I in panic mode, again…
He’s grown a lot over the past few weeks, and has had 2 growth spurts. So, everything seemed to be going well. The only issue we had was he would get stress lines if we weren’t holding him. He loves to be held. We’re more then happy to accommodate.
Here’s what’s happening…
Night before last, we noticed that he was breathing heavily. His chest was heavily heaving in and out. It reminded me of when he eats. Does your beardies do that? Whenever he eats, his sides go rapid. It looks like the crickets are moving around in there. LOL. I know they're dead all ready, otherwise it would freak me out. LOL. So, we figured this is his digestive system working.
So, we thought, maybe he'd eaten more crickets (we've gotten into the habit, now that he's a bit bigger, and since you gave me that suggestion, of leaving what he doesn't eat in with him. He then snacks later on. Well, this was night time, and so we watched him eat for 10 minutes to make sure he was eating, and left the others in there. We got back later then usual. Anywho, I prefer to take them in after his last feeding after 20 minutes (but hubby usually does the evening one and got a bit lazy - we have to stop that!).
So, we thought MAYBE he ate some and was still digesting, so we left the light on a bit longer. I was exhausted and fell asleep, so hubby took care of him and said he calmed down and went to sleep (hubby has come to enjoy rocking him to sleep at night I was doing it, but he really gets a kick out of how he digs a little, then nuzzles in his hand, and goes right out ).
His eyes didn't look as sparkly and so I thought MAYBE he needed hydration, because I'd read they can look that way when not hydrated enough (but his BMs are fine, and urates are there, and just a little water with that, so, that seems good. He defecates once to twice a day. His feces is actually double the size it was a few weeks ago).
Oddly, he also stopped having his BMs in his regular spot. Same end of the viv, but other side (back instead of front).
I looked but couldn't find any correlation between the 2, but hubby said he saw someone say heavy breathing could be hydrations. Well, it was very late and I didn't want to keep him up another 2 hours (as I didn't think it would be safe for him).
So, when I fed him his crickets the next day, I had some water in the bowl with the pelltets (oh, we started givin him Rep-Cal Juvenile Bearded Dragon Food... http://www.repcal.com/BDragon.htm - the reptile shop by us had told us they feed it to theirs and it's great... but they say it helps them to grow better. I was worried, because he really wasn't growing. He is now! But, um, I don't notice him eating the pellets, yet. LOL. But, we have started feeding our crickets "Fluker's High Calcium Cricket Diet" as I wanted to be sure they stayed gutt loaded, and I wasn't confident that just a carrot did the trick. So, maybe that's helped? IDK. ) Oh, what I do for the pellets, is I soak them in a little water for a few minutes in the dish, then I leave the extra water in there, and put the bowl in the viv, and then dump the crickets in the bowl. I was hoping he'd learn to associate what is inthe bowl as food, and then start to eat the pellets. Any suggestions on how to encourage him further to eat the pellets, let me know Still not getting him to eat greens, yet. Funny thing, though... the crickets LOVE the pellets! LOL.
I feel kinda bad, though. They'll stay there and eat the pellets, while he eats them. Not all of them, but several will do that.
Anywho, he's definitely getting a little extra water that way, because the crickets have a little on them when i do this, and I'm hoping he laps a little just by it being there.
I also bathed him yesterday (with everything that's been going on, it was ALMOST a week since his last bath. Not a whole week, but almost. As usual, he just went right to sleep in my hand. LOL. He just goes limp in the water. It's about 95 degrees (I use a tank thermometer to be sure).
Last night, he was DARK!!! REALLY REALLY DARK! We picked him up, and as I held him, he immediately lightened and was fine. He was SO dark, he scared me. Now when he was laying there in the viv, his breathing was fine. After I picked him up, I could see his sides moving. Maybe that's normal? IDK. It worries me.
I'm not sure if our temp gun is accurate. But, the digital will show 90 degrees, and when I check the basking spots, they range from 90 to 101 degrees (depending one the spot).
