Please Help I feel that Our Family Beardie is sick or dying

I purchased a Beardie one week before Christmas, I live in Chicago and it has been very cold lately.

Our Beardie is about 3-5 inches long so I assume he is relatively young.

Here are some details abut his home:

Enclosure = 36L x 18w x 24T tank with mesh screen.....the tank has vents at both ends of the tank and a feeding opening at the front.
Lighting = ESU Reptile Slimline Light Fixture with 18 Super UV Lamp, 18"L x 4"W x 1"H, that sits on top of the screen mesh.
Heating = (1) Fluker 8.5" lamp with one 150watt ZooMed Repti Basking Spot Lamp at one end of the tank
Heating = (1) Fluker 8.5" lamp with one 150watt ZooMed Nocturnal Infrared Heat Lamp at the opposite end of the tank
Heating = (1) Zoo Med Repti Therm Under Tank Heater on the same end where the Infrared Heat Lamp is located
Substrate = Reptile Carpet

We do have a cat in the house, who is unable to reach the height of the Beardie Tank, so she sits on the floor outside of the tank with her head looking up.....almost in a trance state and at times I can swear I hear the Beardie teasing her...'you can't get me, you can't get me'.

We live in a loft so it can get down to 65 at night.......thus my heating applications

I have Digital Thermometers at both ends of the tank. One at the basking spot which is about 95-110 during the day and down to 70-85 at night....and this is at the end of the tank where he bask.

I keep the water on the front right corner of the tank and try to change it daily.

At the opposite end of the tank where the Infrared Lamp and heat pad is located the temperature hangs around 95 in the day and 85 at night.

During the day I keep the Infrared lamp on, I keep the flourescent lamp on and I keep the basking lamp on.
During the night the only light left on is the Infrared lamp and the heating pad is always on.

Since we have had him he was very active, he successfully shedded his first skin and he was very active and watches every thing that takes place in the house....pretty cool.

My wife and daugther handle him every day.....I am just the cage cleaner.

This guy hangs around alot and just chills out......when we open the from opening and dump crickets into the opening he responds and goes straight to the opening and waits for the crickets.

We give him greens which he eats quickly.

Last night he did not go to sleep in his normal position perched on a vine, last night he seemed to be lethargic and he just stretched out on some silk plants that we have in the tank for decoration and hiding spots.

I have stressed the importance of calcium dusting of the crickets during the feedings.....but do we need to dust the Beardie with calcium?

We feed the Beardie 10 -15 crickets a day.....should we feed more?

Is this Beardie OK???? Why the sudden change in behavior, how do we know if he is sick?? Our gut feeling is that something is wrong.....any suggestions?

He went from active or at least responsive to just laying around on leaves with his limbs not giving me that same feel that when I saw him hanging on to the vine.

Is he OK?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated



Thanks

Welcome to the forum. A few things first off. Beardies do not need any light at night and they can't feel heat from the bottom so the heating pad isn't a good idea. Proper temperatures and proper uvb are essential. Unfortunately, what most petstores sell you isn't the best care for your beardie. It sounds like the uvb they sold you isn't the best. Check out the caresheets on the top of the page. I'm sure more people will respond soon.

hello
welcome to bd.org!

ok now what i would recommend as uvb is a reptisun 10.0, that is the best bulb you can have and the beardie needs to be about 6-8" of it, in conjunction with the uvb you need a normal white household to give protection for your beardies eyes from the rays of the uvb. they need to be in complete darkness to sleep properly otherwise they have disturbed sleep and god knows they need their beauty sleep, lol, if your having trouble getting the temps up during the night then id recommend a ceramic heat emitter, it gives off heat but no light whatsoever.

no you do not dust the beardie himself with the calcium, you dust his live food with calcium once a day for 5-6 days of the week and dust with multi-vitamins once a day for 2-3 days of the week.

you shouldnt let the humidity get too high as they are desert animals, also with the crickets, you need to feed way more than 10-15 crickets a day for a 2-3" inch beardie, he is definitely very young, maybe a month or so.
the crickets cannot be no larger than the space between his eyes otherwise you could impact him. the rule is to feed him 3 seperate 15 minute sittings daily and let him eat as much as he wants to ok. only dusting with calcium or multi-vits one sitting a day, does that make sense?

hmm it could be a number of things why hes slightly more lethargic than usual, he may not have gotten enough sleep, maybe the crickets are too big and hes having trouble going to the loo or that he just doesnt feel like doing nothing at all. was that the only thing you think had changed with him? has he had any stress marks or black bearded at all?
is he pooping ok? how often?
how is his appetite?
do you bathe him at all? he could be a little dehydrated so try bathing him in a little tubberware container with baby-warm water just up to his arm pits to give him a little boost in fluids, they soak the water up though their vents so he doesnt need his head to go under, also never leave him unattended as young dragons can drown ok.
if he doesnt pick up then maybe take a fecal sample to a herp vet and get him checked for parasites and worms.
let me know how hes doing?

Hello,

Welcome to the forum.
Unfortunately, the ESU flourescent tube bulb does not emit much if any UVB light at all. Here is a chart to show you comparisons of UVB output. First, this chart will show you how low the UVB emissions for the ESU are:

http://www.russiantortoise.org/uvb.htm

This next chart will have the UVB emissions for the Reptisun 10 flourescent tube bulb, which if you live in the US is the best tube bulb you can buy right now.

http://www.uvguide.co.uk/fluorescenttuberesults.htm

You can purchase the Reptisun 10 from http://www.petmountain.com for much cheaper than from the petstore.

I think that your temps are too high on the cool end. At 95, he does not have any "cool" end to thermoregulate on so he is most likely overheating. You can turn off the infrared light during the day, because that is 300 watts of heat going into that medium sized tank which is quite a lot. He needs a cool end of 78-82 during the day with the other end for the basking at 95-110 at what you have right now. Overnight heating is fine, so you can use the undertank heater for over night since you have carpet he will be fine. However, the infrared light can disturb his sleeping pattern which will stunt his growth.

He will need at least 2-3 feedings per day for crickets. At best, he should be eating over 50 crickets per day, & since he is eating greens & veggies that is great.

Keep us posted on him.

Tracie