Beardie not basking and hiding a lot?

[FuzzyNavel]

My 8 month old beardie has been digging a lot recently. I suspected she could be gravid with infertile eggs so a made a lay box and put her in it. I was thrilled when she dug a cave but then all she does is hide there with her eyes closed. Her appetite has decreased drastically in the last week or so and she has been spending most of her time on the cool end of the tank. Yesterday I put her cave hide into her tank and she went inside and pushed sand into the opening. She has been hiding there all day. I've read up on brumation quite a bit and the general consensus is beardies don't brumate till about a year old. She seems to be displaying signs of brumation despite it being past the colder part of the season. Is it possible she is wanting to brumate? Or perhaps it's something more serious?

She has a 24" reptisun UVB tube that she can come within 6" of. I have measured her temps in the tank with a zilla digital probe. They are 38 degrees at the basking spot and 25 degrees on the cool side. Temps never drop below 18 degrees at night (more often its at 20 degrees.) Humidity is usually between 30-40%.

 

[Claudiusx]

Hi there,

Your set up all sounds perfect.
Your reptisun is less than 6 months old right?

What does the daily diet look like?
What about dusting schedule?

Can you feel eggs in her?

-Brandon

 

[FuzzyNavel]

Yep the bulb is less than a month old I think. Ordered it from www.petsandponds.com

Her daily diet consists of fresh veggies daily (squash, kale, collards, endive, and sometimes carrots and apples,) however she has never been a big fan of veggies. I also feed her as many crickets as she'll eat every day. Some days as many as 25-30. Last couple days it has been tricky to even get her to eat 5.

She gets her crickets dusted with calcium 5x a week and a multi-vitamin once a week. Twice a month she gets calcium with D3.
I haven't been able to feel any eggs yet. She usually just gets annoyed when I touch her belly. She has also been pooping regularly, although less these days because she hasn't been eating much.

 

[Claudiusx]

The diet sounds good too.

In regards to the dusting - When she poo's is the urate pure white, or does it have some yellow/brown tint to it? Is it hard and chalk like or is it soft?

Also, I would start using the calcium + D3 regularly now, in replacement of the pure calcium you have been using. If you don't want to totally switch it, I would at least step it up to using the calcium + D3 for at least half of the calcium dustings for the week.

Have you ever had a fecal done on her?

-Brandon

 

[FuzzyNavel]

I don't usually look too closely at her poo hehe but the urate is definitely soft and more pure white than yellowish. I've never had a fecal test done.

I'll start using more D3 calcium now, provided her appetite returns to normal sometime soon. :roll:

 

[Claudiusx]

I only asked because it seems like a lot of supplements for an 8 month old, and the color of the urates would determine if it was too much.

If the urates are pure white in color, dont worry about it. If they have a yellowish tinge to them, cut back on maybe one calcium dusting a week and see if that whitens them up.

-Brandon

 

[AtlasStrike]

...8 months, Brandon.

Do you know how much she weighs?

 

[Claudiusx]

Sorry, I meant 8 months. I knew what I was trying to say I just said it wrong lol.

-Brandon

 

[FuzzyNavel]

Ah yes I just weighed her now. She is just shy of 350 grams and a little bit over 16" long. It is the first time I've weighed her since I got her 2 months ago. Couldn't think of a way to do it but then I remembered my moms little food scale and tried it out. I made sure Jasmine did not come into contact with the scale. Don't want to be giving salmonella to my family lol. :lol:

 

[FuzzyNavel]

Any other thoughts on what is happening? Does her weight seem appropriate for her age? She is still digging, not eating much and just wanting to hide it seems.

 

[AtlasStrike]

Her weight seems spot on to me. My beardie is 390 grams at 17 inches. As long as she isn't losing weight, I wouldn't be too concerned. Sometimes they just slow down. I'd try to weigh her once a week or so just to get an idea while she is is slow mode.