Lazy beardie

Status
Not open for further replies.

apndi

Member
Hi all, first time posting but I've lurked here and there for a while. :D I've noticed a recent change in behavior in my bearded dragon and I'm wondering if it's something normal or if there may be a problem.

I got my bearded dragon, Charlie, in November from Petsmart. I'm not sure of the exact age of their beardies when they come in but I'm going to estimate that he's about 10 months old, and he's 21" long. He used to have quite a voracious appetite--if he saw a cricket, he would jump down from his hammock to devour it. However, his appetite has slowed down a lot. I know as they get older the amount of insects they eat decreases and amount of veggies increases, but he's not eating his veggies. He used to nibble on them here and there when he was younger, but now he barely eats them at all. Visibly, he looks fine, I have not noticed any weight loss or injuries, except for the past few weeks his stress marks are always visible except when he's sleeping. My biggest worry is that lately he's been exceptionally lazy. I know they're not always running around but he used to get down from his basking spot a couple times a day to walk around. Now he only gets down in the morning to scratch at the glass, walk around, and maybe poop before he gets back on his hammock. He will sit there throughout the day, sleep there, and then only get back off of it the following morning. Here is some care info for you guys to pick through, hopefully you can spot a problem or offer some suggestions:

-40g enclosure
-tile substrate
-dish of water is offered in enclosure, but I also give him a bath once a week. I never see him drink so I assume he takes some water in through his vent during his weekly bath.
-frozen thawed veggies are offered daily. I leave it in there in the morning/early afternoon and take it out in the evening after his insect meal. I know frozen isn't the best but I was going to change to fresh after he started eating veggies consistently so I wouldn't waste a ton of fresh food. The veggies I give him are collard greens, turnip greens, mustard greens, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and sometimes I put a little piece of fruit to hopefully entice him but he ignores it.
--insects are fed once daily in the evening. He eats about 75 phoenix worms (should I be giving him more? Not sure of the phoenix worm to cricket ratio). I don't dust them with calcium but twice a week I dust with multivitamin powder. I usually leave them in a bowl and he gets down to eat, but lately I've been having to pick him up off the hammock and set him down beside them to get him to eat. Sometimes he doesn't want to eat and just eats them the next morning. When I run out of phoenix worms and I'm waiting for them to ship, I feed him crickets. Crickets are dusted with calcium powder 5x a week and multivitamin powder 2x a week. They are gut loaded. He eats anywhere from 10-40 of those, average is 20-30. He used to catch them by himself but now I have to hold them in front of his face for him to bother eating it.
-He poops kind of randomly. For the past few days, he's pooped every morning. He skips a couple days here and there. His poop used to be quite soft, but ever since I switched to feeding mostly phoenix worms they have firmed and dried up (and are a lot less smelly too!) They are dark greenish brown and about a third of it is made up of white urates. Sometimes there's a bit of clear liquid around it.
-UVB is a reptisun 10.0 T8 tube. It will need to be replaced in September or october. It's directly inside his cage. His basking spot ranges from 90-110 degrees depending on if he's laying on his hammock or sitting on the rock next to it. Cool side ranges from 78-80 degrees. Lights are on from 6:30 am to 8:30 pm.
-I've seen MBD and I know he doesn't have it--there's no shaking or twitching, and he has no problems sitting up, standing, and walking around.
-I'm actually not sure if he's a male--it's my best guess. I looked under his tail but of course it's not as clear as it is in pictures online.

I know that around his age, they go through a phase where they become either really active or really lazy and they turn their nose up at foods they previously liked. Is this what's happening? He used to be pretty active and eating everything in front of his face. Now he doesn't eat a lot and he barely moves. Is he bored? Is it an age thing or could there be something wrong? Thanks for any suggestions or guesses.
 

Enderess

Member
He might be dehydrated. I've heard that lethargic behavior can be linked with dehydration. My new bearded dragon (6 year old rescue and adorable) wouldn't drink from the bath either, so I got his water bowl out and tapped the water repeatedly. He then saw the water moving, and went for it! :D

He is acting less lethargic, as now I get his water bowl out a few times every day. Also, I wouldn't leave it in the tank if I were you, as it might dry up quickly, or it will make the humidity to high, but if your humidity levels are fine, then that's good.

