Hi everyone.
We lost our 2.5yr old female bearded dragon very unexpectedly a few days ago. We are crushed and our 12 yr old is absolutely devastated. He was holding her in the morning on the day she died and she seemed fine. She ate that day, temperatures & thermostat normal. Our son found her dead around 11pm (about 12 hrs after he had her out and she seemed find and probably 9 hrs since she was last fed). Substrate was reptile carpet. Had a UVB bulb on a timer. Thermostat was working when we found her, temp set at 105 hot side daytime and 72 at night. Diet was salad in the am (kale, peppers, carrots, peas, apples - we tried to vary it weekly) plus crickets in the afternoons. She had seen the vet about a year ago and had low-level coccidia then but they said it was near impossible to eradicate it completely and at the level she had it was considered okay. How often do people here see the vet? What are your time frames for new UVB bulbs? Im concerned that we may have missed important deadlines on these things (thanks 2020 pandemic nightmare hell).
Im hoping someone here can shed light on what might have gone wrong in such a short timeframe? If there was a husbandry issue going on, I want to make sure I know what that was before we consider getting another bearded dragon in the future. Do people with female beardies normally provide nesting substrate just in case?
Thanks for any info or insight. I am just heartbroken and feeling horribly guilty that I overlooked or neglected something.
We lost our 2.5yr old female bearded dragon very unexpectedly a few days ago. We are crushed and our 12 yr old is absolutely devastated. He was holding her in the morning on the day she died and she seemed fine. She ate that day, temperatures & thermostat normal. Our son found her dead around 11pm (about 12 hrs after he had her out and she seemed find and probably 9 hrs since she was last fed). Substrate was reptile carpet. Had a UVB bulb on a timer. Thermostat was working when we found her, temp set at 105 hot side daytime and 72 at night. Diet was salad in the am (kale, peppers, carrots, peas, apples - we tried to vary it weekly) plus crickets in the afternoons. She had seen the vet about a year ago and had low-level coccidia then but they said it was near impossible to eradicate it completely and at the level she had it was considered okay. How often do people here see the vet? What are your time frames for new UVB bulbs? Im concerned that we may have missed important deadlines on these things (thanks 2020 pandemic nightmare hell).
Im hoping someone here can shed light on what might have gone wrong in such a short timeframe? If there was a husbandry issue going on, I want to make sure I know what that was before we consider getting another bearded dragon in the future. Do people with female beardies normally provide nesting substrate just in case?
Thanks for any info or insight. I am just heartbroken and feeling horribly guilty that I overlooked or neglected something.