Hi all, I recently purchased a juvenile red phase central bearded dragon from an aquarium/reptile store, and I'm worried that he seems to be underdeveloped in some way? He's only 6 inches long and 10 grams, but the store is adamant that he's between 4-6 months old. Sorry if it's a lengthy post.
He stayed at the store for a little under a month while I got my wildlife license sorted (living in Australia). Since I first saw him, and up to now that I've had him (had him for almost a month), so from August 16th to today, he's stayed the exact same weight and length and hasn't grown a gram, even measured on a small food scale. There was another young bearded dragon in there with him, which was only very slightly bigger. He barely eats, especially for the first week and a bit I had him, where he didn't eat for 3 days straight at a point, and if he did he ate one or two crickets. I had to resort to assist feeding him because he looked so skinny and even lost 1 gram, but I've since stopped since he now won't even let me open his mouth + he passes urate on my hand if I try.
Even today, he barely eats to the point where I've tried offering insects so many times throughout the day but he just doesn't show any interest in them, whether they're crickets, wood roaches, even calci worms. If i'm lucky he eats one or two a day. He passes faeces every day in his bath though, and it looks compact and just the right firmness.
Recently, about 5 days ago, he was in a car ride with us while we went out to buy wood roaches(i've tried feeding them to him in the past). He showed so much interest in them that he even tried to eat them through the plastic box. When we got home he ate 5 at once, 10 in the day total. I was so relieved to see him eating properly, but that lasted a very short time, as he resorted back to eating one or two insects a day. Is there some kind of issue with his terrarium?
It's been such a frustrating and inconsistent time and I'm really confused as to what's going wrong. I'll detail my husbandry below and I'll also provide pictures:
-90cmx45x45 glass terrarium with an exoterra sand mat, it's not loose substrate, it's a rocky texture
-75w basking white light, gives him a basking temperature on the highest at 42 c/ 107 f, on the rocks at 36c/ 96 f, cool end is 25-28 c / 77-82 f
-lights are on for 14 hrs on timer
-i use a reptisun 10.0 T8 uvb lamp, its mounted in this fixture that has a reflector inside, and he gets within 8 inches of it when basking. pics provided below, but could this fixture not be giving a proper gradient because of its square design?
-i give him baths every day, and i give him drops of water on his snout that he does drink up
-greens are provided, but i've never seen him eat them, when i assist fed him i gave him squash
-the rare insects that he does eat are dusted with calcium + d3 powder
It's been such a rough time trying to figure out what it could be. I've taken him to reptile stores seeing the opinions of reptile sellers, and they all say he's healthy looking and that his size is normal for that age? Whenever I read about 4-6 month old beardies anywhere, they're double his size. Could he be a runt of some sort? The other dragon he was with was pretty much the same size.
pics of him and his enclosure:
https://imgur.com/a/SAGbXtB
He stayed at the store for a little under a month while I got my wildlife license sorted (living in Australia). Since I first saw him, and up to now that I've had him (had him for almost a month), so from August 16th to today, he's stayed the exact same weight and length and hasn't grown a gram, even measured on a small food scale. There was another young bearded dragon in there with him, which was only very slightly bigger. He barely eats, especially for the first week and a bit I had him, where he didn't eat for 3 days straight at a point, and if he did he ate one or two crickets. I had to resort to assist feeding him because he looked so skinny and even lost 1 gram, but I've since stopped since he now won't even let me open his mouth + he passes urate on my hand if I try.
Even today, he barely eats to the point where I've tried offering insects so many times throughout the day but he just doesn't show any interest in them, whether they're crickets, wood roaches, even calci worms. If i'm lucky he eats one or two a day. He passes faeces every day in his bath though, and it looks compact and just the right firmness.
Recently, about 5 days ago, he was in a car ride with us while we went out to buy wood roaches(i've tried feeding them to him in the past). He showed so much interest in them that he even tried to eat them through the plastic box. When we got home he ate 5 at once, 10 in the day total. I was so relieved to see him eating properly, but that lasted a very short time, as he resorted back to eating one or two insects a day. Is there some kind of issue with his terrarium?
It's been such a frustrating and inconsistent time and I'm really confused as to what's going wrong. I'll detail my husbandry below and I'll also provide pictures:
-90cmx45x45 glass terrarium with an exoterra sand mat, it's not loose substrate, it's a rocky texture
-75w basking white light, gives him a basking temperature on the highest at 42 c/ 107 f, on the rocks at 36c/ 96 f, cool end is 25-28 c / 77-82 f
-lights are on for 14 hrs on timer
-i use a reptisun 10.0 T8 uvb lamp, its mounted in this fixture that has a reflector inside, and he gets within 8 inches of it when basking. pics provided below, but could this fixture not be giving a proper gradient because of its square design?
-i give him baths every day, and i give him drops of water on his snout that he does drink up
-greens are provided, but i've never seen him eat them, when i assist fed him i gave him squash
-the rare insects that he does eat are dusted with calcium + d3 powder
It's been such a rough time trying to figure out what it could be. I've taken him to reptile stores seeing the opinions of reptile sellers, and they all say he's healthy looking and that his size is normal for that age? Whenever I read about 4-6 month old beardies anywhere, they're double his size. Could he be a runt of some sort? The other dragon he was with was pretty much the same size.
pics of him and his enclosure:
https://imgur.com/a/SAGbXtB
