Dragon Pair Rescued

[cbranham]

A friend of mine rescued a pair of bearded dragons about a month ago and I fell in love with them and had to keep them. I have never even been near a reptile before so I am learning from many people, books, and the internet.

My dragons had been kept in repti bark bedding that had never been changed, they were only fed iceberg lettuce, and they were stained from the bedding. The male is missing one leg and he is missing some nails. The female is missing three legs and she was all ribs. She is gaining very little weight and I am trying to figure out what to give her to gain some more weight. They seem healthier than they were when I got them. They are now running around and playing together. I caught them doing something dirty the other day. Ooops! They are starting to shed little pieces off now and the male is getting a lot of coloring around his eyes. I have been feeding them crickets, superworms, waxworms, veggies, and rep-cal pellets. I don't think the female is eating the pellets yet. They are both very friendly. The male likes to crawl up and sit on top of my head. I just joined this website, so I have a lot of reading to do.

Thank you in advance for any help with the skinny dragon.

 

[beardieluv]

First off, do NOT let them breed! If your female were to get pregnant she would most likely die from being so weak. Did they eat any type of feeders before you had them? You need to reintroduce feeders slowly so you don't overwhelm their bodies. I wonder why no one else has seen this post, it's been a week and a half! Let me know if you have any other questions, and thank you for saving them

 

[cbranham]

They seem to be doing a lot better. The male is becoming plump and is now shedding on his belly. It is coming off in big, thick pieces. I don't think he has shedded in a long time. His new skin is much lighter than his original color. I guess that means he was stained from the bedding. They are now eating just about everything they should be according to all of the information I have gathered from this website and books. The only thing I have not tried to feed them is pinkies. I have read good and bad things about feeding them. I don't think I could do it anyway. The female dragon is taking more time to gain weight, but she seems to want to eat more of the moving foods. I have not seen her eat any of the pellets either. Maybe she is when I am not around. Thanks for replying to me.

 

[Angiecountrygirl]

First of all Congratulations and welcome to BD.org.

I wanted to address a few concerns, and PLEASE don't take this the wrong way. The number one thing I would suggest is seperating the male and female. Beardies are solitary animals, and should only come together for breeding. Even if they seem to be getting along, that could change at any time. Especially considering that the female has 3 limbs missing and is so skinny, I would worry that she could be harmed, or worse endure death. The male may infact mate her to death as well. And being the condition she is in, you don't want her to get "pregnant" (create fertilized eggs) which she may not beable to pass causing egg binding (which can be fatal in her unhealthy state), or can deplete her body of what little nutrients she has stored. I would also suggest you find out their age (if you do not already know that), because juviniles need 75% protein from live feeders and 25% greens (and occassional fruits, etc), vs. Adults (18mths or older) need 25% live feeders and 75% greens, etc. If they are older and get too much protein it could be bad for the kidneys and liver.

Here is a website that describes which foods are good to feed all the time, occassionally, and never, etc.
http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

The other thing is it is important that your beardies get UVB weather it from a flourarecent bulb or a MVB bulb. If you have any questions re: viv set up, you can PM if you would like.

Your beardies also (especially since they most likely did not recieve and previously) need to have their feeders dusted w/ calcium with vitamin D3 around 5 times a week and dusted w/ multivitamins 2 times a week. Look up Metobolic bone disease, because if you see any symptoms, you may want to think about getting liquid calcium since that may be absorbed quicker- if it's needed. You stated that they are eating all necessary foods as of right now, and I agree w/ the poster above, you may have wanted to slowly introduce the protein, but if you have already been feeding them that about a month, you should be fine by now.

What you have done to give these wonderful babies a good home is beautiful- and we all at BD.org only want to help you the best we can. If you have any questions don't hessitate to ask. Also, there's one thing we are VERY big on here, and that's PICTURES (lol)... So if you get a chance, PLEASE post some. Also, Thank you for giving them another chance at life. xo

 

[Freeie]

I missed this post. Them being housed together could be why they are missing limbs. Id get them their own vivs to start off with. I agree they shouldnt breed. The above posters have given you great advise.

 

[romanfj]

Definitely separate them.

As for how many insects vs how much veggies, offer plenty of both and the dragons will regulate themselves. Once I got my 3 adult rescues (all of them 3 years old) past the critically dehydrated phase and could be sure their kidneys were functioning well enough to handle the protein from the bugs, I started giving them feeder insects. They ate hundreds of $ of dubias in the first 2 months.

When a dragon is underweight, it is not only missing fat, but is likely missing muscle mass as well. So, even if it is an adult, it may eat 80% insects for a while to build that muscle mass back up.

If the dragon is malnourished, it is calcium-depleted. Calcium dusting is OK for maintaining bone density when there's plenty of UVB light available. However, it will take forever for dust to re-calcify bones in a calcium-depleted dragon. