Beardy not eating much??

[Brittany26]

Hello, I have a ~8 month old and starting about a month ago his appetite has changed a bit. Every morning I give him a bowl of crickets and a salad, and then another bowl of crickets in the noon/afternoon. Usually he devours his morning crickets and then he will eat the second time less enthusiastically which was normal for him, but recently he keeps eating less and less and for the past 2 days now he hasn't eaten any crickets or salad so I've been giving him baby food twice a day. He has a T5 HO reptisun bulb and last time I measured his basking spot temp it was around 115. He gets depressed in his cage (doesn't move a lot and is dark in color) so myself and my parents take him out of his cage multiple times a day and he gets outside time too. He seems himself whenever I take him out and let him play. Also, for the past 6 months ive had him he tends to want to go to bed super early like as early as 4pm, even if it is light outside. Another note, his forearms seem a tiny bit swollen, is what I just described similar to the symptoms of gout? I will post a pic later today.

 

[Brittany26]

Here are some pictures of his arms and his body, is he underweight?

http://tinypic.com/r/2h6hcg9/9http://
http://tinypic.com/r/ve1x76/9
http://tinypic.com/r/bjix5l/9
http://tinypic.com/r/c6d8h/9

I have been recording his weight in grams for the past couple of months, he hasn’t lost any weight YET but he is slowing down in gaining.
His weights:
7/23 187 grams
8/8 227 grams
8/15 245 grams
8/27 269g
8/30 285g
9/9 300g
9/23 310g
10/8 324g

As you can see he isn’t gaining much weight anymore and he is looking a bit slim to me. Today is the third day he didn’t eat any crickets or salad, so I gave him more baby food. I will be ordering Dubias online to see if he wants those, he use to eat them when I first got them but he was never crazy about them he seemed to always want crickets until now. He isn’t black bearding at all and when I take him out of his cage he’s still active.

 

[KarrieRee]

Is he sleeping alot? The basking spot seems a little hot- Mine is 8 months old and hes doing the semi brumation thing- eating very little doing lots of sleeping - I took him to the vet here around the end of Sept for a check up he had coccidia ( parasites) but very low count - they wanted me to give him medication but I was told it could cause more harm than good so I opted not to give him the meds- I consulted 2 other people before coming to that conclusion- its possible he might have parasites and that would be the cause for not gaining weight- you might want to take him in and see they will need a fecal sample- if he has a high count then that would be a reason for not gaining weight - and it is normal for them to have coccidia in their intestine just not high count -- I have been keeping a eye on Hiccup since -- you dont want them to lose weight but sustain it if they are doing the semi brumation or brumation thing- usually they dont really brumate till after a year or so-- I am not sure about the T5 but know that the proper lighting is posted on right side of screen under tip of the week -- you can find alot of good info on this website - on the right side of the screen is a list of articles - please read those and they can answer alot of your questions- and if you have health questions you can always PM Tracie (Drache613) and she can answer them or give you advice as to what to do -- she was one of the ones I consulted about giving Hiccup the meds before I did--

Karrie

 

[Brittany26]

Thanks for the response. Any other opinions please? It’s the fifth day he hasn’t been interested in crickets or salad, however he still loves wax worms and horn worms, and eats baby food twice a day. He has not lost any weight he is still gaining weight just very slowly. He is still acting pretty normal and active when I take him out of his cage. Also, you asked if he sleeps a lot - the first month or two I had him as a baby he would stay up until like 11pm and then wake up early like 8am. For the past 6 months if I take him out of the cage and if it’s in the afternoon (like 3-5pm) he will usually find a spot to sleep and stay there until the next morning like 9am. Idk if that would be considered semi brumation or not, I found it odd how he tries to nuzzle and sleep while it’s still light outside. But only recently has he lost an appetite and his sleeping patterns are the same that it’s been since 6 months ago

 

[KarrieRee]

At least he is eating-- Hiccup didnt eat anything today- I offered and nothing- He ate a lot yesterday so that was good- I still offer him food - take his lead and just keep an eye on him - also you can put him on a schedule w/ his lights - off for 12 hrs on for 12 hrs and they say in the winter you can turn them off earlier if you want -- its probably the semi brumation thing going - Hiccup is active for a little while out but always wants to go to the couch to hide under the couch pillows and lay on the fleece blanket and crashes for as long as I will let him sleep there --

Karrie