MissCutiePatootie
Hatchling Member
Hey guys, it's been a while since I last posted about my boy Malachi. Malachi is a partial translucent het. hypo super citrus beardie. I bought him from a breeder. He will be 5 years old in October I believe. He has head tremors for some time now and I'm unsure what from. I've heard it could be genetic from the translucent gene. I'm hoping someone will have some good input or knowledge to share on the matter!
Firstly, I don't think it's a calcium deficiency as he's always had calcium and after a year or two old he stopped taking anything with powdered calcium on it so I switched over to liquid calcium and carefully measured it out according to his weight of course. This is his preference.
He quit eating on his own about a year and a half ago. Before that he still took bugs but wouldn't touch his veggies for about 6months prior when his head tremors started. This has been going on for quite some time. I have been hand/syringe feeding him during that time.
Some things I've done...
In the beginning I upped his calcium intake with guidance from someone experienced just for a short time (2 maybe 3 weeks) and it seemed to have reduced his headshakes but then they came back full on so I lowered the dosage back down as I don't want to overdo it with the calcium. I think it was just coincidence his head tremors improved because they sometimes seem to just vanish for short periods of time before reappearing.
I've had him tested for adenovirus once during his worst symptoms and results came back negative.
I bought a UVB solarmeter to check his bulbs UVB outputs. He's never been with a bulb older than 6months even if it's an arcadia until I bought the UVB solarmeter to be sure it was still putting out well. I swap between ZooMed T5 10.0 HO fluorescent and Arcadia 14% T5 HO when the bulbs need replacement. His fluorescent UVB is on for 12hrs a day. He's also got a Megaray MVB bulb that turns on for 4 hours every day to mimic high noon sun/heat.
I created a dynamic lighting setup for him hoping that this enrichment would make his drive/apatite come back. He has 6500k LEDs on a ramp up timer to mimic dawn/dusk and create bright light similar to daylight.
When I took him to the vet he had labs done. The vet said that the headshakes could be due to some sort of neuro-degenerative disease or a small tumor somewhere. Aside from his intention tremors he looks good. The vet wasn't alarmed by anything on his labs.
I went on a 3 month long trip to Australia, leaving my boy with my mother to look after him for me. I setup a webcam in his enclosure for me to check on him everyday with his own skype account and everything haha. I'm very protective and meticulous over the care of my boy. I gave my mother very specific written instructions that covered everything and showed her the best techniques to care for him and was always a skype call away for her. To make it easier on my mother, I allowed her to only feed him 3-4x a week as it is tedious and time consuming and not always easy to do. When I came back from my trip I offered him some fresh greens and he went for them! I was so proud! I think this could be because he's hungrier since he was being fed less or because of the dynamic lighting setup or maybe both over time! He had his lighting setup for about 5 or so months before he started eating on his own again. Him eating on his own lasted for about 2 weeks even with his intention tremors making it difficult to take bites of food and now he's back to only accepting bugs on his own but not veggies. So I hand feed his veggies by pushing them into his mouth and letting him take bites that way. Sometimes I dip the veggie's in baby food to get a little extra vitamins/minerals in him from other sources. Or sometimes I dip it in spirulina powder.
He is fed silkworms/dubia/BSFL/Superworms. Collards/Mustards/Turnip/Endive/Arugula/Carrot/Squash.
A variety of babyfoods.
I let him soak in the summer sun in his outdoor enclosure whenever I can.
The last and most recent thing I've done was I began to supplement him with CBD oil. I found the lowest strength I could find and started out with 0.1ml dose for about 4 days with no results other than he seemed more active. I gave him a 3 day break after that. The following Monday I started with 0.1ml again before getting advice on the dosage. Once I got approval I increased the amount. The next day (Tuesday) I bumped it up to 0.2ml and the first day nothing really improved right away. But the second day his tremors were gone. I did a little stress test to see if I could trigger them and I noticed a very subtle amount almost missed it. I'm now on day 3 at 0.2ml for this week and I haven't seen his tremors at all! I think I will stop a couple days and see if they return and if they do, start with the 0.2ml dose again and see if they disappear. He won't touch his greens still but will eat bugs on his own.
