Juvenile beardie refuses to eat, getting skinny. please help

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PathfinderMom91

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AHBD":k446hsni said:
Yes you can use the syringe. :) Have you tried dropping a few jar-shaken crickets [ to make them slow + weak ] near him ? That's one advantage of having the egg crating as a basking area, the little crickets fall right in one of the indentations where the egg would be and are easy prey for your little guy. If the poo seems cleared up that's good, no telling what exactly caused the odd color.

I just dropped a cricket in. He’s obviously seen it. He looks right at it walking by, but he doesn’t attempt to eat it. Should I try to feed him the chicken today? Should I take out the rock he sits on to bask when the cricket is in there? If the cricket jumps out, we’ll never find it, the setup is in my kids room. ?
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
You can leave the little cricket in there for a short while. It can't jump out, not a chance.
 

PathfinderMom91

Hatchling Member
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AHBD":125787vh said:
Yes, that will give him a bit of hydration + nutrition at the same time. Be sure there's no salt in it.

I have the beechnut naturals chicken purée. It’s just chicken and chicken broth. Is that okay? I also don’t have squash, but I do have organic pumpkin.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Yes that's fine as long as nothing else is added. You can add a tiny bit of pumpkin but focus more on the chicken for the protein and add a very tiny pinch of calcium powder. . And like I said you can get Repta boost at a pet store and you can try small mealworms BUT just offer the ones that are freshly shed. You can tell which ones they are because they are milky white.
 

PathfinderMom91

Hatchling Member
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I’ll be trying this later on today. I’m giving him some alone time with the cricket to see if he eats it. I will update here in the evening.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
That's fine. If you see the crick crawl up on top of him then go ahead + take it out until another time. The crix like to get up high for the heat and sometimes crawl up on a beardie.
 

PathfinderMom91

Hatchling Member
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I just gave him his first feeding with the syringe. I made it a bit watery, I don’t know if that matters. He seemed to like it, I just squeezed a bit onto the front of his mouth and he lapped it up. I don’t know how often I should do this though.

106536-6570607666.jpg

Hopefully he gains some weight soon!
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
O.K, that's good !! He is a cute little guy, he is skinny but we've seen much worse. Did you put a tiny pinch of calcium powder in ? And you can try that 2-3 X a day.
 

PathfinderMom91

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
AHBD":12mtappo said:
O.K, that's good !! He is a cute little guy, he is skinny but we've seen much worse. Did you put a tiny pinch of calcium powder in ? And you can try that 2-3 X a day.

I sure did!
Thank you to every one who’s giving an input on this post. I greatly appreciate the help. I’ll update in a couple days.
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
If using a syringe make a note of how much you are sure he consuming each time in millilitres , and keep a record.

This will be important information for a vet as will be his weight ( weigh him in a little tub on the kitchen scales at least once every few days while he's "sick").

Note that the stomache volume of a hatchling dragon is very small between 1 to 4 ml / 100g bodyweight , viewtopic.php?f=45&t=232687
see this :
crop-needle-2.gif

so if he only weighs 20g == > about 0.2ml to 0.8ml
 

PathfinderMom91

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
kingofnobbys":1n9ao7g2 said:
If using a syringe make a note of how much you are sure he consuming each time in millilitres , and keep a record.

This will be important information for a vet as will be his weight ( weigh him in a little tub on the kitchen scales at least once every few days while he's "sick").

Note that the stomache volume of a hatchling dragon is very small between 1 to 4 ml / 100g bodyweight , viewtopic.php?f=45&t=232687
see this :
crop-needle-2.gif

so if he only weighs 20g == > about 0.2ml to 0.8ml

Oooh. I was just letting him lick up some baby food from a dropper. Once he doesn’t lick anymore I stop. Not sure how much he’s consuming, but his belly seems fuller than when I started the feed. Sorry for my ignorance.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Don't worry, you're doing it right. That's perfectly fine and it's how everyone does it. No one I've ever met uses a chart.
 

PathfinderMom91

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Good afternoon!
Just a little update. I’ve been feeding my beardie the chicken baby food 3 times a day with calcium and sometimes the multivitamin powder. His belly is starting to fill out. But he’s still ignoring the crickets. When will this little guy eat on his own???? Is it healthy for him to be on this baby food diet for a long time? Can I also give him beef baby food? The chicken one is kinda grainy and is hard to use the syringe with.
 
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