Beardie losing weight but completely healthy

[amanor]

Hi everyone. I am new here, although I have stalked this website for a year to ensure our beardie was healthy. I have a 1 year old male beardie who went into semi brumation in July. This was a vet diagnosis. He didn't eat much, slept most of the time in his hide and was very inactive. This continued into Oct. when we took him back for bloodwork, x-rays, and a fecal sample (taken at different times as he wouldn't eat) everything is normal. No parasites, normal blood work, but the x-ray showed constipation. He wasn't pooping for weeks on end so we agreed to give natural laxatives and warm daily baths with massages. He is now super active, basking and having daily poops that are formed and soft with extra liquid. BUT he has lost his fat pod on his tail, is bony and is starting with losing his fat pods on his head. I feed him daily salads of kale, baby bok choy, escarole, squash, sweet potato, green beans and an occasional raspberry or blueberry. He is the pickiest eater. He stopped eating bugs. He will only take superworms which we don't give as that caused the constipation. We have tried roaches and crickets, and hornworms to no avail. I cannot get silkworms as I have tried numerous times at different websites (they are always sold out). He won't even eat BSFL.

His tank:
120 gal zen habitat.

Temps: 103-105 on his basking cave with a gradual change to 95
Cool side is 85.

Lighting:

24" reptisun T5 HO uvb inside his tank with no screen or plastic covering inside a reflector mounted with a distance of 13-15" to his light.

His has a uva heating bulb that is 100 watts and on the cool sude a normal household 75 watt bulb as keeping his temps up was a challenge.

He is 19.5" and weights 510g.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. He has never black bearded and won't stay still in his tank...he wants to go. Thanks in advance.

 

[amanor]

I apologize for all the typos! And he was in semi brumation not cremation??? that'll teach me to not proofread and trust a cell phone haha.

How do I post pics because I have him and his tank setup to post.

 

[KarrieRee]

:lol: gotta love auto correct
https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ click on the XIMG at the top of the message box then click on the pic it should post
Karrie

 

[amanor]

Let me know if these pics don't show what you need. His skin is wrinkly and you can feel each vertebrae and ribs. I don't know how to make him eat or gain weight. When he hasn't eaten for days I do give him Oxbow Critical Care for herbivores. I feel this has helped him not lose more weight than he has.

 

[KarrieRee]

Please post the blood work done and fecal sample--- for him to be losing weight something is going on -- you can get silk worms from here www.reptilianarts.com they have cupped that come w / food that are normal size and then bulk like 50 that are shipped small and no food - so you would need to get food and clean containers out daily
Tracie our vet tech mod will need to look a the blood work done -- w/ that maybe she can help see something that your vet didnt catch - the distance on the UVB looks like it might be a little too far - is that a 24 watt T 5 or a Arcadia 14% bulb
Karrie

 

[amanor]

I do not have the bloodwork results. Our vet is a specialist but not one that deals with bearded dragons often as we live in a rural area. I do know the bloodwork was sent out and our vet spoke with a tech who specializes in bearded dragons and knows more than our vet. I don't know the extent of knowledge, but the only concern was the oxidated calcium was slightly low and we were advised not to give calcium with D3. I will try to get it and the xray as well.

Thank you for the silkworm info. I will try ordering from there. I will say that Grad's energy and alertness has dramatically increased. He is eating daily since becoming regular, basking and window surfs nonstop to run around our house. He just isn't eating a lot. He was never a veggie eater so I'm not sure the amount an adult should eat. He eats roughly 1/4 cup of veggies a day...maybe a little less. That doesn't seem like enough to me.

 

[KarrieRee]

Have your tried horn worms or butter worms - meal worms? the butter worms you can only get from www.mulberryfarms.com but they also have horn worms as well - they grow really fast so only order small amounts of them -- this place is spendy on shipping but they do ship Fed Ex -- distance of UVB is good I missed it on top -- I would have the vet email you the results of the blood work and fecal -- usually parasites can cause the issue your describing w/ the weight loss but w/ him doing everything else I am at a loss as to why he would be losing weight - and hes eating salads so that is good
Karrie

 

[AHBD]

He does look pretty good for having gone through cremation, glad to see it's only partial brumation. :lol: That is too funny ! You can still feed him superworms, just add other worms to his diet along with them and he should get back to a more steady eating schedule.

 

[beardie parents]

I hope he's doing better. We haven't used the reptisun tube for a while. It seemed like we had to replace it too often. We now use a Mercury Vapor bulb. They have kits where you can get the bulb and the fixture for it. If it's cold where you are, you can get the higher wattage kit (say the 100 watt kits. Then in the summer, you can put a lower wattage bulb. We do that here. They are better quality than the reptisun 10 tube. I find them at: lightyourreptiles.com. You can call him, he's in Maine. The phone # is: 1-207-588-7210. He has an answering machine where you can leave a message and he will call you back when he can. Sometimes it takes a while as he's busy and the time difference between his place and your's. We had a problem a while back with our fixture in Squirt's tank. I got ahold of him, but it wasn't right away. Anyway, we were able to get just the fixture that holds the bulb, not a new complete setup, which we didn't need. He was very helpful.

 

[beardie parents]

Also you could contact Tracie who runs bug-de-lite.com. She was helpful to me when our stubborn (very sometimes) Lil Squirt (8 years old now) refused to eat. She gave us some things to give her to get her to eat. One was a grass type thing (we found it at our local health food store but I can't remember the name right now). It helped her to eat. One time she decided to stop eating again, so I told her that if she didn't eat I will have to give her some more of the grass stuff, well, she decided to eat. We haven't had a problem with her eating since. My husband just reminded me: It's wheatgrass powder. He says it tastes great, I, however, have not tried it yet.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

How is your dragon doing this evening?
If you can get a copy of the blood work, that would be terrific just so I can take a look at it.
The Reptisun 10 T5 tube is a really nice bulb, & it should be emitting great UVB exposure
if it is mounted underneath of the screen inside of his tank. He is a lucky little guy with a
large 120 gallon tank, too.
His length & weight sounds good & his physical condition looks fine also. Have you tried
bee pollen or black strap molasses to help boost his immune system & appetite?
Does he like silkworms? They are hard to come by.
How long was he in brumation?
If he wont eat on his own, keep trying to get some food into him either by using the baby food
or the powdered food whichever you can get into him!

Tracie