I lowered his lamp yesterday, thinking maybe he wanted it warmer, because none of the basking spots seemed to be reaching quite 100 degrees. I saw him under the lamp gaping. Why doesn't he just move? It's the first time I've seen him gaping in a long time (since I stopped misting him).
I don't know why he's stressing so And I now I'm concerned about the breathing.
One other thing... he seems to like to stare up at the fluorescent light.... I was really worried when I googled that, and came across "stargazing." I absolutely panicked, and asked hubby to check, because some of the sites seemed to indicate that true stargazing was when they seem to almost go verticle twisting their head up. He's on his log staring up at it. He doesn't do it all the time, or all day, but he does stare at it for some reason.
He's a very sensative beardie. He loves to be held a lot. I feel badly, as I've not held him as much as I was because I have had to do a lot of things around here lately. Don't get me wrong, he's still held a couple of hours a day. But, I started to have him out for 4 hours minimum cause he never seemed to want to be in the viv. I'd have him out all the time with me, except I have to keep cleaning my hands and all of that. I'm not sure how fanatical I really have to be with this. I still need to go to the forums and ask more questions on it. Digressing, sorry… Oh, he gets rocked to sleep at night
I've posted a video I just took to show. Please read the description before watching it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlGAshT7a0k
Specs:
He’s grown a lot over the past few weeks, and has had 2 growth spurts. So, everything seemed to be going well. The only issue we had was he would get stress lines if we weren’t holding him. He loves to be held. We’re more then happy to accommodate.
Here’s what’s happening…
Night before last, we noticed that he was breathing heavily. His chest was heavily heaving in and out. It reminded me of when he eats. Does your beardies do that? Whenever he eats, his sides go rapid. It looks like the crickets are moving around in there. LOL. I know they're dead all ready, otherwise it would freak me out. LOL. So, we figured this is his digestive system working.
So, we thought, maybe he'd eaten more crickets (we've gotten into the habit, now that he's a bit bigger, and since you gave me that suggestion, of leaving what he doesn't eat in with him. He then snacks later on. Well, this was night time, and so we watched him eat for 10 minutes to make sure he was eating, and left the others in there. We got back later then usual. Anywho, I prefer to take them in after his last feeding after 20 minutes (but hubby usually does the evening one and got a bit lazy - we have to stop that!).
So, we thought MAYBE he ate some and was still digesting, so we left the light on a bit longer. I was exhausted and fell asleep, so hubby took care of him and said he calmed down and went to sleep (hubby has come to enjoy rocking him to sleep at night I was doing it, but he really gets a kick out of how he digs a little, then nuzzles in his hand, and goes right out ).
His eyes didn't look as sparkly and so I thought MAYBE he needed hydration, because I'd read they can look that way when not hydrated enough (but his BMs are fine, and urates are there, and just a little water with that, so, that seems good. He defecates once to twice a day. His feces is actually double the size it was a few weeks ago).
Oddly, he also stopped having his BMs in his regular spot. Same end of the viv, but other side (back instead of front).
I looked but couldn't find any correlation between the 2, but hubby said he saw someone say heavy breathing could be hydrations. Well, it was very late and I didn't want to keep him up another 2 hours (as I didn't think it would be safe for him).
So, when I fed him his crickets the next day, I had some water in the bowl with the pelltets (oh, we started givin him Rep-Cal Juvenile Bearded Dragon Food... http://www.repcal.com/BDragon.htm - the reptile shop by us had told us they feed it to theirs and it's great... but they say it helps them to grow better. I was worried, because he really wasn't growing. He is now! But, um, I don't notice him eating the pellets, yet. LOL. But, we have started feeding our crickets "Fluker's High Calcium Cricket Diet" as I wanted to be sure they stayed gutt loaded, and I wasn't confident that just a carrot did the trick. So, maybe that's helped? IDK. ) Oh, what I do for the pellets, is I soak them in a little water for a few minutes in the dish, then I leave the extra water in there, and put the bowl in the viv, and then dump the crickets in the bowl. I was hoping he'd learn to associate what is inthe bowl as food, and then start to eat the pellets. Any suggestions on how to encourage him further to eat the pellets, let me know Still not getting him to eat greens, yet. Funny thing, though... the crickets LOVE the pellets! LOL.