But that is just me guessing. I just am mainly suggesting this since your setup seems fine to me. (Unless I missed something..) But please, correct me if I'm wrong!

Hope that helps, I'll try to get back to you later today or tomorrow, since I have to go to Seattle :)

Regards

Enderess
 

apndi

Member
Original Poster
Enderess":cimek8qf said:
He might be dehydrated. I've heard that lethargic behavior can be linked with dehydration. My new bearded dragon (6 year old rescue and adorable) wouldn't drink from the bath either, so I got his water bowl out and tapped the water repeatedly. He then saw the water moving, and went for it! :D

He is acting less lethargic, as now I get his water bowl out a few times every day. Also, I wouldn't leave it in the tank if I were you, as it might dry up quickly, or it will make the humidity to high, but if your humidity levels are fine, then that's good.

But that is just me guessing. I just am mainly suggesting this since your setup seems fine to me. (Unless I missed something..) But please, correct me if I'm wrong!

Hope that helps, I'll try to get back to you later today or tomorrow, since I have to go to Seattle :)

Regards

Enderess

Thanks for the reply!

Mine has drank from the bath a couple times but he doesn't always do it. But he has done it so I know that in the bath he knows it's water. I have tapped on his water dish and he has also accidentally stepped in it so he knows that that's water as well.

Humidity levels are always around 50% and I have the water dish on the cool side as far away from the basking light as possible. I know humidity is a little high but he has seemed fine with it so far and I cannot get it lower. I live in the southeast so the humidity is unavoidable.

I'll try giving him baths more frequently for a bit and see if he perks up. He really hates them so I'll do them every other day and see how he does with that. I do find it strange though that ever since I got him and he was about 6" long, I gave him baths once a week and he never seemed dehydrated or lethargic at all.
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
I think he's simply maturing and becoming more laid back ( the term lazy as a lizard comes from the preferred activity level of most adult lizards (ie do as little as possible)).
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
apndi":30ec37ac said:
Enderess":30ec37ac said:
He might be dehydrated. I've heard that lethargic behavior can be linked with dehydration. My new bearded dragon (6 year old rescue and adorable) wouldn't drink from the bath either, so I got his water bowl out and tapped the water repeatedly. He then saw the water moving, and went for it! :D

He is acting less lethargic, as now I get his water bowl out a few times every day. Also, I wouldn't leave it in the tank if I were you, as it might dry up quickly, or it will make the humidity to high, but if your humidity levels are fine, then that's good.

But that is just me guessing. I just am mainly suggesting this since your setup seems fine to me. (Unless I missed something..) But please, correct me if I'm wrong!

Hope that helps, I'll try to get back to you later today or tomorrow, since I have to go to Seattle :)

Regards

Enderess

Thanks for the reply!

Mine has drank from the bath a couple times but he doesn't always do it. But he has done it so I know that in the bath he knows it's water. I have tapped on his water dish and he has also accidentally stepped in it so he knows that that's water as well.

<<<< unless he enjoys a splash in the bath or drinks while in the luke warm bath , bathing frequently is not necessary and unless he actually drinks in the bath , bathing will not help with his hydration, water can only get into them via their mouth..
<<< if he enjoys a bath, it's fine to endulge him.


Humidity levels are always around 50% and I have the water dish on the cool side as far away from the basking light as possible. I know humidity is a little high but he has seemed fine with it so far and I cannot get it lower. I live in the southeast so the humidity is unavoidable.

I'll try giving him baths more frequently for a bit and see if he perks up. He really hates them so I'll do them every other day and see how he does with that. I do find it strange though that ever since I got him and he was about 6" long, I gave him baths once a week and he never seemed dehydrated or lethargic at all.
 

nathb1

Hatchling Member
apndi":p0nsvh6i said:
Hi all, first time posting but I've lurked here and there for a while. :D I've noticed a recent change in behavior in my bearded dragon and I'm wondering if it's something normal or if there may be a problem.

