Can a cricket chew off my beardie's tail?

[Zachariah]

I have a juvenile beardie that is 5 months old and had a beautiful long tail and Friday I went down to feed her and noticed blood spots in her cage and on her basking rock. I looked at her tail and saw that it was blood red towards the tip about a 1/2 inch down and looked as if something was nibbling on it. I try to make sure that I don't leave crickets running around her tank unless it's feeding time, but I did notice that there was one small, I mean tiny little cricket no larger than 1/4 inch running around under her basking branch. I told my dad and he put some neo sporin on it and the next day looked fine but today I went down there and the tip has fallen off and noticed that on one of her hind feet the toe that is long like an anole's foot was shortened and had no nail. She is well fed but do baby dragons multilate themselves? Now her tail is shortened and noticing the toe I am wondering if she is biting at herself. I made sure that I removed any uneaten crickets after feeding. I had problems with her not eating when I first got her and for the first 3 months she rarely eating and not gaining any weight but now she is plump and growing, I started feeding her wax worms to gain weight and that worked great but now she rarely eats crickets and that's how the extra cricket got loose I think. Can a tiny cricket nibble her tail off in one night and spill 4 droplets of blood? Or is Joy my juvenile, beardie chewing on her limbs and multilating herself? If so what can I do? I leave fresh veggies and fruit daily along with smooched iguana bites that she also loves before I leave to school. I have done this daily since we got her as a promise to my dad for getting me her and to promise that I will be responsible and take care of her as well as keeping her cage cleaned daily. I mentioned that to let you know that she constantly has access to food and water, so she should'nt be biting herself. She is well loved and handled daily, but we do have a 1 year old male German giant beardie that we added to our family (his name is Franz) 3 weeks ago that lives next to her cage but their is a wood partition between the two tanks so they can't see each other, but is his smell contributing to her actions? Sorry for the long post but I wanted to provide all the info necessary to get the best possible replies. Thank you for reading.

Zachariah Garcia

 

[JaysDragons]

The only time I have ever heard of crickets feeding on a Lizard is when you over feed and have many crickets still alive when the lights go off.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Well, that does seem like quite a bit for a small cricket.
They can chew or bite themselves if they have retained shed, or are lacking in calcium or some other mineral or vitamin. Which UVB light do you use, what type & brand?
What is your supplementation schedule like?
Continue to put antibiotic ointment on the end of the tail & the toe to help ward off infection. Do you have any pictures?


Tracie

 

[rayjones]

I had a cricket chew off a toe on a rather strong, and dominant beardie. Once they go to sleep you can do just about anything to them. I never leave crickets (or worms) in the cage after feeding any more. I go back about twenty to thirty minutes later and capture them all and save them in a separate container for each dragon. It does help that I take out things the crickets can hide in like logs. This is also a hint to the dragon that it's cricket time.

Suggestion: NEVER mix food from another cage. Especially live food. Just in case of disease or parasites. If you get in the habit, then you don't have to worry when you find that pretty new dragon has coccidia. You will know it is limited to that dragon only.

 

[Zachariah]

I do collect all the crickets that are left after about 30 minutes or so and do a complete check under her branch, rock, water/food dish, and log to make sure that there is no strays running about. I use a reptisun 10.0 flouresent bulb across the top and 100 watt heat bulb for her basking spot. I supplement her food every other feeding with calcium with D3. I use reptivite with D3 once a week for all my reptiles and amphibians. I have been putting on the antibiotics daily on her tail and I also spray her daily with a vitamin spray by Four Paws, I have done that for the past 3 months. I started spraying her daily when I got her because she was not eating and was very listless at the beginning.

Zachariah Garcia