Change of habbit

Hello,,,Monday morning 10.00 am
i am writing this to see if anyone has been
through what i am experiencing with my sub adult
female,,,,lets start with husbandry ,,, she is in a
48x20x20,,,,t5s Arcadia full run,,,basking spot which
has multiple levels,,,the hottest level comes up to
11 inches and is presently at 104 f,,,, she has a hammock
that runs the full length of her enclosure,,,on the first level
she has an enclosure i made out of beech,,gets her fully out
of UV and bask bulb if she wants,,,,air through out enclosure
is 78-80,,,,about 68-73 at nite time,,,she has a carpeted platform
which is 10x13x2inch thick with carpet,,,,it is her bed and is under the hammock,,,
by draping a bandana over that part of the hammock,,,her bed becomes completely
private,,,i have a fleece blanket that i made for her,,,a little bigger then her bed,,,she
likes to be covered at nite,,,no water dish in the enclosure,,,,she does not poop in her
enclosure,,,she soaks in water with repti safe,,,at a smidge above warm,,,and that is
where she does her business,,,her top is open to the uvb,,,and she can get about 11 inches
from the bulb,,,,she eats,,dubia,,,supers,,,greens ,,every day greens and dubia,,supers
sparingly. ,,,and an occasional fruit once a week,,in [img]
a small amount,,,,i raise and gutload the insects,,,,her weight is at 452 grams,,,she is 7 months
old,,,,her eyes are alert and healthy,,,,her teeth and inside her mouth are good and clear of
any fungus,,,no nips on hands or feet,,,,and she is for the most part active,,,,the other day,,
about 6 days ago now,,,,she started refusing her meal,,,she does what she always does,,,wakes up
then climbs up on her bask area and warms up,,,,I took her to the vet 4 days ago with a fresh
stool sample,,,,from the last meal she ate,,,,sent out to the lab and spun up and came back with
parasite levels in the normal zone,,,As far as brumation,,,she has not gone into a full brumation,
cuz she is up and around,,,and for a few days was glass dancing,,,,the vet felt her belly for
and incase she may be gravid,,,vet said no eggs present from the way she was checking,,,so
i made her a lay box anyway,,,just incase she felt like digging,,,,but she has not made a burrow
like when they need to drop eggs,,,,So everything is fine except she continues to refuse and
turn her nose at her food,,,,she has not lost weight,,,,,and help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks in advance D Beard. [GALLERY=media, 52666][/GALLERY]

that image there is older when she was a baby,,,ill put a newer picture if i can figure out
how to use this adding image function,,lol,,,im old school.

Sometimes they just go through phases like that and won't be hungry for a while. As long as she's alert and active as normal and isn't losing weight she's probably OK. Just keep offering food on a normal schedule and she'll likely dig in again when she gets hungry.

CooperDragon":178vdh4s said:

Sometimes they just go through phases like that and won't be hungry for a while. As long as she's alert and active as normal and isn't losing weight she's probably OK. Just keep offering food on a normal schedule and she'll likely dig in again when she gets hungry.

Click to expand...

thanks for the Advice Cooper,,,i was just wondering how long is to long !!

Can you post current photos of her now (thank you for clarifying, I was looking at that photo like "that beardie does not weigh 452 grams!!! lol), as well as photos of her ENTIRE enclosure? I'm trying to picture what you are describing, but I'd really like to see what it looks like...and just out of curiosity, where did you find a hammock long enough to span her entire enclosure? To post photos, all you have to do is go up top to the Menu, and at the bottom of the Menu drop-down box you will see an option that says "Personal Image Uploader", so click on that. Then a page will pop up that allows you to choose the photos that you want to upload to your account (one at a time, that's a pain). After you upload each photo you want to post, then just come back to this thread and post a new reply, and make sure the cursor is in the reply box wherever you want to insert the photo. Then just hit the XIMG button above, and all of the photos you have uploaded to your account will appear. Just select the photo you want to insert in the reply box where the cursor is, and it will insert the test for the photo.

So how is she doing now? Has she eaten yet? It's been about a week or so now that she hasn't eaten, correct? (if I'm not late here and she hasn't already started eating again). At 7 months old brumation is highly unlikely, and honestly , in my personal opinion, a lot of people use brumation as a "catch-all" excuse any time a dragon becomes lethargic, stops eating, or has any other issues going on, and 99% of the time it has nothing to do with brumation at all. With your girl being only 7 months old and with her still basking and not avoiding the light and hiding, and not actually sleeping a lot, and especially with the glass-dancing/surfing, she is definitely not even thinking about brumating...

