Hello everyone,
I got my first beardie, Gil, on May 12 from Petco. He (or she?) was doing well for several weeks but for the past several days, he has begun to eat fewer and fewer crickets. This wouldn't be a problem if he didn't also seem to be losing weight. Today, his skin is sagging at the hip and he looks far more slender than one would expect from a healthy beardie.
Background: Gil is 3-4 months old. I've owned him a little over a month, long enough for him to overcome relocation stress. He is 9 inches long, weighs approximately 40 grams, and seems to be a male. I keep him in a 20 gallon long. I am aware this tank will need to be upgraded in the near future, but I figured he would be okay in this one for maybe another month. I take him out regularly to let him climb things in my room and bask in natural sunlight on my porch. He is curious and friendly. His substrate is a vinyl tile with slate pattern. He does not share the tank with another beardie.
Lighting: I use the Reptisun 10.0 T8 tube for UVB. It is 18" inches long and mounted approximately 6-8" from the basking site on the inside of the tank. It is two weeks old (I started out with the compact Reptisun 10.0, but I switched it out for a tube once I discovered it was the wrong thing). The basking bulb is a 40 watt halogen bulb placed above the screen. I use another halogen bulb to heat the cool side.
Temperatures: The basking site is ~104 degrees farenheit, and can get up slightly higher but never above 110. I take these temperatures with the Ryobi temperature gun. Gil basks on a ceramic Zilla ramp, and to take the temps, I aim the temperature gun at the middle of the platform, the edges of the platform, and the steps to ensure that he has a good temperature gradient. There is no heating pad or rock anywhere in Gil's enclosure. The cool side is between 75-80 degrees. Gil rarely visits the cool side, or hides under anything. He spends nearly all of his time basking on the Zilla ramp.
Diet: I feed Gil crickets purchased from the Fluker Farms website. The crickets are 1/4"-3/8" long, and I make sure they are no bigger than the space between his eyes. I offer him crickets two to three times a day - 11 am, 4 pm, and 7 pm. The crickets are well-hydrated and fed with the Fluker Farms High-Calcium Cricket Diet. Once a week, I feed Gil five waxworms. Otherwise, I provide him with a dish of collard greens or turnip greens misted with water, both of which he loves to eat.
Vitamins: 5 times a week, I dust Gil's crickets with Repti-calcium. Twice a week, I dust them with Reptivite vitamin powder. For some reason Gil has always seemed to dislike the crickets dusted with Reptivite.
Bathing: I've bathed Gil once since I got him because he was shedding, but he didn't look too happy, so I never gave him another one. He seemed to have no problems shedding. I don't offer him much water aside from misting his greens.
Bowel movements: every morning Gil poops on his basking site, which I clean immediately. His urates are white and mushy. They don't seem to smell particularly bad, nor do they contain cricket husks or show discoloration in the urate.
Behavior: Over the past several days, Gil has eaten fewer and fewer crickets each day. I offer him crickets 3 times a day and only once does he eat a standard number of them (15-20). To feed him, I take the stuff out of his tank and put a few crickets in at a time, and when he's finished he runs to the right side of the tank and stares at me. I feel like he's never really eaten as much as I would expect from a beardie his age, but only recently did he start to show signs of weight loss.
Lately, instead of eating, Gil darts around the tank to chase his own reflection. When he's done with that, he tries to climb out of the tank. The only way to settle him down is to either take him out of the tank for a bit, or restore his basking area. In any case, he will ignore his crickets. I even tried feeding him in a separate container. It's not that he refuses to eat all the time - I find most success in the evenings - it's that he refuses to eat enough of what I offer him and then drops weight.
Maybe he hates his enclosure. I understand he doesn't have much to climb in there, which I will rectify in his tank upgrade, but I thought taking him out to play and explore would kinda tide him over. He never seems to wanna go back in.
Any thoughts?
I got my first beardie, Gil, on May 12 from Petco. He (or she?) was doing well for several weeks but for the past several days, he has begun to eat fewer and fewer crickets. This wouldn't be a problem if he didn't also seem to be losing weight. Today, his skin is sagging at the hip and he looks far more slender than one would expect from a healthy beardie.
Background: Gil is 3-4 months old. I've owned him a little over a month, long enough for him to overcome relocation stress. He is 9 inches long, weighs approximately 40 grams, and seems to be a male. I keep him in a 20 gallon long. I am aware this tank will need to be upgraded in the near future, but I figured he would be okay in this one for maybe another month. I take him out regularly to let him climb things in my room and bask in natural sunlight on my porch. He is curious and friendly. His substrate is a vinyl tile with slate pattern. He does not share the tank with another beardie.
Lighting: I use the Reptisun 10.0 T8 tube for UVB. It is 18" inches long and mounted approximately 6-8" from the basking site on the inside of the tank. It is two weeks old (I started out with the compact Reptisun 10.0, but I switched it out for a tube once I discovered it was the wrong thing). The basking bulb is a 40 watt halogen bulb placed above the screen. I use another halogen bulb to heat the cool side.
Temperatures: The basking site is ~104 degrees farenheit, and can get up slightly higher but never above 110. I take these temperatures with the Ryobi temperature gun. Gil basks on a ceramic Zilla ramp, and to take the temps, I aim the temperature gun at the middle of the platform, the edges of the platform, and the steps to ensure that he has a good temperature gradient. There is no heating pad or rock anywhere in Gil's enclosure. The cool side is between 75-80 degrees. Gil rarely visits the cool side, or hides under anything. He spends nearly all of his time basking on the Zilla ramp.
Diet: I feed Gil crickets purchased from the Fluker Farms website. The crickets are 1/4"-3/8" long, and I make sure they are no bigger than the space between his eyes. I offer him crickets two to three times a day - 11 am, 4 pm, and 7 pm. The crickets are well-hydrated and fed with the Fluker Farms High-Calcium Cricket Diet. Once a week, I feed Gil five waxworms. Otherwise, I provide him with a dish of collard greens or turnip greens misted with water, both of which he loves to eat.
Vitamins: 5 times a week, I dust Gil's crickets with Repti-calcium. Twice a week, I dust them with Reptivite vitamin powder. For some reason Gil has always seemed to dislike the crickets dusted with Reptivite.
Bathing: I've bathed Gil once since I got him because he was shedding, but he didn't look too happy, so I never gave him another one. He seemed to have no problems shedding. I don't offer him much water aside from misting his greens.
Bowel movements: every morning Gil poops on his basking site, which I clean immediately. His urates are white and mushy. They don't seem to smell particularly bad, nor do they contain cricket husks or show discoloration in the urate.
Behavior: Over the past several days, Gil has eaten fewer and fewer crickets each day. I offer him crickets 3 times a day and only once does he eat a standard number of them (15-20). To feed him, I take the stuff out of his tank and put a few crickets in at a time, and when he's finished he runs to the right side of the tank and stares at me. I feel like he's never really eaten as much as I would expect from a beardie his age, but only recently did he start to show signs of weight loss.
Lately, instead of eating, Gil darts around the tank to chase his own reflection. When he's done with that, he tries to climb out of the tank. The only way to settle him down is to either take him out of the tank for a bit, or restore his basking area. In any case, he will ignore his crickets. I even tried feeding him in a separate container. It's not that he refuses to eat all the time - I find most success in the evenings - it's that he refuses to eat enough of what I offer him and then drops weight.
Maybe he hates his enclosure. I understand he doesn't have much to climb in there, which I will rectify in his tank upgrade, but I thought taking him out to play and explore would kinda tide him over. He never seems to wanna go back in.
Any thoughts?