I got my bearded dragon, Charlie, in November from Petsmart. I'm not sure of the exact age of their beardies when they come in but I'm going to estimate that he's about 10 months old, and he's 21" long. He used to have quite a voracious appetite--if he saw a cricket, he would jump down from his hammock to devour it. However, his appetite has slowed down a lot. I know as they get older the amount of insects they eat decreases and amount of veggies increases, but he's not eating his veggies. He used to nibble on them here and there when he was younger, but now he barely eats them at all. Visibly, he looks fine, I have not noticed any weight loss or injuries, except for the past few weeks his stress marks are always visible except when he's sleeping. My biggest worry is that lately he's been exceptionally lazy. I know they're not always running around but he used to get down from his basking spot a couple times a day to walk around. Now he only gets down in the morning to scratch at the glass, walk around, and maybe poop before he gets back on his hammock. He will sit there throughout the day, sleep there, and then only get back off of it the following morning. Here is some care info for you guys to pick through, hopefully you can spot a problem or offer some suggestions:

-40g enclosure
-tile substrate
-dish of water is offered in enclosure, but I also give him a bath once a week. I never see him drink so I assume he takes some water in through his vent during his weekly bath.
-frozen thawed veggies are offered daily. I leave it in there in the morning/early afternoon and take it out in the evening after his insect meal. I know frozen isn't the best but I was going to change to fresh after he started eating veggies consistently so I wouldn't waste a ton of fresh food. The veggies I give him are collard greens, turnip greens, mustard greens, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and sometimes I put a little piece of fruit to hopefully entice him but he ignores it.
--insects are fed once daily in the evening. He eats about 75 phoenix worms (should I be giving him more? Not sure of the phoenix worm to cricket ratio). I don't dust them with calcium but twice a week I dust with multivitamin powder. I usually leave them in a bowl and he gets down to eat, but lately I've been having to pick him up off the hammock and set him down beside them to get him to eat. Sometimes he doesn't want to eat and just eats them the next morning. When I run out of phoenix worms and I'm waiting for them to ship, I feed him crickets. Crickets are dusted with calcium powder 5x a week and multivitamin powder 2x a week. They are gut loaded. He eats anywhere from 10-40 of those, average is 20-30. He used to catch them by himself but now I have to hold them in front of his face for him to bother eating it.
-He poops kind of randomly. For the past few days, he's pooped every morning. He skips a couple days here and there. His poop used to be quite soft, but ever since I switched to feeding mostly phoenix worms they have firmed and dried up (and are a lot less smelly too!) They are dark greenish brown and about a third of it is made up of white urates. Sometimes there's a bit of clear liquid around it.
-UVB is a reptisun 10.0 T8 tube. It will need to be replaced in September or october. It's directly inside his cage. His basking spot ranges from 90-110 degrees depending on if he's laying on his hammock or sitting on the rock next to it. Cool side ranges from 78-80 degrees. Lights are on from 6:30 am to 8:30 pm.
-I've seen MBD and I know he doesn't have it--there's no shaking or twitching, and he has no problems sitting up, standing, and walking around.
-I'm actually not sure if he's a male--it's my best guess. I looked under his tail but of course it's not as clear as it is in pictures online.

I know that around his age, they go through a phase where they become either really active or really lazy and they turn their nose up at foods they previously liked. Is this what's happening? He used to be pretty active and eating everything in front of his face. Now he doesn't eat a lot and he barely moves. Is he bored? Is it an age thing or could there be something wrong? Thanks for any suggestions or guesses.


As king said he seems lazzzy! Mine is lazy too, used to be more active but since he has turned like 10 months or so lazzzzy! Doesnt even eat by himself! Waits to be handfed!
So if you see he is looking healthy and eating I wouldnt worry about it. Get a scale and weight him if he is not losing any weight than he is fine.
 

apndi

Member
Original Poster
That's a relief to hear!! His urates are always plain white so I figured that maybe he wasn't dehydrated. I decided not to do the bathing frequently thing because of that. Also yesterday I picked him up off the hammock and set him down next to his water dish, then I put my finger in it and started wiggling it around making the water splash and move around. He just stared at it and then stared at me, so evidently he wasn't thirsty. Then I picked up his bowl of veggies and held it in front of him, he just stared so he didn't want veggies. After a minute of staring at me he turned around and jumped back onto his hammock...lol. So I suppose it's not that he's unable to move, he just wants the stupid hammock lol.

The night before last he got off his hammock by himself to eat his Phoenix worms. So last night I filled his bowl with Phoenix worms and left the room. I came back a few hours later and he hadn't eaten, his lights had since turned off and he was asleep in...you guessed it, his hammock!! I left them in there overnight since they can't escape from that bowl and he ate them on his own this morning.