I feel kinda bad, though. They'll stay there and eat the pellets, while he eats them. Not all of them, but several will do that.
Anywho, he's definitely getting a little extra water that way, because the crickets have a little on them when i do this, and I'm hoping he laps a little just by it being there.
I also bathed him yesterday (with everything that's been going on, it was ALMOST a week since his last bath. Not a whole week, but almost. As usual, he just went right to sleep in my hand. LOL. He just goes limp in the water. It's about 95 degrees (I use a tank thermometer to be sure).
Last night, he was DARK!!! REALLY REALLY DARK! We picked him up, and as I held him, he immediately lightened and was fine. He was SO dark, he scared me. Now when he was laying there in the viv, his breathing was fine. After I picked him up, I could see his sides moving. Maybe that's normal? IDK. It worries me.
I'm not sure if our temp gun is accurate. But, the digital will show 90 degrees, and when I check the basking spots, they range from 90 to 101 degrees (depending one the spot).
I lowered his lamp yesterday, thinking maybe he wanted it warmer, because none of the basking spots seemed to be reaching quite 100 degrees. I saw him under the lamp gaping. Why doesn't he just move? It's the first time I've seen him gaping in a long time (since I stopped misting him).
I don't know why he's stressing so And I now I'm concerned about the breathing.
One other thing... he seems to like to stare up at the fluorescent light.... I was really worried when I googled that, and came across "stargazing." I absolutely panicked, and asked hubby to check, because some of the sites seemed to indicate that true stargazing was when they seem to almost go verticle twisting their head up. He's on his log staring up at it. He doesn't do it all the time, or all day, but he does stare at it for some reason.
He's a very sensative beardie. He loves to be held a lot. I feel badly, as I've not held him as much as I was because I have had to do a lot of things around here lately. Don't get me wrong, he's still held a couple of hours a day. But, I started to have him out for 4 hours minimum cause he never seemed to want to be in the viv. I'd have him out all the time with me, except I have to keep cleaning my hands and all of that. I'm not sure how fanatical I really have to be with this. I still need to go to the forums and ask more questions on it. Digressing, sorry… Oh, he gets rocked to sleep at night
I've posted a video I just took to show. Please read the description before watching it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlGAshT7a0k
Specs:
- 90 degrees at warm end with humidity in the teens. That’s the digital probe. The temp gun has the basking spot that he likes to be in at 95 degrees. I raised it, and he moved (you’ll see in the video). He seems to not like it at 100 degrees and seems to chose spots at 95 degrees.
- The cooler end of the viv is at 75 degrees and humidity between 40 and 45 (note, we had problems with humidity at that end. It only went higher at the basking end when Hurricane Sandy began, and went up into the 30s. It’s back to the teens and 20s,. now. We have a cordless humidifier in there at the cool end. Prior the humidity kept hovering between 50 and 60). I have posts here where I asked about that.
We adopted him end of September and he was a hatchling, and only 4.25” long (that included his tail, which was nipped before we adopted him). He is now 3” from nose to base of tail (and 6 1/4” including his tail).
- Lighting and Heating: 10.0 UVB tube, Heat light, CHE at night (maintaing 78 degrees).
Supplements: We were using calcium powder and have switched to Calcium with D3, and multivitamin (2 days a week we use the multi rather then the Cal with D3).
- Eating crickets 2x/day (approx. 15 to 18 each time) (we're working on the greens)
Bedded on reptile carpet.
- We wait 2 hours after lights are on for first feeding, and do not shut them off until 2 hours after last feeding.
We bathe him to hydrate him. He had a bath just yesterday.