Hi all,
I have a ten and a half month old female beardie who I've had since she was 2 months old. I got her in October last year and she had a massive apatite and grew exceptionally fast. However once winter came around she stopped eating completely. I took her to the vet who suggested some juveniles can get a bit confused and go through a weird "brumate" like an adult would. To keep her growing and healthy the vet told me to syringe feed baby food, which she happily ate, and later gave me some special feeding formula when she still didn't start eating.
Roughly 2-3 months ago she suddenly started eating again (thank goodness), but still doesn't quite have her appetite back to what I'd expect for a dragon her age. She'll take maybe 3 dubia roaches every couple of days and sometimes eats her greens, sometimes doesn't (there's no real pattern).
She's been back to the vet who took her blood and said that besides being underweight and obviously a bit low on calcium, there's nothing else wrong with her. The viv is clean and the lights and temperature are what they should be. She's otherwise basking happily, has a brilliant nature and is a bright orange colour with no stress marks.
Currently on the occasion she does eat, I dust with calcium. Back when she was eating every day I did 5 days calcium and 2 days multi vits. Current length is 15 inches which is smaller than she should be at this age, according to google.
I should add that I've tried treat foods like waxworms (she used to love those) and butterworms too but she isn't tempted.
Has anyone experienced this with a juvenile dragon? If so, how did you get past it? The vet also suggested it could be her hormones as she's female. Was this a factor with yours? I'm very worried about her and am out of ideas to try besides going back to syringe feeding.
I have a ten and a half month old female beardie who I've had since she was 2 months old. I got her in October last year and she had a massive apatite and grew exceptionally fast. However once winter came around she stopped eating completely. I took her to the vet who suggested some juveniles can get a bit confused and go through a weird "brumate" like an adult would. To keep her growing and healthy the vet told me to syringe feed baby food, which she happily ate, and later gave me some special feeding formula when she still didn't start eating.
Roughly 2-3 months ago she suddenly started eating again (thank goodness), but still doesn't quite have her appetite back to what I'd expect for a dragon her age. She'll take maybe 3 dubia roaches every couple of days and sometimes eats her greens, sometimes doesn't (there's no real pattern).
She's been back to the vet who took her blood and said that besides being underweight and obviously a bit low on calcium, there's nothing else wrong with her. The viv is clean and the lights and temperature are what they should be. She's otherwise basking happily, has a brilliant nature and is a bright orange colour with no stress marks.
Currently on the occasion she does eat, I dust with calcium. Back when she was eating every day I did 5 days calcium and 2 days multi vits. Current length is 15 inches which is smaller than she should be at this age, according to google.
I should add that I've tried treat foods like waxworms (she used to love those) and butterworms too but she isn't tempted.
Has anyone experienced this with a juvenile dragon? If so, how did you get past it? The vet also suggested it could be her hormones as she's female. Was this a factor with yours? I'm very worried about her and am out of ideas to try besides going back to syringe feeding.