Dragon has gone months eating very little

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My bearded dragon Beardsley hasn't been himself since March, and the main issue is that he isn't eating much at all. Every few days he'll eat one small piece of a bell pepper and maybe a couple bites of some collard or mustard greens. He will almost always refuse to eat the dubia roaches that he used to go crazy for. He acts afraid of them to be honest. If I put them in front of him he'll back off a bit to put some space between him and the roaches. I've also tried hornworms and BSFL. I thought for sure he'd go nuts over the hornworms, but he only ate one out of the 6 I bought. I tried giving him some over the course of a week and he wouldn't eat another one.

Here is the post I originally made back in March:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=258841

He is about a year old now. I have since built him a 2' deep x 2.5' tall x 4' long enclosure with the T5 10.0 bulb in a Sunblaster fixture as the main source of UVB. It's about 13" away from the basking spot, which is about 100 to 105 degrees on the surface. The rest of the enclosure is about 75 degrees.

He had been hanging out in his cave for days without coming out. Eventually he'd come out for a few hours and then head back inside for several more days. For the past couple weeks he has been out of his cave and basking for most of the day every day. Surprisingly he has maintained his weight at 200g, though I feel that is very small for his age. He's about 16" long and looks very thin to me. It's hard to tell in the pictures because he is doing a pancake.

Since he's been out basking more, I've noticed that he likes to run around with a black beard and bob his head up and down quite a bit. Sometimes it ends in a poop, but more often than not, it doesn't. I'm not sure why he has this behavior. He never glass surfs. Could this be because there is another bearded dragon in an enclosure right next to his? He can't see the other dragon, but could he smell her?

His poops of course are very infrequent due to the lack of eating. I will mention that today I gave him a bath and he pooped in it. It was scary because I saw something red come out with the poop and then go back inside after he was done. I think that was part of his intestine but I'm not sure. When I took him to the vet back in March, he had no parasites and the vet thought he might have an impaction issue. I'm not sure if that's at all related, but I find it hard to believe that he's impacted if he's still pooping. By the way, his poop looks normal with the urate intact.

Since he hasn't lost any weight, should I not worry about him? I feel like his growth has been stunted and I wonder if he'll ever eat normally again. I'm surprised he's been able to go on with so little food intake.

His enclosure is on the left:
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KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
They do go off their food-- the head bobbing is a mating thing -- I dont think he can smell her and its good they cant see each other -- I have two males that sit side by side like your tanks and they dont head bob very much at all --- I would just keep an eye on his weight and make sure he stays hydrated - try some different feeders are you feeding any worms like super meal or silk - the silk are a staple feeder -hes not impacted if he is pooping --- I would get the middle of your tanks up to the 90's - and the cool side during the day 80's - most older dragons dont like real hot - if you can lower the basking side down to 95-100 --- see what kind of behavior you get ---
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

I read over your previous thread again. Has his weight stayed stable thus far?
In the pictures he looks good. It is hard to tell his size but there are a lot of them that are under
20 inches in length.
Are you using a digital probe or temp gun to measure his temperatures? You could consider
increasing the overall ambient temperatures or the cool end temperatures to around 80 to see
if that helps.
If you have a female beside him then he could definitely sense her there even if he cannot see
her. I'm not sure if that would be the issue or not.
Maybe start giving some bee pollen daily, for appetite stimulation & immune system boosting.

Tracie
 

indianaryan

Member
Original Poster
I will try increasing the cool side to 80 and see what happens. His weight has stayed stable. I don't know how, but it has. I have measured with both a digital probe and a temp gun.

The bearded dragon in the enclosure beside him is female, so perhaps that is why he's running round with a black beard and bobbing his head up and down.

I might try the bee pollen to see if that helps.

Thank you for the help.
 
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