Bearded Dragon Won't Eat! Remains Active...

(Sorry about the long post, just wanted to make sure that the process goes quicker)

Hey everyone,

This is my first post here, but I'll try to at least act as if I'm competent at writing in forums. For about 3-4 months now my bearded dragon has been eating on and off, and recently, maybe since 2-3 weeks ago, my beardie has stopped eating completely. When she was eating on and off, she would eat healthfully, run around the cage after her food one day, and then completely refuse all food for a few days or longer. Usually I'd have to introduce a new food to have her eat again, but then she would stop soon after and I'd have to repeat the process over again. Also, since about 3-4 months ago she has completely stopped eating her greens and I have given her varieties of different stuff, like Collard Greens, Mustard Greens, Endives etc. I've tried different tactics of presenting food to her as well, sometimes I will leave food like Black Soldier Fly larvae in there so she eats on her own time, that worked for like 2 days and then never worked again. I've tried presenting food on a white paper towel, both her greens and staple diet, and that only worked a few times too. The list goes on with all of them ending practically the same way.

Now she refuses all food given to her, and what makes this particularly confusing is that she is still very active, if I take her out she'll explore and run all over the house as if she hasn't skipped on 20 meals. I took her to a vet to discuss the problem about 3-4 weeks ago. She said that everything: lighting, temperature, enclosure layout was up to par. She also said that physically my Bearded Dragon looks great, her weight is normal and everything like that. She suggested though that I hydrate her even more, which means that now I keep a water bowl in her tank 24/7 and give her baths every other day, about 20 minutes long. I've been doing this for a while but there is absolutely no evidence that this working, in fact it almost seems as if the opposite has happened.

It does not seem as though she is impacted because she still poops, in fact a vet tested her poop multiple times and it tested negative for worms. Also her poops are relatively normal, however with the way she acts it seems she might be a little constipated at times, but I'm not sure how this would lead to all of these issues. I have switched her tank but I did this about a month before she started to exhibit any problems and since she has grown, switching to her old tank seems less than viable.

For anyone interested, these are my specs:
Staple diet: Black Soldier Fly Larvae, Crickets (gut loaded), and roaches (gut loaded) usually with no supplements
Heat Bulb: Exo-Terra Sun-Glo Basking Infrared 150 Watt
UVB Bulb: Repti Sun 10.0 t5HO 54 Watt 46in
Supplemental Bulb: ZooMed Ceramic Infrared Heat Emitter 60W
Tank Size: 75 Gallon
Tank items and substrate: Ceramic tiles are used as a substrate, bridge pushed against wall that provides for a hiding spot(she usually doesn't use it very often), hammock, a few pieces of drift wood, a ledge that is fastened by magnets from the outside of the tank, wallpaper covering the back of the tank.
Temperatures: (Day Time)Under her basking area it can vary between about (95 - 105 F), in the cold spot it gets down to about 80 F, (Night Time) Where she usually sleeps it gets down to about
(80 - 90 F), the other side can get down to about 75 F.
Note: I keep the Ceramic Heater on 24/7, so when she goes to sleep I usually put her in that spot.

I would be grateful for any help, thanks!

How old is she? They tend to get quite active after brumation or during mating season and will run all over the place and ignore food for a while. Since she's active and running around my guess is that this is the case. If she was sick she'd more likely act lethargic. Your setup sounds good so I'd just keep making food available for her but if she doesn't want it and everything else seems OK I would let her do her thing for now.

She's about a year old. It would make sense that she would start acting this way around this time, I'm just a little curious as to why my vet never mentioned something that fits the case very well.

That I don't know. I'd imagine that even if your vet is experienced with treating bearded dragons, they tend to treat illness which this is not. They may not be as familiar with routine/regular behaviors of the specific species. Especially not the way we are on the board since we see it with our dragons and read about/discuss it daily on the forum.

ZolloKaptain":bkr2e7vx said:

For anyone interested, these are my specs:
Staple diet: Black Soldier Fly Larvae, Crickets (gut loaded), and roaches (gut loaded) usually with no supplements
Heat Bulb: Exo-Terra Sun-Glo Basking Infrared 150 Watt
Is this a RED bulb that you are using for heat? If so, red bulbs or any colored lights distort their vision. You need a white light, it enhances activity and, appetite.
UVB Bulb: Repti Sun 10.0 t5HO 54 Watt 46in
Supplemental Bulb: ZooMed Ceramic Infrared Heat Emitter 60W
Tank Size: 75 Gallon
Tank items and substrate: Ceramic tiles are used as a substrate, bridge pushed against wall that provides for a hiding spot(she usually doesn't use it very often), hammock, a few pieces of drift wood, a ledge that is fastened by magnets from the outside of the tank, wallpaper covering the back of the tank.
Temperatures: (Day Time)Under her basking area it can vary between about (95 - 105 F), in the cold spot it gets down to about 80 F, (Night Time) Where she usually sleeps it gets down to about
(80 - 90 F), the other side can get down to about 75 F.
Note: I keep the Ceramic Heater on 24/7, so when she goes to sleep I usually put her in that spot.

I would be grateful for any help, thanks!

Click to expand...

Everything else looks good!!!

Hello,

It sounds like your tank setup is really good. The Reptisun 10 T5 tube is an excellent choice
of UVB lights. I am sure she loves the light, too they are so nice & bright.
As they get older, their eating preferences tend to change somewhat so no need to be too
worried about her being finicky. LOL
She probably doesn't want that long of a bath or that frequent of one, so you could definitely
cut down on how often you give baths, unless you feel she really likes them.
I agree, I doubt that she is ill though, just going through a phase. Has she done any black
bearding lately?

Tracie

Gormagon, yes that bulb is red, but it is also a basking bulb, so I don't see why it would be wrong to use it.

The only times that I have seen her with a blacker beard is either when she has been basking for a long time, or other encounters when taking her out of her tank. But like I said, the beard is blacker than normal, it doesn't get very dark. Overall it's not like her beard has been getting consistently black lately, so I guess no bleack bearding?

The black beard is a sign of distress or stressed out --- please get rid of the colored light - you need a white basking light - the colored lights hurt their eyes and can cause long term damage--
Karrie

It's funny you say that because just this morning the bulb went, and I replaced it with a white one for the time being.

Please stay w/ white - any colored bulb will hurt their eyes
Karrie

Dragons see in better color than humans and, like us humans, colored lights distort how we see things. Only with a dragon, it confuses them causing stress.
Pet stores are in business to make money and they will BS you into buying things that are either detrimental or not needed at all. The only thing those lights are good for is, keeping a sandwich hot at McDonald's.

Wow, I had no idea. Thanks for the advice.

Hi there,

So, at first everything you guys had said really reassured me. I'm staying with white light bulbs now by the way. However, the past few days she has been getting these random spurts of muscle tremors, and it looks like she's uncomfortable, she'll usually fiddles around for a second after it happens to her right leg. I've also tried petting areas of the leg, not too hard, and she moves it away a little bit. Also, the past week she has been going to sleep much earlier, however during most of the day she still runs around a lot. I know that muscle tremors could be a sign of the dreaded MBD, and since she's not eating and therefore not getting her calcium could this be possible? If it is, I feel as though it's imperative that I find a way to get her to eat.