The only thing still worrying me now is his stress marks. They're pretty consistently dark and they never go away unless he's sleeping. So that hints to me that maybe something IS wrong?

Also I'll look into getting a kitchen scale. And does anyone have a guess as to when he'll return to eating his veggies? Thanks!

EDIT: also forgot to add that he pooped this morning. I took a closer look at it and it seemed like there were a few whole undigested Phoenix worms in there. Is this a problem?
 

apndi

Member
Original Poster
I thought I would update this. Not much has changed. Tuesday night he didn't eat, just sat on his hammock and stared at nothing. On Wednesday morning I gave him some veggies and left the bowl of Phoenix worms there. When I got home from work the veggies were untouched and the Phoenix worms were gone. He has been pooping, poop has looked normal since my last post.

I prefer to do veggies in the morning and insects in the evening. So I didn't feed him last night since he ate the insects that morning. This morning I put some veggies in, they have laid untouched all day. He had to have gotten down from his hammock at one point to poop since there was poop in there when I got home from work. So now it's been more than 24 hrs since he last ate. I just put a bowl of Phoenix worms in there about 10 minutes ago and he'll look at them but he's not getting down from his hammock. Just sitting there, staring into outer space like he does constantly.

Tomorrow I'll get a kitchen scale to start weighing him, but i still don't notice any weight loss. The only thing about his appearance that worries me is that his stress marks are still consistently dark.

EDIT: so after several minutes I got sick of watching him watch the worms from his hammock. So I picked him up off of it and he stared at the worms for a good 5 minutes. And then began to eat as if i hadn't fed him in months. I'm inclined to say he's just exceptionally lazy but I'm still a tad bit worried. Would it be an overreaction for me to consider taking him to the vet? There are several reptile vets in my area I can go to.

Ugh, of course this is happening a week before I leave for vacation for a week. I'm leaving him in the care of a coworker. She's experienced with reptiles and has a chameleon so she'll be fine with him. But still.
 

apndi

Member
Original Poster
nathb1":23x1u1ho said:
Can u post a pic of him?

I can try. I don't have any recent pics of him except for just this one because it's at a weird angle. Taken tonight. Yup, on the hammock.


93478-6254625092.jpg

Another one from July 13. Pretty sure he still looks like this, but obviously it's hard to tell because I see him every day. The kitchen scale shall reveal the truth.

93478-9559440780.jpg

I'll add a few more. They're all within the past few months. I'll take and post more recent ones if needed tomorrow.

Another from July 13:

93478-4246866955.jpg

and from June 28:

93478-7357059484.jpg
 

apndi

Member
Original Poster
Some more pics from today. He's not as sleepy as he has been for the past few days and his stress marks are totally gone. Nothing has changed so not sure what's up.

93478-3863626672.jpg

93478-247135689.jpg
 

apndi

Member
Original Poster
Does anyone else have anything else to add? How does he look in the pics?

It seems to me like his eating pattern for bugs has been switching to every other day. I estimated him at 10 (almost 11) months old. I suppose it's possible that he's older (like about a year) than I thought he was. Still won't touch his veggies. And I totally forgot to buy the kitchen scale again, of course. His stress marks come and go now. He just ate and they're currently gone, he just ate.

At this point I'm not that worried anymore, I guess I'm just trying to get more insight on beardie behavior when they get older. I'm more used to the active little babies.
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
He looks fine to me. I'd guess he's just slowing down as he reaches full size. I'd go from one bug meal per day down to about once or twice per week over the next 6 months and try to get him into salads. Try things like setting him up to look out the window or bring him outside with you for a bit to try and get his interest and see if he responds with some activity.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Members online

Latest resources

Latest posts

Latest profile posts

I miss you so much, Amaris 💔
What is a quick way to warm up a cold beardie? His heating element went out overnight and now he's very cold.
Pearl Girl wrote on moorelori1966's profile.
i feel so sad reading your about me 😢
Clapton is acclimating okay I think. He's quick as lightning so I'm not sure how much I should bring him out of his house yet. He's not at all interested in his salad though. I wonder if I should change what I'm giving him. Least he's eating his crickets.

Things to do:
Buy calcium powder
Material to raise surface for basking spot
Scenery decals for back of tank

Forum statistics

Threads
155,899
Messages
1,255,688
Members
75,966
Latest member
georgiarichmond
Top Bottom