Bearded dragon died :(

Hello all,

I am a relatively new beardie owner. I had 2 beardies for about 3 months. They were very different in personality from each other, but both thriving and healthy. Last night, I gave one of them about 10 dubia roaches (the usual amount for her) and then gave her about 3 superworms. She was actively hunting them and then all of a sudden stopped, went low to the ground, and had her mouth open. Her throat looked swollen so I pried her mouth open and her food was backed up into her throat. I tried to get it out but she bit me and I couldn't get back in there. I turned her over to look at her belly and it was sort of shaking so I put her back down and her whole body wriggled and then she threw up all her food from the entire day! It was scary. She got really tired after that, and I read they can get dehydrated, so I gave her a bath. She was super relaxed and closing her eyes and snuggling in her bath and then I wrapped her up in a towel and eventually put her back in her cage. She nuzzled into the substrate and fell asleep, and it was bedtime anyway, so I thought she was ok and just needed to rest after throwing up.

The next morning, my poor children found her dead in her cage. Strangely, her mouth was full of the substrate?!!! I don't understand what happened. The greens I give her every day are in a dish and don't have substrate in them. The bugs are fed to her outside of her cage. I've never seen her eat the substrate, but it was clearly lodged in the back of her mouth. It's just so weird and SO SAD . Any advice would be helpful because I don't want the same thing to happen to my other one.

Also, has anyone found that when they have a pair of dragons and one dies, the other one dies of loneliness? The other one was clearly disturbed this morning, with his beard bigger and blacker than I've ever seen.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks so much!

Jess

Hi Jess, I'm so sorry to read about this, how devastating for your family. He was no doubt choking to death and gasping at night, taking in substrate during his struggle for breath. Be sure to take loose substrate out, although that was not the direct cause [ it was the bugs which were lodged ] but better safe than sorry. Can you post pics of the tank you have with the lone dragon ? And although they can seem to miss the " partner " or sibling, most beardies are best off living alone since tankmates can stress each other and/or turn to fighting at times.

Here's how to post pics :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to upload them

I am sorry to hear that . But that thing that was said about them dying of loneliness is not true. And yes, you need to take extra mesuares sometimes, so remove loose substrate. Just remember, it's not your fault.