Your husbandry is excellent, and as AHBD has already mentioned they sometimes do go through sudden phases where they don't want to eat, but there is a limit to the time this can go on before you get worried, of course. A week without her wanting to eat anything, if it's still going on, is getting to the point where it's starting to get suspicious. Is she still doing the glass-dancing inside her enclosure a lot? Even though the vet felt no shelled-eggs in her tummy, this in no way eliminates the possibility that she has developed egg follicles or even shelled-eggs that are not fully developed, the only way to positively eliminate eggs is by ultrasound (flat, regular x-rays will only show fully developed, shelled eggs). I don't think that's necessary at this point, again she's only 7 months old, though it's not at all unusual for a female dragon that is at least 6 months old to develop follicles. We know it's not coccidia, any type of worms, or any other parasites, it's not brumation, and based on all the other information it's most likely not any other type of bacterial or fungal infection, and it's not related to husbandry, so I'm glad that you made a proper lay box for her and still have it ready for her, just in case. The next time you see her glass-dancing I'd put her right in the lay box, and make sure you have a clamp lamp with a bright white basking bulb in it over the lay box. Make sure your lay box is large enough that you can pile the sand into a big mountain on one side of the box, so it slopes down to the other side, and dig the start of a tunnel out for her in the side of the mountain. That usually will encourage them to continue digging the tunnel if they do actually have shelled eggs inside them. If she did have follicles at the time of the vet visit, it's pretty close to the time she should now have shelled eggs ready to lay. So if you see her glass-dancing again just put her in the lay box, at the bottom of the sand mountain so that she can see the start of the tunnel you dug for her, turn on the bright white basking bulb for her, and get out of her sight (they usually want privacy while they are laying eggs, just stay out of her sight, but stay close to the lay box so you can tell what is going on). It can take them an hour or two to actually start digging and laying, but chances are that if you see her digging out the tunnel at all, she's got eggs to lay. If you don't see any digging in around an hour or so, then put her back in her enclosure, and try again the next time you see her glass-surfing...

(I forgot to ask, since dubias are her normal, daily staple feeder, how many live insect feeding sessions do you give her per day, and how many dubias does she eat during each live insect feeding session, on average, per day? Does she eat a lot of her greens/veggies?

Hello ,,,
thank you so much for taking the time to type all this great knowledge out for me,,,
she has not eaten anything upto this this morning and day/and early evening passed,
her regular routine,,,summer regimen is lights on 6am,,,a warm soak at 8am which
she does her business,,,10 am feeding 3to4 large nymphs,,,after she eats her insects
then greens and veggies are offered,,i like to boil a bit of butternut squash for her let
it cool to room temperature,,cut it up small and put it on her greens,,,she has not got
use to having a good appetite for her green yet,,,she will pick here and there,,,duating
regimen is calc,,,every other day,,,,and vitamin dusting on the weekend,,,Seems like the
the glass dancing is more of a glass get his attention i want to come out,,,because when
she does that,,,i take her out and a few times i put her in her lay box,,,,lol,,,and she just
sits there and looks at it ,,,as if to say,,,what am i supposed to do with this,,,lol,,,have
started the entrance for her,,,,and made a mountain of sand in side a huge bin,,,like 80
qt,,,,ove a tree sided wood hide i made so she can dig the tunnel and the top (roof) of
the tunnel wont cave in,,,and then a 4 pm feeding ,,,she useto eat between 1to2 at the
4 pm feeding,,,,unless i switched it up and gave her three large supers,,,,then lights out
at 9pm,,,,,now for winter the lights cut down from 14hrs because 6am to 9 pm is 15hrs,,
but then i leave play on the hrs for daily out of the enclosure,,,so lets call it 14hrs,,,,winter
regimen cuts down to 12 hrs,,,,6 am to 7 pm instead of 6am to 9 pm,,,The hammock i got
on Amazon,,,,it is amazing,,,the hammock itself is about 71/2 inches front to back by a 30
inch lengh,,,but then it has leather strong laces the go to big strong suction cups,,,and i have
anchored it other ways besides the cups,,,so if you dont have glass sides,,,you still can use it,,
like one of the things i have done is fold it back on itself and it makes bunk beds,,,a top basking
level with a bottom shade(day bed)level,,,i will get some pictures together and try the image loader,,,,just concentrating on what she is doing and if i need to take her for another vet appointment,,,weighed her today,,,,she is 448 grams,,,,so she is not dropping weight.
thanks again, Beard.

ill get a few pictures of her uploaded ,,,its hard to see here,,,because she is making herself flat,,,and her underside is down in the hammock,,,above her head is a scratch board i made out of that cardboard they use for cat scratchers,,,when her head goes into shed she loves that device i made
and rubs her nose on it.

took this shot the other day.