sirenique
Hatchling Member
Bones is my male bearded dragon -- he is a year and 4 months old, and has a regular diet of various greens (mustard, collard, kale, etc.), squash, the occasional corn and peas, and vitamin supplement-dusted mealworms. He gets the occasional waxworm, mostly after a bath because he hates baths so I try to encourage him to enjoy them by bribing him with food. 
His exotic vet has OK'd his diet, and I follow the Beautiful Dragons nutrition guide.
Recently, Bones has been losing some weight, particularly muscle mass. He is losing both size and weight. It's not enough for him to look sickly, but it's noticable because he was super muscley before (the vet jokingly called him a bodybuilder). He is not eating as much, but is not showing signs of being picky about what he's eating; just a straight up refusal to eat in general. He'll eat some of the worms off his salad, and one or two bites of greens, then not eat the rest of the day. This is like 10% of his normal intake, at best.
I have tried including some more mealworms in his diet to bulk his muscles back up and to let him "free range" around the apartment when I am home (when I do this, he knows where his lighting sources are and he frequently basks; this too has been OK'd by my vet) so he can run and get some exercise. I have tried switching up greens and hiding the worms to make him dig for them, and nothing is working. He won't even chase the dish when I move it by hand, even though he follows it with his eyes.
His fecal samples all look normal, and he was cleared of abnormalities by his vet in August, and has been healthy appearing ever since with this recent exception. His behavior has not changed, nor has his sleep cycles. There have been no new sources of stress or anything that I can think of.
1) Can anyone think of another explanation that may be causing this?
2) Any suggestions to bulk him back up, or to get him to eat a bit more often? He is not a picky eater, but feeding him crickets are infinitely out of the question, because he ALWAYS contracts pinworms from them.
His exotic vet has OK'd his diet, and I follow the Beautiful Dragons nutrition guide.Recently, Bones has been losing some weight, particularly muscle mass. He is losing both size and weight. It's not enough for him to look sickly, but it's noticable because he was super muscley before (the vet jokingly called him a bodybuilder). He is not eating as much, but is not showing signs of being picky about what he's eating; just a straight up refusal to eat in general. He'll eat some of the worms off his salad, and one or two bites of greens, then not eat the rest of the day. This is like 10% of his normal intake, at best.
I have tried including some more mealworms in his diet to bulk his muscles back up and to let him "free range" around the apartment when I am home (when I do this, he knows where his lighting sources are and he frequently basks; this too has been OK'd by my vet) so he can run and get some exercise. I have tried switching up greens and hiding the worms to make him dig for them, and nothing is working. He won't even chase the dish when I move it by hand, even though he follows it with his eyes.
His fecal samples all look normal, and he was cleared of abnormalities by his vet in August, and has been healthy appearing ever since with this recent exception. His behavior has not changed, nor has his sleep cycles. There have been no new sources of stress or anything that I can think of.
1) Can anyone think of another explanation that may be causing this?
2) Any suggestions to bulk him back up, or to get him to eat a bit more often? He is not a picky eater, but feeding him crickets are infinitely out of the question, because he ALWAYS contracts pinworms from them.
