Hi all,
Im a first time beardie owner, and my beardie Randy is just over 4 months old, I’ve had him for just over a month with few problems except that he seems particularly skittish and prone to relocation stress whenever something in his life/viv changes.
I rearranged a lot of his tank furniture this past weekend and afterwards he was eating very little, only a few dubias and pieces of salad per day. I assumed this was stress from new surroundings and was keeping an eye on it, but figured it would pass. Yesterday, he ate a lot more (probably 15 dubias throughout feeding sessions) so I thought he was back to normal and everything was ok. However, this morning when I came to turn on his lights, he was sitting next to a mass of partially digested dubias and veggies. I couldn’t tell from looking at it if it was stool or more like vomit, the dubias seemed to really barely be digested but were stuck together with some type of mucus.
Tank specs: 40 gallon 36x18x18, temps in hot side usually between 103-108, temps in cool side low-mid 80s taken with a probe thermometer, he has one 100w basking lamp and one thrive mvb 100 w. Until yesterday, I had the mvb on top of a screen but yesterday I set it up to hang above his tank so I could remove the screen. It is about 9” from his basking spot and another few inches from the ground. I am getting him a tube uvb today and want to get rid of this mvb because I recently learned that these store brand (this is PetSmart brand) lights are often not made right and can be bad for them. I’m thinking this could be a cause for an issue, since it may be too bright or direct of a light anyway and maybe removing the screen made that worse. Something else weird that happened yesterday was that when I was adjusting the setup for this mvb it briefly went out. I took him outside to get some uvb and then planned to go get a replacement, but when I came back inside it was working again.
My working theories are that some issue was caused by the change in his lighting, or possibly that he found some leftover dubias that had gotten away from him at feeding time in his tank last night and ate them after dark but couldn’t digest them in the cold. I know it could also be parasites or something else entirely, so I’m not sure.
Does anyone have an idea what’s going on? Or hear any major red flags in my setup? I’m assuming I should take him to a vet regardless after this, but I’m wondering if I should try feeding him in the meantime or if it will just hurt him if he’s having digestive issues. Thank you so much for your help!
Im a first time beardie owner, and my beardie Randy is just over 4 months old, I’ve had him for just over a month with few problems except that he seems particularly skittish and prone to relocation stress whenever something in his life/viv changes.
I rearranged a lot of his tank furniture this past weekend and afterwards he was eating very little, only a few dubias and pieces of salad per day. I assumed this was stress from new surroundings and was keeping an eye on it, but figured it would pass. Yesterday, he ate a lot more (probably 15 dubias throughout feeding sessions) so I thought he was back to normal and everything was ok. However, this morning when I came to turn on his lights, he was sitting next to a mass of partially digested dubias and veggies. I couldn’t tell from looking at it if it was stool or more like vomit, the dubias seemed to really barely be digested but were stuck together with some type of mucus.
Tank specs: 40 gallon 36x18x18, temps in hot side usually between 103-108, temps in cool side low-mid 80s taken with a probe thermometer, he has one 100w basking lamp and one thrive mvb 100 w. Until yesterday, I had the mvb on top of a screen but yesterday I set it up to hang above his tank so I could remove the screen. It is about 9” from his basking spot and another few inches from the ground. I am getting him a tube uvb today and want to get rid of this mvb because I recently learned that these store brand (this is PetSmart brand) lights are often not made right and can be bad for them. I’m thinking this could be a cause for an issue, since it may be too bright or direct of a light anyway and maybe removing the screen made that worse. Something else weird that happened yesterday was that when I was adjusting the setup for this mvb it briefly went out. I took him outside to get some uvb and then planned to go get a replacement, but when I came back inside it was working again.
My working theories are that some issue was caused by the change in his lighting, or possibly that he found some leftover dubias that had gotten away from him at feeding time in his tank last night and ate them after dark but couldn’t digest them in the cold. I know it could also be parasites or something else entirely, so I’m not sure.
Does anyone have an idea what’s going on? Or hear any major red flags in my setup? I’m assuming I should take him to a vet regardless after this, but I’m wondering if I should try feeding him in the meantime or if it will just hurt him if he’s having digestive issues. Thank you so much for your help!