Auraelia won't eat!

[dragonkeeper3]

Hi,
My Auraelia will not eat at all. I'm not sure if she's starting to brumate or not but she was hatched in May of '08. I had suspected that at first so I let her go and just kept a close eye on her. I noticed a while ago that she had what appeared to be a slight upper respiratory infection so I kept the temps high and kept her really hydrated. She seems now like she has made a complete recovery; her breathing is normal again and she's not hacking at all. The only thing now is she's still not eating. The last few days I've gotten chicken and veggie baby food in her and I can get her to lick a few drops off her nose but nothing substantial. I've done a bit of force feeding though I don't want to do it too much cause I don't want to stress her out or make her worse. My concern is she is extremely skinny and I fear that if she doesn't start eating I'm going to lose her. Every morning I offer them salad and crickets with vits and calcium. The temps are in the appropriate ranges and my apartment is I'd say at least 75 to 80 degrees at all times so night time temps are fine too. Normally I only have on a 100 watt heat and their uv but lately because she's been sick I've also been turning on the 150 watt heat on the other end of the tank and I see her go back and forth between being under the 100 to the 150. Aidan, her tank mate is eating as healthy as a horse and getting extremely fat. He's grown so much through her not eating that he is now as big as her and is dominating her. I've considered splitting them up but that would require putting one into a 10 gal. tank and I only have the one uv light though I do have two heat lamps. But what do you guys recommend that I do? Should I continue to force feed her just let her eat when she feels like it?
Thanks,
Heimr

 

[dragonkeeper3]

I'd like to add that I've checked her for impaction and she did have a very small bowel movement today though it was mostly liquids.

 

[dragonkeeper3]

anybody???

 

[beardie parents]

It sounds to me like you need to get her to a vet. If she's brumating, she won't be loosing much weight. My Zoom Zoom is probably close to 7 months old, from what we were told, and she isn't eating much and hasn't eaten much in the last several weeks. She gained more than 1/2 inch in length and lost 2 grams in weight. From what I've read, this isn't much to worry about. If they do loose a lot of weight and appear very skinny, then you need to get them to a vet, because something is wrong. They usually don't show they are sick until it's too late.

 

[dragonkeeper3]

Could it be possible that she is just being a fussy eater because I can get her to eat baby food now but she won't touch crickets or greens?

 

[rottnbull02]

What type of lighting do you have her under? She shouldn't be brumating as she is to young and still is growing. You need to make sure you get the calcium into her daily. Really it seems that most people that are having problems with dragons not eating is because they have the wrong uvb and heat in the tank/vivarium.

Stephanie

 

[HowlinGaleDragon]

Odd...I wonder if maybe you didn't fully get rid of the URI or she picked up some parasites from the crickets shes eating. If it was me I would take a stool sample and take her to the vet don't waste time on something like that the longer you the wait the less chance there could be to help her. I added you to my aim mine is FordGalaxy500 message me when you get on.

 

[dragonkeeper3]

Well I've got the two heat lamps, one is 150 watts and the other is 100 watts, I have one on each end of my 55 gal. tank and right in the middle is their uv which is a reptisun 10.0. My apartment is like 80 degrees on it's own at least so I can guarantee that the temps are definitely high enough and I check them once a week and their in the appropriate ranges. I get my student loans soon and I'm planning on doing two things with it; 1.) pay my car insurance and 2.) make a vet apt. for her. I just have to wait till I get the money so I can be sure to pay them because my vet requests money up front. If I remember correctly, I bought these two from you HowlinGale. I'll have to take some pictures and send them to you this weekend. Aidan has caught up in size and is very quickly going to surpass her in size. He eats like no tomorrow and is getting fat!! But he's got beautiful orange and red in his beard coming in. And if Auraelia is in a good mood she is this gorgeous translucent yellow. But that's rare as she is as moody as her expecting mother lol. But I am going to take her to the vet. She is still drinking and eating baby food so I'm going to continue to do that until I get my love letter from the Bursars office. But I don't have aim anymore though I do have yahoo which is the same as my old aim. If not my personal email is [email protected]. I'll have to tell you the story of how I lost Aidan one day....omg.... he got scolded for that! Well okay I didn't lose him he was playing hide and go seek but ...... While I'm here can anyone recommend a good roach guy? I need to start a colony before the baby's born so when my mother comes over and she sees the roach bin in my room along with the baby's crib she can freak out lol jk. Thanks for all guys.
Heimr

 

[HowlinGaleDragon]

Yes you got them from me your girl is a Lily Rex and your boy Flame X Kisa

 

[Menolly]

Usually having two bearded dragons together is never a good idea, especially a female and a male. She could be stressed out from him constantly trying to mate with her. What you need to do is probably separate them. You can't put a dragon in a 10 gallon tank and you know that. Your bulbs would hurt rather then help. You should probably think about finding a 40 gallon tank.