Please no judgement for using CBD oil. This is something I've researched to my best ability, talked to others about and held out on for some time now and I just want Malachi to have an easy life, eat on his own, and not struggle to grab food due to his intention tremors. I am happy to answer questions and I appreciate any constructive feedback/advice! Thank you.
Firstly, I don't think it's a calcium deficiency as he's always had calcium and after a year or two old he stopped taking anything with powdered calcium on it so I switched over to liquid calcium and carefully measured it out according to his weight of course. This is his preference.
He quit eating on his own about a year and a half ago. Before that he still took bugs but wouldn't touch his veggies for about 6months prior when his head tremors started. This has been going on for quite some time. I have been hand/syringe feeding him during that time.
Some things I've done...
In the beginning I upped his calcium intake with guidance from someone experienced just for a short time (2 maybe 3 weeks) and it seemed to have reduced his headshakes but then they came back full on so I lowered the dosage back down as I don't want to overdo it with the calcium. I think it was just coincidence his head tremors improved because they sometimes seem to just vanish for short periods of time before reappearing.
I've had him tested for adenovirus once during his worst symptoms and results came back negative.
I bought a UVB solarmeter to check his bulbs UVB outputs. He's never been with a bulb older than 6months even if it's an arcadia until I bought the UVB solarmeter to be sure it was still putting out well. I swap between ZooMed T5 10.0 HO fluorescent and Arcadia 14% T5 HO when the bulbs need replacement. His fluorescent UVB is on for 12hrs a day. He's also got a Megaray MVB bulb that turns on for 4 hours every day to mimic high noon sun/heat.
I created a dynamic lighting setup for him hoping that this enrichment would make his drive/apatite come back. He has 6500k LEDs on a ramp up timer to mimic dawn/dusk and create bright light similar to daylight.
When I took him to the vet he had labs done. The vet said that the headshakes could be due to some sort of neuro-degenerative disease or a small tumor somewhere. Aside from his intention tremors he looks good. The vet wasn't alarmed by anything on his labs.
I went on a 3 month long trip to Australia, leaving my boy with my mother to look after him for me. I setup a webcam in his enclosure for me to check on him everyday with his own skype account and everything haha. I'm very protective and meticulous over the care of my boy. I gave my mother very specific written instructions that covered everything and showed her the best techniques to care for him and was always a skype call away for her. To make it easier on my mother, I allowed her to only feed him 3-4x a week as it is tedious and time consuming and not always easy to do. When I came back from my trip I offered him some fresh greens and he went for them! I was so proud! I think this could be because he's hungrier since he was being fed less or because of the dynamic lighting setup or maybe both over time! He had his lighting setup for about 5 or so months before he started eating on his own again. Him eating on his own lasted for about 2 weeks even with his intention tremors making it difficult to take bites of food and now he's back to only accepting bugs on his own but not veggies. So I hand feed his veggies by pushing them into his mouth and letting him take bites that way. Sometimes I dip the veggie's in baby food to get a little extra vitamins/minerals in him from other sources. Or sometimes I dip it in spirulina powder.
He is fed silkworms/dubia/BSFL/Superworms. Collards/Mustards/Turnip/Endive/Arugula/Carrot/Squash.
A variety of babyfoods.
I let him soak in the summer sun in his outdoor enclosure whenever I can.
The last and most recent thing I've done was I began to supplement him with CBD oil. I found the lowest strength I could find and started out with 0.1ml dose for about 4 days with no results other than he seemed more active. I gave him a 3 day break after that. The following Monday I started with 0.1ml again before getting advice on the dosage. Once I got approval I increased the amount. The next day (Tuesday) I bumped it up to 0.2ml and the first day nothing really improved right away. But the second day his tremors were gone. I did a little stress test to see if I could trigger them and I noticed a very subtle amount almost missed it. I'm now on day 3 at 0.2ml for this week and I haven't seen his tremors at all! I think I will stop a couple days and see if they return and if they do, start with the 0.2ml dose again and see if they disappear. He won't touch his greens still but will eat bugs on his own.
Please no judgement for using CBD oil. This is something I've researched to my best ability, talked to others about and held out on for some time now and I just want Malachi to have an easy life, eat on his own, and not struggle to grab food due to his intention tremors. I am happy to answer questions and I appreciate any constructive feedback/advice! Thank you.
