1.2yr old lost appetite, hasn’t shed in 2.5 months

I am greatly concerned for my bearded dragon who is a little over a year old. He is not eating anything that I put in front of him, except superworms, which I limit. This has been going on for several weeks, but I figured this might be signs of brumation (lack of energy, not eating) or that it might be parasite related. I have noticed a few very small black spots on him, could this be mites? Also, I did step in a few times, force feeding him Repashy veggie diet. He has not shed in 2 months. The scale I have says he weighs 18.5 oz (524g, which is way too much, especially for his age) I believe something is wrong with it so i will include pictures of him. I have a Reptisun T5HO and MegaRay 100watt for the basking spot. Basking surface (rock) temperature is 97, terrarium temp 80. Terrarium dimensions 5’x2’x26”. I do, though, have a naturalistic terrarium with dirt, leaves, etc (will provide pictures.) He has had a few concerning poops since recently, but other than that bowel movements have been normal, at least, for how little he has been eating. (At the end of the draft I realized I had forgotten how to upload photos, could someone please tell me how to do so!) **Edit** I forgot to mention that I will be calling the vet this week about the situation

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ click on XIMG at top of message box then click on the pics -- what do his poops look like ? are they runny stink to high heaven enough to drive you from the room- it is possible he is brumating - they do slow down and not eat -- as long as hes not losing weight -- he needs to stay hydrated - at his weight I would not be force feeding him - is he doing alot of sleeping? I would be getting him out once a week weigh him and hydrate him w/ either bathing or syringe or drop water on his nose -- and keep a chart on him for his weight --
Karrie

Hi there,

His poo's don't look concerning to me. Either do the 2 black dots really.

at 500+ grams he is quite big. As they get closer to full size they are going to shed less often and less often until it becomes an extremely rare occurrence. One of my dragons isn't even a year old yet but he hasn't shed in the same 2.5 months but he is the same size as yours. It's a size thing, they will only grow so big

Is he eating his salads at all?

What is he doing during the day? Lying around and trying to sleep? Or is he moving around and basking and being active?

At 500+ grams you can definitely afford to lay off the superworms and force feeding for awhile.
Keep track of his weight and see if it's staying the same or trending downwards.

-Brandon

claudiusx":1p5smn8v said:

Hi there,

His poo's don't look concerning to me. Either do the 2 black dots really.

at 500+ grams he is quite big. As they get closer to full size they are going to shed less often and less often until it becomes an extremely rare occurrence. One of my dragons isn't even a year old yet but he hasn't shed in the same 2.5 months but he is the same size as yours. It's a size thing, they will only grow so big

Is he eating his salads at all?

What is he doing during the day? Lying around and trying to sleep? Or is he moving around and basking and being active?

At 500+ grams you can definitely afford to lay off the superworms and force feeding for awhile.
Keep track of his weight and see if it's staying the same or trending downwards.

-Brandon

Click to expand...

Hi! He went to the vet today and was told the same thing! He has always been picky towards greens, but at the moment he is not responding to anything except superworms. I will begin force feeding greens as you said! Thank you for the help

claudiusx":htb2huii said:

Hi there,

His poo's don't look concerning to me. Either do the 2 black dots really.

at 500+ grams he is quite big. As they get closer to full size they are going to shed less often and less often until it becomes an extremely rare occurrence. One of my dragons isn't even a year old yet but he hasn't shed in the same 2.5 months but he is the same size as yours. It's a size thing, they will only grow so big

Is he eating his salads at all?

What is he doing during the day? Lying around and trying to sleep? Or is he moving around and basking and being active?

At 500+ grams you can definitely afford to lay off the superworms and force feeding for awhile.
Keep track of his weight and see if it's staying the same or trending downwards.

-Brandon

Click to expand...

Hi again! I’d like to follow up on Mugen as his fecal tested positive for pinworms. What should I do in the meantime? I just took everything out of his terrarium, dirt included, and cleaned the tank with a chlorehexidine solution.

Pinworms are fairly common. Did the tested sample show a high count of pinworms? Panacur is usually pretty effective at treating them if they occur in high concentrations but they are often left alone in low concentrations because dragons are able to keep them in check naturally and they don't tend to be problematic. Do clean and sanitize everything that comes in contact with poop in order to help keep the pinworms in check though.