Good Afternoon. We got our baby bearded dragon 2 weeks ago. For the first 4 days-5 days, Rex ate fine. It would eat around 20-30 crickets a day, depending on the sizes of the crickets. It wouldn't eat any greens though unless I hand fed it, and then it would only eat the one piece. It mostly ate just the crickets. Then boom, it just stopped eating. It will eat 1 cricket a day if we are lucky. I seen a video on Youtube that mixed a little of the calcium powder and multi-vitamin in some applesauce and hand fed theirs. I have tried this the last 2 nights. I mixed a little of the powder with some applesauce and the last 2 nights, I have put some on the end of my finger and held it right in front of it's mouth. It will eat a tiny bit off my finger, but then is done. We have been giving him a bath every couple days and we use a dropper to drop some water on it's mouth and it drinks the water.
Rex has lost a lot of weight in the one week of not eating and we are getting concerned. I have been researching a lot, so I know you will want pictures of Rex's light set up. But for the lights, we have a ReptiSun 10.0 tube inside the tank. And then a 150 watt Zoo-Med basking Spot on top. Rex lives in a 40g tank.
One thing I an unsure of, is where to measure the temp. You will see in the one picture, that there is a dial stick on thermometer in Rex's cage, but we do use a Infrared Temp gun. When I hold the temp gun on his log that he basks on, it will give me a incorrect reading, I believe. It will constantly change between 95 - 105 Fahrenheit (in the guide on this site, it says babies like it 105-110 Fahrenheit). But that' only when I point at the log. If I point to the floor, right below where he is basking, it gives me a steady reading of 102. So, I am assuming on top of the log where he lays, it it more around the 105 mark. If I put his rock under the basking light, it gets too hot. That measures around 117 Fahrenheit.
When we try to feed him crickets, we put 2-3 crickets in the tank, and take Rex off his log and put him by the crickets hoping he will eat, but usually he will just chase his reflection for a little bit and then go back to his log. We sit and watch for a good 20-30 minutes and he won't eat. We then get the crickets out. The last 2 nights is when I tried the applesauce with the vitamin and calcium powder.
I took a couple of things out of it's tank yesterday so the crickets couldn't hide in too many spots, hoping the more Rex saw them, the more he might want to eat them. LOL. Didn't work. So, right now he just has his log and rock in the tank.
Pictures:
The ReptiSun 10.0 tube light
The 150w Basking Spot is the left side of the dome
Me pointing at the log under the basking light
Skinny Rex....
Very loose skin from loosing weight....
Sleeps a lot.....
Rex has lost a lot of weight in the one week of not eating and we are getting concerned. I have been researching a lot, so I know you will want pictures of Rex's light set up. But for the lights, we have a ReptiSun 10.0 tube inside the tank. And then a 150 watt Zoo-Med basking Spot on top. Rex lives in a 40g tank.
One thing I an unsure of, is where to measure the temp. You will see in the one picture, that there is a dial stick on thermometer in Rex's cage, but we do use a Infrared Temp gun. When I hold the temp gun on his log that he basks on, it will give me a incorrect reading, I believe. It will constantly change between 95 - 105 Fahrenheit (in the guide on this site, it says babies like it 105-110 Fahrenheit). But that' only when I point at the log. If I point to the floor, right below where he is basking, it gives me a steady reading of 102. So, I am assuming on top of the log where he lays, it it more around the 105 mark. If I put his rock under the basking light, it gets too hot. That measures around 117 Fahrenheit.
When we try to feed him crickets, we put 2-3 crickets in the tank, and take Rex off his log and put him by the crickets hoping he will eat, but usually he will just chase his reflection for a little bit and then go back to his log. We sit and watch for a good 20-30 minutes and he won't eat. We then get the crickets out. The last 2 nights is when I tried the applesauce with the vitamin and calcium powder.
I took a couple of things out of it's tank yesterday so the crickets couldn't hide in too many spots, hoping the more Rex saw them, the more he might want to eat them. LOL. Didn't work. So, right now he just has his log and rock in the tank.
Pictures:
The ReptiSun 10.0 tube light
The 150w Basking Spot is the left side of the dome
Me pointing at the log under the basking light
Skinny Rex....
Very loose skin from loosing weight....
Sleeps a lot.....