Baby Beardie wont grow!!

[jennamah]

We have a little girl that is just over 5 months now. We still cant get her over 7g. We are feeding her crickets and greens daily. She will usually eat 5 mediums for us. We have her under a Repti Sun 10.0 UVB and her heat is right (107hot 85cool). She is hydrated and in a 10 gallon tank. We have had no problems with are other two adults which we raised from young. But this little girl has us stumped. We got her from BloodBank Dragons and is a really pretty little girl. She is energized and looks healthily. Her poops look normal but could it still be a parasite? or are we doing something wrong?

 

[destiny1998]

Hi. Is your uvb a tube? Is it mounted in the tank? She needs to be in a bigger tank at least a 20 gallon. Its very hard to get the proper temps in a 10 gallon. How are you taking the temps? Are you feeding her 5 crickets a day? Do you dust her feeders with vitamins and calcium? Do you have a bright white basking bulb?

 

[jennamah]

Our UVB is a tube. We take the temps with a digital temp gun. We try to feed her more than 5 crickets but she won't take more. We offer twice a day. We dust her crickets and her green with calcium. We have a bright basking bulb.

 

[kamelotte]

Are you entirely positive your girl is 5 months? 7 grams just sounds so tiny for that age. How long is she?

The only other things I can think of is either adenovirus or you just have a reeaaaallllly small runt dragon. Bloodbank is known for having less than stellar breeding practices, which is unfortunate because a lot of their dragons are pretty unique and nice looking. There's a lot of rumors floating around that nearly all their dragons have adenovirus but I haven't found anything that confirms that...

Does she have any other weird things about her? Does she often tip her head all the way up, or have any weird twitches?

 

[jennamah]

We got her July 23 so she is at least 5 months just measured and she is 6.5in. That's interesting about blood bank and wish we knew that earlier. We haven't noticed any weird twitches. That's what we were thinking based on our other two she is reallllllllly small. Do you think we should try a 20 gal we have an extra one?

 

[kamelotte]

I'd definitely try the 20 gallon; It's a long shot, but she might eat more if she has more room to burn off the energy from the food. Also, if you can get them in your area (tropical roaches are illegal in Canada and I think Florida), maybe try some dubia roaches. They have less chitin and more meat/protein to them than crickets. You could also try Phoenix/Repti worms, they have a high enough calcium content that they don't need to be dusted and they're small and mushy. Her eating problems might be as simple as just her just not liking crickets. What do you offer as greens?

I am honestly really stumped here, and I wish I knew more so I could be of more help. We know she's at least 5 months but with her size there's no way to know her actual age short of asking the breeder, and even then not all breeders keep track of their clutches. If she's 5-6 months that puts her around my Beardie Diesels age, and I've been told Diesel is growing at the average rate. Diesel is nearly 3x her length and 25x her weight though, at 17.5 inches and roughly 175 g. And if she has no symptoms of adeno (apparently babies with adeno rarely make it past 90 days) and is otherwise healthy than her being a "pygmy" is the only other thing I can think of...

Do you have a picture of her you could post?

 

[jennamah]

Here are some the blue mat has 1in squares on it and some of them have a quarter in them.
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/....flickr.com/photos/113467193@N04/11766086666/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/113467193@N04/11765353355/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/113467193@N04/11765629383/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/113467193@N04/11765698574/in/photostream/[/url]

 

[destiny1998]

Wow! She is really small the poor girl I to am stumped. If it were me I would take her to the vet she just doesn't look like a healthy beardie. Please keep us updated on her. Hope she gets better.

 

[kamelotte]

Oh my, she really is tiny . But she is holding herself up and has her head and tail held up in that last pic which is good.

I agree with destiny, a vet would be good, if only to get some bloodwork and a fecal done to make sure she isn't too susceptible to parasites/ doesn't have them already. I notice she's a Trans, maybe Trans Leatherback? She is such a cute dragon, it really sucks she's having so much trouble.