Not eating! Please help...

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MBT123

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Hey everybody! We got our son a bearded dragon for his birthday this year. The first one we got from Petsmart. He wouldn't eat more than one or two crickets and wouldnt touch his salad or drink water. I fed him babyfood and pedialyte until evetually he was refusing that too. He passed away on the 16th day. Our son was distraught. We thought maybe since he was a baby the stress of new habitat and the noise, different food was just too much. We got a slightly older one 8 days ago on Sunday. We disinfected the tank and everything in it the best we could. He was a decent eater the first several days - 10-15 crickets and 3-4 worms and a few bites of salad a day. On Thursday he shed. On Friday he was a picky eater. He did eat 2 or 3 crickets on Saturday and nothing on Sunday or so far today. He is drinking and pooping every day. He is not lethargic and is very alert. He just isn't eating...we've checked our lighting, made sure the food was appropriate size, appropriate temps, checked to see if anything might be toxic in the tank...I adore this little guy and our son couldn't bear it if Rex dies too. Please help.
 

MarlowAndMe

Juvie Member
What are your temps warm end? And cool end? I see you have lights ( or heat) over the tank rather than all at one end , which types are they? The basking light and a good uvb tube as far into the warm end as possible is best.
Also what are the measurements of you enclosure?
And what is the distance from the basking light to basking spot? And distance from uvb to basking spot?
 

MarlowAndMe

Juvie Member
As far as the feeding , the 10-15 crickets should have been that amount 3x per day.
And are they no bigger than the space between his eyes? That is to avoid impaction as they can’t digest food bigger than that space
Also you mentioned feeding him worms, which type? Mealworms should be avoided as they are hard for babies ( even adults ) to digest
 

MBT123

Member
Original Poster
I'm attaching a photo of the light on the far right. The middle fixture is a blue light for night. The light on the far left is 100w bulb for heat. Temps in the basking (right) area are 103-111. The basking area is 8" feom the basking light. Coolside (left) are 70-85 dependin whether it's day or night. Rex is getting 1/2" crickets. I measured the space between his eyes and it is right at 1/2". As far as worms, they are size small superworms.
 

MBT123

Member
Original Poster
Sorry Im having trouble figuring out how to add another picture. The bulb is a powersun UV 100w self-ballasted mercury vapor uvb lamp by zoomed.

The tank is a 40 gallon 36 x 18 x 18
 

MarlowAndMe

Juvie Member
Ok I’ll let others come in on this as far as the mercury vapour as I don’t use one to understand that ones placement etc

But as far as the blue night light - is that for heat? If you need extra heat at night you need a ceramic heat emitter ( che ) , these produce heat to get your temps up at night but no light. Red or blue lights at night disturb the dragons sleep which can cause many issues
I use an Arcadia ceramic heat emitter 100w and I have a habistat brand thermostat I hook it up to. The thermostat will turn the che on whenever you temp in cool end drops below whatever you have it set at and turn off the che again when temps are right
If your only using the blue light for light - get rid of it as it’ll be causing issues and not helping :)
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

The Powersun is a decent UVB/Mercury vapor bulb. It isn't real strong but does provide good
heating also. Are you using the Powersun in combination with another 100 watt basking bulb
at the same time? The Powersun is a 160 watt?
It looks like you are using a digital probe, based on the readouts of the temperature. What is
the ambient temperature in the tank?
How far away is the Powersun?
I would change up the lighting some, as he may be getting too hot with both lights. You can
continue to use the Powersun for UVB & heating. I would recommend getting either a Reptisun
10 T5 or an Arcadia D3 12% or 14% T5 to use in combination with the Powersun to give him a
stronger UVB exposure.
How often do you give him calcium?

Tracie
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
The PowerSun has a nice (relatively) wide beam and is effective between about 8-12'' in most cases. I don't think that's likely to be causing an issue in this case, but I tend to prefer them as portable basking areas and travel lights though. I agree that using a 24'' T5 with an Arcadia 12% bulb is a better bet in your main tank since it will provide a very strong UVB output and a nice wide spread across the basking area. Those should sit about 12-14'' above the main basking area for optimal results.

If the tank stays above about 65 overnight you don't need additional heat. If it drops below that, using a low wattage ceramic heat emitter is a better bet since it doesn't produce visible light. You don't need much, just enough to bump the temps into the low 70s overnight.

If he's very alert, that's a good sign. He may just not be hungry or may be getting ready to shed again (They shed a lot when they're little) which can have him off of his appetite. Perhaps try offering him a treat like some black soldier fly larvae and see how those go over.
 

MBT123

Member
Original Poster
Thanks for your help. We changed the tank set up and he seems happier. Still not eating very many crickets but he eats a lot of greens and drinks a lot of water. Maybe he doesn't like crickets? N
 
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