Beardie troubles :( not eating, due to housing?

[soupdragon]

Hello I brought 2 bearded dragons about 4 months ago, and was told by this awful petshop that they were both girls.
The petshop is awful for many other reasons, and their complete lack of good advice and even general knowledge on bearded dragons.

Im pretty confident I have a good setup for the two, I can run through it if you guys want, but Im sure its not that thats causing the problem.

Im sure one is a male and the other is a female.
The male is much bigger, and has the tell-tale signs just under his vent.
The female has recently stopped eating, and always glass dances, and presses her nose to the doors, trying to get out. when in the home she doesnt eat, doesnt bask, just arm waves and lies in a corner.
But I have no idea what to do, I love them both very dearly. They are currently too big to divide the viv in half, even though its 4ft x 2ft x 2ft.

My dads a carpenter, he had an idea of dividing it lengthways, like add 2 floors and then sort the lighting out. Is 1ft high a suitable height for beardies? they would still have 8 square foot of floorspace each. And they always get a chance to come out of the viv and run around the house or garden on sunny days.

the petshop wont take the beardie back, and they wont swap him for a female, but anyway, from what Ive read over the months, the dragons are healthier and happier alone.

Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated!

 

[UTreptiles]

This is clearly a case of your male being dominant over your female. The arm waving, dragon placement in the cage, and lack of eating are all signs of it. You should definitely split them up. On top of the domination thing you also have the problem of breeding and overbreeding. How old are your dragons. If they are less than 18 months you don't want them breeding. They start producing eggs at 9 to 12 months but usually at this age they are way too small to start breeding. Can be deadly to the female.

Does your female have any eggs in the belly? She may be clawing at the door because she is looking for a place to lay eggs, if she has any. Just another thing to look for.

As far as the height of cages goes you need to be sure that temps of 105-110 F can be maintained at the basking spot and the dragon cannot get burned on the lighting. Make sure that you also offer a UVB source. Tube fluorescent lighting would do best in this situation.

 

[soupdragon]

Thank you for the quick reply!

How would you know if she has eggs?
They are about 7 months. Maybe less. Probably 6.

Id deffinately get all the UV lighting, I already have 1 flourescent tube and a basking spot in their current viv, I would get another one and another light if I divided their viv up.

is there areny minimum height they can live in, or is 1 ft okay?

 

[UTreptiles]

At that age she is probably not carrying eggs. It would look and feel like she had a bunch of marbles in her. It would be very noticeable at that age.

Height issue:
The only concern I would have is the ability to have a safe distance between the hot basking lights and the dragons. The height would not be such a problem only if you can offer safe and sufficient heating for them. With one foot of height it would be a very tight squeeze for lighting. You might be able to get away with just using a common houshold bulb for heat. 60 or 75 watt and construct a metal screen around it to prevent accidental burns. This is just a big maybe. I have never had a cage with one foot of height on it. Mine have always been 2 feet minimum.

Dragons do like more floor space than height but 1 foot might be pushing thier limits. Not sure how that would affect thier stress levels. Try to find a second 40 gallon breeder tank or similar for the other dragon if possible as this would be the safest bet.

 

[LJean]

With only 1 foot in height, I don't know how you would mount the lights as mentioned above. The clamp lamps are at least 6 inches long aren't they? That would put a heat bulb on six inches from the beardie. They could also jump on the hot light. Even if you wired the viv using a different type fixture the bulb would still hang down taking up some of that 1ft space.

 

[DistDrag]

You might want to check out a home improvment store for some bulbs. You can get some really short bulbs that are anywhere from 25 watt to 50. The close distances you shouldn't need a 65 watt bulb.

 

[soupdragon]

well ive made a new floor, it actually worked well, theres more than a foot of height as I made each floor like two levels. its hard to explain but they have 8sqare foot floor space and about 1 1/2 feet of head space.

but neither of them have pooped since they moved in on friday... and its monday now.
this has never happened before.. they seem to be eating okay.. is it resettlement issues?

Thanks again