 

[dragonkeeper3]

They are not old enough yet to even think about mating. And I tried separating them in the beginning in my 55. They kept tearing down the barrier so finally I said forget it you two can deal with each other. And they were so young that it was fine. He is like two months younger than she is. And she was the dominate one but because Aidan eats like a pig he's grown to be almost her size and he gives her a run for her money but when you watch them it's like watching a puppy around an older dog; puppy plays dominate while the older dog takes it because the older dog knows who's in charge. But update: I took her to the vet (only $53 for everything woohoo!!!!). He said that there was nothing wrong with her physically and he checked her for a uri and found nothing. She urinated right on his table. But otherwise he gave me enough Baytril for two weeks and a feeding tube in case I decide I really want to start force feeding her. After that he said there was nothing more that he could do because there's really nothing wrong with her.
Heimr

 

[diamc]

Since Auraelia was born in May, then she is about 8 mo old. They can actually start puberty as young as 5 months so yes, they could breed at any time and may have already even though you haven't witnessed it. It is very dangerous for them to breed too young and can actually kill the female if she is gravid under 18 months old, so you really need to think about separating them. The dominance issues are only going to get worse and since she is losing weight and not wanting to it, that is proof that she is NOT happy and not doing well. Stress alone can kill a beardie if things aren't changed quickly. You mentioned that you can get her to eat babyfood but "I can get her to lick a few drops off her nose but nothing substantial" so that's not good because she will just continue to lose weight. Since they knocked down the petition, it doesn't necessarily mean that they wanted to be together though. It would be a good idea for you to pick up another tank, even check out craigslist for a good price for a 40 gallon. I got a 120 gallon tank through there for $100.00 and only had to drive about 1/2 hr away to get it. Here's the link: http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites

Having a 150 watt basking bulb on one side of a 55 gallon and a 100 watt on the other side, you're not allowing them to thermo-regulate properly because they need a cool side too. What type of thermometer are you using to check the temps? What are the basking and cool side temps? I have a 100 T-Rex MVB in my 55 gallon and get a basking temp of 105 and have a 40 watt household lightbulb on the cool side which gives a temp of about 80, so it seems like your temps must be quite high especially since your house temp is 75 to 80 at all times. If the tank temps are too high, it can cause rapid dehydration.

Having the UVB in the middle really isn't where it should be placed. Should actually be alongside a basking bulb so that your beardie can get the benefits of both bulbs while in the basking area and should also be 6 to 8" from your beardie.

What did the vet give the Baytril for? Did he check her for parasites and find some? If he put her on the antibiotic when there wasn't any health concern, that is not a good idea especially since she's already lost a lot of weight because antibiotics are very hard on their systems which could cause her to lose more weight. Did the vet mention that you should be giving her a probiotic if she is on an antibiotic and to keep her well hydrated because antibiotics are very drying?

 

[HowlinGaleDragon]

Darn if you lived closer I would tell you to bring her here so I can take a look at her and give you some natural remedies Ihave her to boost her immune system. One thing you may try is the Reptaid and Echiancea I have had GREAT success with both the Echiancea clearned up a savere RI before reptaid was around I also give it once a week in a low dose just to kep thier immune systems nice and strong. Give me a call after 9PM we will see what we can do Id hate to see anything happen to her

 

[dragonkeeper3]

Well, Auraelia is making a full recovery! She is going after crickets fairly aggressively and she is attacking the baby food filled syringe. I've kept a closer eye on them and she is still the dominant one in the tank. As far as the temps go they are usually under the 150 watt bulb and they seem to be very happy with the temps in the tank. They are also close enough to the UV. And trust me, they get bathed frequently and are well hydrated.
DK3

 

[Ethelia]

Please listen to the advice diamc has given you in regards to your dual lights.
If you want heathly dragons you will take it seriously.


In regards to housing them together I would like to share something with you.
We cannot stress enough how important it is to seperate your dragons.
The general belief on this matter is that beardies are solitary and territorial creatures and so should always be housed alone.
As already mentioned males + females especially shouldnt be housed together because they can overbreed, which can lead to the death of your female.

Furthermore when beardies are housed together one usually becomes dominant causing the other beardie to not grow properly due to stress, which sounds exactly like what has happened here.
I cannot tell you the amount of times we have read about one beardie not eating well, we advise the owner to seperate and then within a week we get replies saying how much better their dragon is doing.
Dragons do not thrive together.

Beardies can and do attack eachother, unfortunatly dragons are not like dogs, who can be taught about naughty aggressive behaviour. They can live in apparent harmony for months and then one day snap. Once it has happened once, it will happen again and again.
Dragons will think nothing of nipping off a chunk or tail/toe in order to defend their basking spot, its just in their nature.

I appologise if this seems harsh, but I want you to appriciate what can happen.
In my time keeping dragons I have rescued three dragons who were living in a viv with other dragons.
Dexter was small for her age and was missing a bit of her tail, most of her right arm, most of her right foot and alot of her toes.

Ruben had his leg and arms ripped off at the joints by his clutchmates.

This December I rescued a baby dragon who is missing some tail and a few toes at the hands of her siblings.
Miso is due to have another toe amuptated next week due to her bites.


Dragons do not need to be sexually mature to start attempting to mate or stressing eachother as you can see.
I would suggest you separate your beardies with a cardboard screen again.
Your girls health will continue to dwindle until you do so.

Holly