Dragon flipping onto back constantly, lethargic

[DaddyGeek]

Man, seeing that lil guy makes me heart hurt. Be sure to love on him. Keep following these wonderful peoples advice but don't forget to just talk to him and stroke him too. Good luck.

 

[SilverGravity]

He already seems to be doing a lot better! He's a lot more active, and doesn't seem to mind my presence. I handfed him some greens today, and now he's on the stone I put in there for him to bask on. I think just being an a quiet room without anyone to bother him is doing a lot of good in itself. As soon as my dad goes to the store and picks up paper towels I'll be switching him to it, we had none so he had to get newspaper. If it stops being quite so windy I'll try taking him out and letting him get some fresh air and sun too

 

[DaddyGeek]

He already seems to be doing a lot better! He's a lot more active, and doesn't seem to mind my presence. I handfed him some greens today, and now he's on the stone I put in there for him to bask on. I think just being an a quiet room without anyone to bother him is doing a lot of good in itself. As soon as my dad goes to the store and picks up paper towels I'll be switching him to it, we had none so he had to get newspaper. If it stops being quite so windy I'll try taking him out and letting him get some fresh air and sun too

Huzzah! So glad to hear he's doing better!

 

[dezismom]

Yay, Steve!! and Daddygeek is so right...all the other stuff is important and great, but love and attention is what makes these Beardies thrive! Steve may never have experienced much of that; but I bet he will be a little huggie bear in no time. I am praying for you both...so relieved to hear of his improvement.?????

DeziLu sends his love and encouragement

 

[diamc]

I just read this whole thread. Absolutely delighted that he has been rescued and is doing so much better already. Kudos to you SilverGravity and your dad for sticking by him and doing what needed to be done to get him out of there.

I'm sure he must be enjoying the quiet and also the extra attention you're giving him. Great that you handfed him some greens too. If it's still hard for him to catch crickets, you could handfeed those or pull the back legs off to slow them down or even put 1/2 dozen in a ziploc bag & place in the frig for a few minutes so they don't move around when put in his tank.

Good luck with him. Will watch for updates. Thanks so much again for making this rescue work and saving his life.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

That is terrific Steve has settled right in!
I think he looks so happy & I am sure he is grateful for you helping him, how utterly selfless for you to put his needs first. I would definitely try to hand feed him some just to give him some hope & encouragement & help get more food into him, also.
Post more pictures as you can.

Tracie

 

[SilverGravity]

Unfortunately it's raining today so I can't him outside like I hoped to be able to. But I did get crickets for the dragons, but one is acting super strange, so I was curious if anyone knew about it? It's laying on its stomach sticking it's legs into the air. I have a video I could share if anyone knew about it and wanted to see. I just don't want to feed either dragon a cricket that could make them sick if it has a disease or something, or any of the crickets that I bought with it just in case.

 

[CooperDragon]

If you could upload the video to a hosting site like vimeo and post the link here it may be helpful.

 

[SilverGravity]

https://youtu.be/oMtq1tteIhM

There's the video. The quality isn't great, but it usually isn't when videos are first uploaded so it'll probably get better in a bit.

 

[CooperDragon]

That's quite odd. I don't think I've seen them do that before.

 

[SilverGravity]

He disappeared when I wasn't looking too, so I'm not sure if he figured things out and ran off if he's the dying one at the bottom on the cage. There were a few that weren't doing great but that was the only one to do that, and now I can't find it :/

 

[dezismom]

The cricket looks to be stunned, or have some nerve damage, but since I can see no fungus or weird colors growing on him, he should be safe to feed to a Beardie. Might even make it easier for Steve to grab! I never feed them dead crickets, or dead anything, because of the gasses present in decomposing bodies, but if the crickets or worms are able to move a bit, or respond to stimuli, (like being poked at) and have no weird fungus growing on them, I use them as feeders. In fact, each feeding, I look for any crickets that are slow moving, but not quite dead yet, so to feed them to Dez before they actually die. If I have a sudden die off of many crickets, and they weren't overheated, and have plenty of food and water, I may just toss the whole bunch, to be safe. (then disinfect the whole bucket, and add new substrate-wood shavings.

For water for the crickets, I use an old glass ashtray. They work well because they are heavy and don't tip over easily, and very easy to clean--I find those at the goodwill store for 25 cents or no more than a dollar. I fold a half paper towel into a little square and place that in the bowl. Add just enough water to cover the paper. Otherwise, the crickets can drown themselves. I change out the towel every few days, when adding water. Those old glass ashtrays also make good dishes to put water, or worms in, for the Beardies to eat from; they dont tip over, and the worms cant climb the glass sides! Way less expensive than the bowls sold in pet shops! I also keep some baby carrots or potato in the cricket bucket, as food.

 

[SilverGravity]

Alright, good to know its fine to feed my beardies! And a little update of Steve- he drinks almost every time I offer him water, though he refused to eat so far today. He ate some from being handfed yesterday and a little of what I left in there in case he wanted it though, so I'm not too concerned. Tomorrow I'll try feeding him crickets so they're had a chance to eat what I've given them and be more nutritious.

 

[SilverGravity]

Sad to say I just found him flipped over again. His beard was completely black, not surprising, but he was kind of kicking so I don't think he was on his back for very long, but it's disappointing. Do any of you know why he might have started again, or even the cause in general?

Also, not sure if it's just because he's weak or another issue, but he doesn't walk very well, he kind of just goes to walk and walks by pushing himself rather than using his feet to get up and move. Just drags himself around. I think he was bobbing his head at me earlier, but I'm really not sure. It was pretty slow but he was bobbing it for some reason.

 

[AHBD]

Poor Steve, he's still not well yet so he may continue to have issues. It's good that he's drinking, offer water 2X daily if he'll take it.

That cricket is just weak and/or in the dying process. This occurs during shipping at times during very cold weather [ which they can recover from ] or very hot weather, intensified by the ride in a Fedex or UPS truck. Some succumb to the temps. but may take a while to die.

Good idea about the old heavy ashtrays or other similar containers from Goodwill and set up for a cricket drinking station.