Kaseychristina
New member
Hello, we recently purchased a bearded dragon 2 days ago. We bought him from a known pet store, spoke in length with the “reptile guy”. We went back a couple days later after doing research and got him. Spoke again with the reptile guy who said the 5hr car trip back home wouldn’t be a problem for him, got us set up & we headed home. We got home, set everything up into his tank (20gl) as recommended for the 8week old, didn’t want to stress him with too much space. We set up the bulbs the pet store gave us (2 75wt basking/uva bulbs, they recommended we use the 50w at first, then when we weren’t able to take home the uvb they changed it to 2 75wt while we waiting for the other light) we had bought the uvb but when checking it at the pet store it wouldn’t work so they said they’d sent us another when they got their next shipment that it wouldn’t have an effect of him for at least 2 weeks they recommend we change once of the 75w bulb to the uvb and keep the other on the “basking side” of the tank. We also had a basking rock 10in from the light & a log that got 8.5in from the light (we never saw him on the log, ever), he had water and a ship to climb in a cool trex mouth for him to hide if desired & folded newspaper substrate. We fed him crickets and spring mix as recommended although he didn’t eat anything. We put crickets in 3x a day for 15-20min then would remove them and put in the spring mix until it started looking gross from the heat then we’d put more after the next cricket feeding. We didn’t have a thermometer yet (local pet store was closed Saturday and today after the holiday weekend) but I used my hermit crab one to check temp a couple hours after setting up & it seemed really good around 100 on the one side &, around 70 on the other. Turned the lights off around 10pm-8am as suggested &, the house is set at 73 so no chance it got to cold. The night we got home (fri) and day after we brought him home (sat) we let him get used to his new home. He rarely moved but, he did look around, change basking spots, got into the water a couple times. He looked bad and didn’t seem “happy” so we done some research & it was common for beardies to take some time up to 2 weeks to get used to their new surroundings not to worry. So we didn’t, he seemed much more active sat night we watched him climb his boat and the rock, woke up sun (today) turned lights back on, did morning feeding (didn’t eat) changed water (bottled spring), done lunch feeling, didn’t eat but was sitting with his 1 food in the water bowl, changed crickets for spring mix and let him be. Came back at dinner time &, he was dead. He was laying at the bottom of the tank not breathing, picked him up, stiff. We have no idea what has happened to him, we only had him for TWO DAYS?? We don’t want to replace him if it could have been something we did. & would really just like some help. It’s still in his tank (we don’t know gender) with the lights off for bedtime because I just can bear to tell my son (who we got him for initially) he never even got to hold him but was so excited. I’m just at a loss right now. I hope I answered any questions that needed to be known, we are worried that it was the 75wt bulbs that we should have listened to their initial advice about the 50wt that they may have just been guessing after them running out of uvb. Could he have starved in 1.5 days (he ate just minutes before we brought him home fri evening), was he to hot? The rock never felt that hot but, maybe to him it was? We just don’t know. Any advice or help is appreciated thank you!! Oh &, when we put him in the tank at first his eyes bulged then went back to normal internet said that was normal. Also he was a leather back is I’m not mistaken. I’ll try to include a picture if I can figure out how.
*edited to add he had a BM Saturday, it similar to bird poop consistency although it was dark in color and some thicker areas not much poop maybe a teaspoon? I’ve never seen any other lizard poop so that’s the only comparison I can think of and don’t know if that’s normal.
*edited to add he had a BM Saturday, it similar to bird poop consistency although it was dark in color and some thicker areas not much poop maybe a teaspoon? I’ve never seen any other lizard poop so that’s the only comparison I can think of and don’t know if that’s normal.