Long story but I feel like its important to get all in. I got a bearded dragon from my friend who had him for about a year, she had got him from a breeder who had him for about 1 1/2 years. My friend didn’t do much research on beardies and unintentionally had the guy in pretty bad conditions. I sadly didn’t think to take any photos before I moved him. I took him in about a month ago, I’ve never kept a dragon before but I tried to do some research and based my tank on others that I’ve seen here. He’s probably about 2-3 years old and was being kept in a very unclean 30 gal glass fish tank with a pool on one end and improper lighting. She had one heat lamp and no UVB. He was extremely lethargic, dark in color, very light weight, and never wanted to eat. He also hated being held and the only time he showed energy was trying to bite or wiggle out of her grasp. She only feed him micro plants and no bugs because her apartment wouldn’t allow it.
I moved him over to his current tank, which is a 120 gal Zen tank. For lighting I have a UVB tube light, a ceramic heat light that has a temp control on it and a ZooMed Repti Basking Spot Lamp. These one stay on from 9am to 9pm before they shut off with the timer thing I have. The tank is currently in a spare bedroom that no one uses, so the only traffic is me coming in to take care of him and my cat who could care less about him.
The first week I had him, I left him alone as I heard giving them alone time after being rehomed was good. I only really came in to put some veggies in his bowl, which he rarely ate. I would let the veggies sit in there for about 20-30 minutes before going in and removing them.
After about week two, he actually started eating the veggies I gave him, I then started feeding him some Dubai roaches which he actually chased, these were coated in some calcium powder.
By week three he was eating out of my hand and look a lot lighter in color and gained some weight. He would let me hold him but really liked to crawl all over me. Never really got aggressive other than when I tried to pick him up after eating and he thought my finger was a worm.
But currently, week four after I gave him a bath, he refused to eat and started to darken in color. He’s been a little lethargic compared to week 2. I noticed that he had some yellowing around the eye and beard that I fear is a fungal disease. I looks like some of the scales on his beard aren’t in good condition either. He also near the end of the week looked to lose a lot of weight.
As I stated before, I’m a first time beards owner which probably isn’t the greatest situation for him. The nearest exotic vet that would be able to help lives about 1 hour away I don’t want to take him on the journey if Im just being over dramatic and stress him out more, but I also don’t want to not treat him if he’s actually sick. Also money isn’t great right now as the set up was really expensive.
I’ll put some photos of the tank and him. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
I moved him over to his current tank, which is a 120 gal Zen tank. For lighting I have a UVB tube light, a ceramic heat light that has a temp control on it and a ZooMed Repti Basking Spot Lamp. These one stay on from 9am to 9pm before they shut off with the timer thing I have. The tank is currently in a spare bedroom that no one uses, so the only traffic is me coming in to take care of him and my cat who could care less about him.
The first week I had him, I left him alone as I heard giving them alone time after being rehomed was good. I only really came in to put some veggies in his bowl, which he rarely ate. I would let the veggies sit in there for about 20-30 minutes before going in and removing them.
After about week two, he actually started eating the veggies I gave him, I then started feeding him some Dubai roaches which he actually chased, these were coated in some calcium powder.
By week three he was eating out of my hand and look a lot lighter in color and gained some weight. He would let me hold him but really liked to crawl all over me. Never really got aggressive other than when I tried to pick him up after eating and he thought my finger was a worm.
But currently, week four after I gave him a bath, he refused to eat and started to darken in color. He’s been a little lethargic compared to week 2. I noticed that he had some yellowing around the eye and beard that I fear is a fungal disease. I looks like some of the scales on his beard aren’t in good condition either. He also near the end of the week looked to lose a lot of weight.
As I stated before, I’m a first time beards owner which probably isn’t the greatest situation for him. The nearest exotic vet that would be able to help lives about 1 hour away I don’t want to take him on the journey if Im just being over dramatic and stress him out more, but I also don’t want to not treat him if he’s actually sick. Also money isn’t great right now as the set up was really expensive.
I’ll put some photos of the tank and him. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
I agree with the others, yellow eye circle is natural color , the belly has the splotches of darker individual scales which sometimes will stay that way but is not at all yellow fungus. It looks like he has darker side bars on his back, get some more pics of that area when you can but that's also usually a common pattern in many dragons. BTW, are you sure Ares is a male ? I only ask because of how narrow his head is [ which is not always an indicator but can be ] and the tinny femoral pores.
. I also attached some photos of the dark side bars. Ares didn’t want to pancake for me so hopefully these phots still work
