him and may end up like the other. Still, you can try and maybe you will save him. Don't force his mouth open but yes, get some baby food chicken, green bean, squash and rub it on his snout to see if he'll take any [ from the syringe ] You can also get a tiny insect like a cricket , smash it until the innards come out sand rub that lightly on his snout.

Can you list the brand of lights you got, is the uvb the coil or prong or is it the long tube? Post some pics , a few close ups of the baby and a few pics of the set up + lights . Here's how to put up pics :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG
 

Stephh

Member
Original Poster
I just posted pictures of everything you asked for. I don’t have the box for the supposed UVB bulb. That one is the lightbulb that I took a picture of. Hopefully the info on the bulb Is sufficient. They unboxed everything before sending it home with me and just sent me home with a bunch of loose gear. I don’t have an itemized receipt either. Just a receipt with the total I paid for everything. They said they use the boxes to send animals home with people.
 

Stephh

Member
Original Poster
Also, I originally only had the UVB bulb. It wasn’t until I spoke with another person that I purchased the heat lamp that holds two bulbs. I was told to purchase the 75 white red heat bulb and a 25 W clear heat bulb. I told him I thought I needed a 100 W bulb for heat but he said that the two together obviously added up to 100 and that at night I should switch off the 25 W daylight and just leave On the 75 watt red light.
 

Stephh

Member
Original Poster
Sorry, I know I’m posting a lot. This will be the last one until I get a reply. But I also did not have the UVB light on it until a little while ago today. The guy that sold me the two bulbs that add up to 100 W said that those bulbs had the UV be in them. It clearly says on the box that it does not so I began researching that immediately.I came to the conclusion that I needed to add back the UVB light that I had from before. So it wasn’t a terribly long time that it was gone from the picture but it was definitely you know, six or eight hours.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Poor thing is in critical condition, the pet store should be shut down. The second store sold you almost nothing that benefits the dragon, take back all those lights , they are the wrong ones and you may be cooking him right now with the heat pad and the red light. No red light at night, no animal or human sleeps well with a glaring red light. Is the heat pad on, if so turn it off. The store gouged you for useless bulbs. EDIT....I just saw that they kept the boxes and gave you no itemized receipt ??? UNREAL ! Make sure you take that stuff back and get your money.!! You need to get a Reptisun 10.0 long tube uvb, the compact coil is not worth anything. The 25 watt heat bulb is a joke, you need at least a 50 or 75. So get the ones I mentioned and don;t trust anything the pet stores you went to have to say. Here's the type of uvb you need, either of these. The skinnier [ t5 ] actually is the stronger of the 2. They are both Reptisun bulbs.

https://www.beardeddragon.org/media/29951/full

He looks dehydrated so be sure to drip water on his snout to see if he'll drink. He is critical and the store owners are tricking a lot of people.....be sure to get money back for your first baby and I would put a picture of this baby on their reviews/website to warn people to stay away from there.
 

Stephh

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Original Poster
Did you notice That two of the bulbs are heat bulbs? In that double lamp, the red and the white are heat bulbs. The red is 75 W and the white is 25 W. Still no good? And the coil is not the correct UVB? I just want to make sure I’m understanding each of these correctly.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Yes, I've owned beardies since the mid 90's. I never buy pet store heat bulbs and neither do many long time owners. The uvb bulbs are very important though, they help with calcium absorption.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
I am appalled at the petstore for selling such useless stuff-- either they are highly uneducated about dragons or just out for a buck or both!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :x --- Either way please do not get 2 beardies and put them in the same tank --- bearded dragons need to be by themselves and you are only asking for more trouble down the road - if you want two of them they need to have their own tanks and lighting - they are highly territorial ---
Karrie
 

Stephh

Member
Original Poster
OK. I am going to go purchase those bulbs right now. Also, These bearded dragons were/are tiny babies. I was told they could stay in the same tank for a few weeks until they got a little size on them. And I wasn’t told that until I brought the one that passed away back to them. But it passed away within hours of me getting it home. So, it’s death definitely was not caused by the other one. At least not as far as fighting or anything like that. Maybe disease? But I’m obviously not sure about that either. I definitely trust all of the advice on here. I have been searching for somewhere to get proper advice. I I am certainly kicking myself for buying these without doing the proper research first. I trusted what they were telling me. But I am normally not someone to buy an animal without doing a ton of research first. They kind of duped me. And I fell for it. They were telling me that they bought from reputable breeders and that their animals are better quality than the big pet stores. And obviously, I have reservations about buying from big pet stores as well. But I must say the only animals that I have bought from big pet stores are thriving. Not to credit the pet stores or anything. But when I ran up the street to buy what I thought were proper bulbs the second time I Purchased bulbs. The bearded dragon at that big pet store looked 100 times better than this one. As far as activity and just looking healthy. I am going to continue to try to save this one. Might be all for nothing but I really want it to make it.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Yeah, many of us have done the impulse buy of reptiles and then scrambled to get the right stuff. It's the store's fault, the guy that sold these babies sold them at near death condition and knows nothing about dragons. No one here would blame you, if these babies were healthy they wouldn't be dying even in a bare tank with no lights at all for a day or 2 . Your poor babies were sick from the start with no fault to you. Good on you for trying to help a very sick little creature. I've hatched 1,000's of them and they are active + robust when cared for properly.
 
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