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
and comparing with T5Ho tubes