Juvenile beardie refuses to eat, getting skinny. please help

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AHBD

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He looks good , I like his vibrant red pattern on his little leatherback. :) So is he actually eating live food [ mealworms] now ?
 

Claudiusx

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That's great that hes been getting some nutrients in. So what was he last time you weighed? I couldn't find it.

-Brandon
 

PathfinderMom91

Hatchling Member
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AHBD":15s9exr5 said:
He looks good , I like his vibrant red pattern on his little leatherback. :) So is he actually eating live food [ mealworms] now ?

He hasn’t recently, i need to get more crickets, the ones I had died off and there was a weird worm like bug in the egg crate the store gave me. So I didn’t want to feed him those.
 

PathfinderMom91

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
claudiusx":ezahgvny said:
That's great that hes been getting some nutrients in. So what was he last time you weighed? I couldn't find it.

-Brandon

He weighed 10g last Monday at the vet. He started out at 8g when he was at his thinnest.
 

AHBD

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The weird worm in with the crickets would be the larva of a dermestid beetle, those are purposely put in there as " clean up crew " to eat the molting skin and dead crickets. They are harmless and beardies actually like them but you wouldn't go out of your way top feed one to beardie because they are scavengers.
 

kingofnobbys

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PathfinderMom91":3opd192u said:
AHBD":3opd192u said:
Hi there, sorry that your cute little dude is not well. He [ or she ] is a leatherback BTW. Where did you get him ? So a couple of important things..... I know that your uvb is a Reptisun 10.0 but is it a t5 or a t8 ? It's very important because a t8 would not provide uvb from that far, and a t5 would just barely or possibly not either. Look on the side of the bulb if you don't know, it will have the numbers. I would also suggest putting him in a little " hospital " set up. It's just a small or medium plastic storage tote like I have in these pics :
https://www.beardeddragon.org/media/29953/full

Being in a smaller set up will allow the uvb + heat to both be closer and for him to not feel so stressed in such a large tank. I raised loads of babies in this type of set up for years. The heat bulb may need to be a smaller watt type though since it's making your 75 gallon over 100F at the basking spot. I would set him up like that ASAP.

Parasites are another possibility but I would try the smaller tank so he gets more uvb for a while to see if he does better. One more Q, what size crickets was he eating and did he poo regularly ?

Thank you so much!
I looked at the bulb and it says 15 watt T8 BP Desert 50. I got him at my local PetSmart. We are giving him small crickets. The same as they were feeding him in the store. He has been pooping everyday, it’s quite watery now with little to no white part. I don’t have a smaller tank at the moment, could I perch him up higher to the uvb? I do have a critter keeper carrier but he hates being in there.

T8 BP Desert 50 has some red flags against it
red flag 1 = it's a T8 so very low UV flux output
red flag 2 = it's only rated 5% UVB
red flag 3 = it's too far from the dragon's basking spot for it to get enough UVA to boost it's appetite
red flag 4 = it's too far from the dragon's basking spot for it to get enough UVB to metabolise it's dietary calcium and photosynthesis Vit D3 in it's skin.
In short the current T8 tube is hopelessly inadequate and your dragon is receiving nearly zero UVA or UVB , and this is likely contributing to it's inability to thrive or even show an interest in feeding. These is no practical way of using it to give the dragon sufficient UVA and UVB exposure.

Is it warm and sunny ( warmer than 28 degC ) outside during the day where you are , an hour of natural noon sunshine will help I expect until you can find the money to upgrade to a T5HO 12% UVB tube and reflector hood.


STRONGLY recommend you
1) replace the tube with an arcadia T8 12%UVB tube ==> this will more than double the UVA and UVB in an instant , upgrade to a T5HO 12% UVB tube and reflector hood will increase the UV by a lot more is would be much better.

2) move the tube and reflector hood ( you do have a hood with a built-in shaped focusing metal reflector ? ) closer to the basking spot , suspend it using loops of wire from the mesh lid if you have to
aim is about 180 microW UVB / sqr-cm and 1 mW UVA / sqr-cm at the basking spot , ref to this for a guide on distance needed to achieve this
How-to-read-the-graph-for-p.png

and comparing with T5Ho tubes
tie-the-old-arcadia-guide-to-the-new-arcadia-guide.png
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
You can move him into a plastic tote w/ the UVB and basking light -- but I would definitely replace that UVB ASAP--- that would be why hes not eating ---
Karrie
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
You guys missed the post where O.P already set Pathfinder up in a smaller tank and got a new Reptisun 10.0 bulb with no screen blocking the uvb.
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
PathfinderMom91":1mwl0ynk said:
claudiusx":1mwl0ynk said:
That's great that hes been getting some nutrients in. So what was he last time you weighed? I couldn't find it.

-Brandon

He weighed 10g last Monday at the vet. He started out at 8g when he was at his thinnest.

what's the period of time between the 8g and 10g weigh-ins ?
were both before a meal ?
before or after pooing ?

A healthy hatchling can easily gain 2g to 4g in a week, if it's feeding on good live foods and getting enough protein , dietary calcium , vitamins, UVA and UVB.
 

Claudiusx

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
The uvb bulb is at the proper distance for the dragon. No need to dredge up old issues. OP has the husbandry A-OK now, the focus now is on making sure pathfinder has nutrients going into his body.

8-10g is a great weight gain. And 10 to 13 is great too. Both around a 30% gain which is actually quite impressive.

Keep up the good work.

-Brandon
 

PathfinderMom91

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Good morning!

I was confused by some of the recent comments, thought I did something wrong again. ? Thank you AHBD for clearing that up. I did not know that those little worms had a purpose in the cricket egg crate. I thought they were parasites! Today Pathfinder did something strange when he got up on his basking rock. My son noticed him eating something. When I looked, it looked a lot like the carnivore care slurry from the night before. I don’t know if he threw up and was eating it or if he pooped and ate it. He did just poop before that and it was green from a veggie slurry I made, but I cleaned that up as soon as he did it. He then pooped again and it was that carnivore care color.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
A lot of people get worried the first time they see those little worms and wonder whether or not they are harmful. :) As for whatever you saw him eat, it could be that it was his own poo.
 

PathfinderMom91

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
AHBD":2fgrpf8l said:
A lot of people get worried the first time they see those little worms and wonder whether or not they are harmful. :) As for whatever you saw him eat, it could be that it was his own poo.

Should I be concerned about him eating his own poop? I’m usually very quick to clean it but it happened so fast.
 
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