Is my beardie sick?

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hey guys, so i got 2 new beardies last month and my one female, butter, seems to be very sick. Shes eating but she drools sometimes and doesnt seem very attentive. Ive noticed that all beardies ive seen are always like upright and aware of everything around them but butter just seems so lethargic and doesnt move at all and literally just lays all day. Her left "elbow" and right "knee" are swollen but thats how i got her. She diesnt limp at all so i wanna say that she doesnt have any broken bones but im no vet.... her basking spot is 105, cool side is 92. Eats superworms mostly because her last owner never got her into eating veggies. I give them the mealworms with a mixture of calculium with d3 and multivitamins about 3 times a week. I do have toast and butter in the same 60 gallon tank but they have been together since they were hatchlings and they never fight or anything. They share the basking spot. Never flare or bob or anything. They just work well together. She also has weird markings on her stomach. And something that looks like a scab.
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Buttertoast95

Member
Original Poster
Btw the previous owner didnt know theyre exact age so theyre estimated at 4 years old. The previous owner clearly wasnt the best at taking care of them...
 

traildrifterphalanx

Sub-Adult Member
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=234857&p=1807009#p1807009

I am adding a link to your previous topic of the same name, in case any additional information was in here, and I believe some of your concerns were already addressed.
It sounds like she may possibly be ill, but I'll allow someone with more knowledge of the symptoms to help out. I would recommend housing them separately.
 

EllenD

Gray-bearded Member
I don't have time right now to go into detail, but you absolutely need to separate them immediately! Doesn't matter one bit what you think about their "relationship", and I don't mean that in a sarcastic way or anything, I mean that we have no idea what is going on with them. They are solitary animals that live alone all the time in the wild, and when you see them "sharing" the basking spot, they aren't sharing, they're fighting over it. I promise you that every single time someone posts about a sick beardie and then they say that he is housed with another bearded dragon that is fine, usually thriving, but it's not that they're housed together, they get along fine, etc. it's is ALWAYS that they need to be separated. Once they each have their own enclosure the sick dragon automatically starts to thrive.

A 40 gallon breeder is hardly large enough for one adult beardie, it isn't really, and putting 2 adults in a 40 gallon is asking for even more issues. So you absolutely must separate them immediately, right now, and leave the "sick" one in the enclosure, she's already stressed to death, she cannot take relocation stress too, the other dominate dragon that's healthy can deal with a new enclosure. You can use a plastic tub with a basking light for right now, he can go without a UVB light for a week or so until you can buy a second enclosure and lighting for him.

Get him out now, I'm telling you, once this starts, even at 4 years old, the next step if the owner refuses to separate them immediately is always that they wake up to a dead dragon, I can show you numerous posts that are duplicates to yours, with the owners telling us that "they get along fine, that's not the problem", then a week later they post a bite through the submissive dragon's skull, or a leg bitten off, or worse..
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
Most obvious issues :

1) sharing viv , they need to be housed separately , bearded dragons are best kept separately and only brought together for short romantic get togethers.

2) sand , this stuff needs to be removed , is a bad impaction risk.

3) 13W 10%UVB compact + dome + ontop mesh lid , this is totally inadequate.
They are receiving next to zero UVA and UVB even at the basking spot as they need to be within 5 Inches of the 13W compact (if it has a reflector dome or nanohood) to receive 190 microW UVB / sq cm to be healthy.
See my cheat sheet for more information : viewtopic.php?f=6&t=234738&p=1806050#p1806050

4) EACH adult beardie requires a viv at least 4ft (L) x 2ft (W) x 2ft (T) with the following lighting setup, thermal gradient and UVB gradient
guide-bearded-dragon.jpg

t5ho_12_uvb.png


is a good idea to mount the UVB globe or one end of the UVB T8 or T5 tube, so it’s adjacent as close as you can arrange it , to the basking bulb.

5) feeders : superworms are not suitable to be a staple (everyday) feeder insect, very poor Ca/P , high fat content, very hard to digest exoskeleton.
Here is a comparison of insects : viewtopic.php?f=76&t=234999&p=1807834#p1807834

They are better off getting
>> GrubPie
>> silkworms (as many as they want !)
>> crickets or roaches or locusts (these need to be gutloaded with calcium rich greens and dusted with calcium).

If they have only been getting superworms for 4 years , they may be suffering from low calcium and fatty liver desease. I recommend you have a good reptile vet check them and take bloods and take xrays .
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

How is your girl doing today? Have you been able to get her to a vet for assessment?
Please do get them separated, as soon as you can. They don't normally do very well
being housed with another dragon & often leads to stress or death.
The better UVB light sources are the Reptisun 10 tube bulb or the Arcadia D3 12% either
one. They are both good. You can order them online, or some petstores will carry the
Reptisun 10 tube in the store.
Is she eating much? The mealworms are not real nutritious. Can you get crickets or
dubia roaches? Or silkworms, hornworms or phoenix/calcium worms are good, too.

Let us know how she is doing.

Tracie
 
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