Been too long since. . .

Ok, we got my middle child a beardie for her birthday at the Tucson reptile show from The Snake Vault. He is a juvee and about 2 1/2 to 3 months old. He has rapidly decreased his food intake to nothing. I was feeding crickets, small superworms, wax worms and I finally got my phoenix worms. He was drinking fine and eating good when we got him. I am afraid he might be impacted from the hard body insects. I have he gets a bath very frequently, his basking is around 105-110, measured with an infrared and probe to double check, his cool side is around 80. At night it is about 70.

He seems to loose fall asleep while sitting there. His eyes close his head sinks to the floor and then he suddenly wakes up. When I hold him he closes his eyes and droops his head. Sometimes he has great energy.

I have given him applesauce and olive oil forcefully. What can I give him to increase his appetite and also what can I use while force feeding. I feel this is going to be my only option. I was thinking of crushing up some phoenix worms and mixing with something but getting him to open long enough to get any in him is my problem. He pulls and fights and I am afrais of hurting him. This is my first young bearie, I got my other one when he was already 1 year old.

Yes I have UVB and UVA and basking spot. I am using the reptisun 10.0 and a full spectrum tube.

Any help would be good. The nearest herp vet is 2 hours away and VERY expensive.

Nick

Well, if you are feeding phoenix worms, I would be careful about how much calcium you are dusting with, because if he gets too much calcium, that will lead to hard urates and risk of impaction.

Also, supers, even small ones, are not recommended for a young beardie. I would stop those immediately.

How long has it been since he last pooped?

I would keep bathing him daily until you can get a vet appointment. I know it is expensive, but if you have tried the olive oil and applesauce and it hasn't worked, the only other thing I can think of is to try some canned pumpkin from the baking aisle at your grocery store. That is supposed to get them pooping great, better than applesauce, actually.

However, if it were me, I would take them to the vet and get an x-ray to see what's going on in his tummy, since you had already tried one method.

Good luck ...

Agreed on Pumpkin. There is an appetite stimulator that you can get from Petco and probably other places.

You might want to do babyfood with a syringe and you can crush in some phoenix worms. But do it ASAP. Mine didn't last long when he was that age and wasn't eating.

I don't dust the phoenix worms as that is why I went with them, for the high calcium. I put him in his bath the other night and changed his paper towels. He is going no. 2, but it seems to be mucu with alittle poo suspended inside. I am thinking coccidia from the research I have done both in this site as well as using "the google". That is also when I finally got some applesauce in him that would count for anything. His activity is there but it's weird.

Thanks, for the help, and I will try pumpkin, I should have known that from when my boxer was sick, it will harden runny poo and loosen constipation, great stuff. I tried to give him some pieces of pumpkin fro carving the kids pumpkins but he didn't want any, didn't even think of the benefits.

Nick

If it is coccidia, pumpkin will not help. He will need a parasite treatment and diagnosis from your vet. It's too dangerous to guesstimate dosages, etc. at home. Especially, with a baby dragon. I wouldn't wait much longer, if you think he is really sick.

Also, I wasn't asking if you dusted the phoenix worms. I was pointing out that if you use them a lot in your diet and also dust other bugs with calcium or his salad, he could end up with too much calcium in his system and hard urates. This leads to prolapses. Just something to watch out for ...