My girl is worrying the heck out of me

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I haven't really posted in a while, and I wanted to check in and make sure D'artagnan is getting good care.

I have a couple of concerns. For a while, she wasn't pooping unless I bathed her, but now she's pooping every couple of days, not as much as I'd like, but it's better. I wanted to know if her poop looked normal, it looks different to me. I'll attach a picture at the end. She's fed crickets, collard greens, green cabbage, and sometimes strawberries, which she loves.

She has also started to only want to eat in the mornings. I've read that as they reach adulthood, they want crickets less, but I don't think she's getting enough, whenever she gets the crickets she eats them like there's no tomorrow, so she's got to be hungry. She's been particularly fond over her veggies, but her crickets are where she gets her calcium and protein. As of today, she's barely had any crickets for a week now, she's started to refuse them. This morning she ate a couple but then dove for the strawberries I gave her. She's underweight, you can see the line of her spine and her hips, but she won't eat more. Also, I'm not sure if it's weight related, but her tail has been extra limp lately, and it's not broken or anything, it just seems unusual.

She's in a forty gallon tank with a Reptisun 10 bulb. The temp of the center of her cage is in the 80's, the hotter side is hotter and the cooler side is cooler than that.

Other than all that, she seems fine. She's active, really really lazy and sluggish in her cage, but when she's given space to run she's everywhere. Sometimes when she's energetic she runs around and plays in her cage. She's very tame, I wouldn't say cuddly, but she doesn't really care about being handled, she just hates being outside a lot, which I've been trying to get her used to, as she's getting closer to adulthood. I got her back in August, and she was a baby then, I'm not sure how old she was when I got her.

I'm a first time lizard owner and I'm a paranoid mama. I'd love any advice.

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Darthedraggo

Member
Original Poster
I also want to add that sometimes she makes breathy little noises, very quiet and it's never dragged out, and she's been puffing her beard out and twisting a little like she's gagging, but she doesn't make gagging noises or anything. A second ago, she was puffing, had her eyes closed and they looked like they were puffing out a bunch. I stood up and walked over, and she opened her eyes and looked at me and was fine. Also glass surfing. That happens when I'm in the room sitting near the cage, I've never seen it as a sign of stress, I just assume she wants out.
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
It sounds like she's OK. She needs less protein as an adult so the crickets aren't so critical. She will get nutrients including calcium from a nice varied salad. You can include specifically calcium rich items like collard and turnip greens if you want to. The poop looks OK to me. Fairly normal based on what I've seen. It's good that she's active. I would give her plenty of time to run around outside the tank if she likes it. You can set up a portable basking lamp for her so she can warm up while she's out and about. The breathing and beard puffing/eye bulging sounds like she might be getting ready for a shed. They sometimes puff their beard and twist a bit when they are clearing food from their beard too.
 
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