beardie hatchling doesnt eat well.

[chastityx]

i have kept leopard geckos for about 4 months now so my husband brought me home a beardie. we've had him for about a month but he has only eaten crickets. i've read up on them ofcourse & offered him every fruit and vegetable under the dragon rainbow and he refuses. i give him a bath once a day with warm water because he only likes drinking from the sink, not his water bowl. he hasn't shed, but i noticed today his tail seems to be shedding. he also doesn't seem to be growing the way i see beardies grow. some days he refuses food completely and then he'll eat like a little piggy the next. his temps are around 100-105 in his basking area and around 80-85 at the cool end & then it drops to around 80 at night with all lights off. he's very curious & loves attention, but he prefers to sit on his log most of the day when he's in his cage. he doesn't even act interested in any kind of fruit or vegetable. i even offered him a headless waxworm and he closed his eyes like i was petting him with it -.- he's only 6.5 inches and he's in the proper habitat, although he's only in a 20long for now since he's so small. am i just being paranoid or should he be bigger by now? and how do i get him to eat his veggies? i've tried dropping them infront of him, adding waxworms to it to make it a moving salad. he wants nothing to do with it! thanks in advance.

basking after a nice warm bath.

 

[jsnsan]

What type of UV lamp are you using?

 

[chastityx]

i'm not positive but i think i remember it being the zoo med 10.0 uvb one. it's in it's own fixture.

 

[chastityx]

i take it back. i just checked and it's a reptisun 5.0

 

[jsnsan]

Ok. You need to have the reptisun 10.0. Honest mistake. At least you have a reptisun. Also, how is it mounted? The screen top will block valuable rays.

 

[chastityx]

i can do that! the bulb came with the fixture and said it was for bearded dragons so i assumed it'd be okay. and it is over the screen, how should i mount it for him? sorry for the questions, he's just my first little beardie so i want him to be healthy ofcourse. and is there anything i can do about him eating his veggies? it's like having a little kid. he just turns his head at them. LOL

 

[jsnsan]

Beardies dont really get into eating their veggies for quite a few months. No worries there. Just keep offering them.
Try some different live food. Reptiworms, silk worms, dubia roaches, etc. Variety keeps their appetites up.
Make sure you are dusting his food. Go ahead and take the water dish out. He will absorb most of his water during his bath, through his vent.
You can cut the screen directly under the fixture, or you can mount a fixture to the glass, inside the tank with industrial velcro, or command strips.
You can actually buy a really cheap fixture at Walmart or Home depot to use if you want. One with a flat back. Also, you are gutloading those crickets right?

 

[chastityx]

Beardies dont really get into eating their veggies for quite a few months. No worries there. Just keep offering them.
Try some different live food. Reptiworms, silk worms, dubia roaches, etc. Variety keeps their appetites up.
Make sure you are dusting his food. Go ahead and take the water dish out. He will absorb most of his water during his bath, through his vent.
You can cut the screen directly under the fixture, or you can mount a fixture to the glass, inside the tank with industrial velcro, or command strips.
You can actually buy a really cheap fixture at Walmart or Home depot to use if you want. One with a flat back. Also, you are gutloading those crickets right?

i can try that. & yeah i've been gutloading them since i also feed them to my geckos and i dust them every day since he doesn't lick the calcium like my leopards do. i was just worried that he was growing slow because he's so picky with food.

 

[jsnsan]

How many crickets is he eating a day?

 

[chastityx]

about 5 or 6 medium sized ones. he usually eats every day but some days he's just not interested in anything but his bath.

 

[jsnsan]

That is not nearly enough crickets for the little guy. He should be eating somewhere between 50-100 crickets every day.
Try switching that lamp out as soon as possible. If that doesn't help, you may need to get a fecal done to rule out parasites.

 

[chastityx]

That is not nearly enough crickets for the little guy. He should be eating somewhere between 50-100 crickets every day.
Try switching that lamp out as soon as possible. If that doesn't help, you may need to get a fecal done to rule out parasites.

that's what i thought but i just don't understand what his deal is. i mean he poops normal and i thought parasites would make him less active and show up in his stool? he just refuses a lot of food and goes on being a brat all day.

 

[bumblebee]

Hi there, your beardie is adorable! Like Sabrina said, the new UVB bulb should make a huge difference in his eating. Just make sure it's the Repti-Sun 10.0 tube bulb, as the coil bulbs can cause health issues.

You can't always tell just by their poop if they have parasites. A lot of times if they have parasites, their poop will be runny/loose and smell really bad, but not always. I would definitely get a fecal exam done as soon as possible if the UVB light doesn't help with his appetite.

You mentioned that you are dusting his crickets with calcium powder - remember that you should dust 1 feeding per day with calcium powder 5 days a week, and 1 feeding per day with multivitamin powder the other two days. How many feedings are you offering a day? Also, are you making sure that the crickets are smaller than the space between his eyes? You may already know this, but wax worms should only be offered occasionally because they are high in fat. Also, I'm pretty sure that you don't need to cut off the wax worms' heads.

About the veggies, it sounds like you're doing a great job with trying different veggies and offering them different ways. Like Sabrina said, just keep offering a variety of greens and veggies, and eventually he'll eat them. This website has a really good nutrition guide for beardies: http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

Sorry that it's a lot of information. Hope it helps!

 

[xpresean]

I am literally having the same thing, except I do have the reptisun 10.0 mounted inside a custom cage. He only eats on average 4-8 insects a day whether they be dubia, reptiworms, or crickets. I say average because one day he will eat 8-10, and then not eat for a day or two. I am also wondering if my little guy's size is ok. If you still have the issue after the reptisun 10.0 please post because that is where I am at...

 

[chastityx]

I am literally having the same thing, except I do have the reptisun 10.0 mounted inside a custom cage. He only eats on average 4-8 insects a day whether they be dubia, reptiworms, or crickets. I say average because one day he will eat 8-10, and then not eat for a day or two. I am also wondering if my little guy's size is ok. If you still have the issue after the reptisun 10.0 please post because that is where I am at...

yeah he's doing much better lately, still not eating much but we took him to the vet and they couldn't find anything wrong! he's gained 3 grams but that still puts him at 11g so he's itty bitty. he's just crazy picky and only eats a few. he's on a strict "i only like waxworms" spree and he'll eat 4-8 a day but we give him reptaid and have been giving him some chicken baby food on days he doesn't eat much. the pedialyte baths & reptaid have got him feeling better. i wish i knew what to tell you because mine still doesn't eat right and has no parasites or anything. just gotta treat them like children sometimes i guess good luck with your baby!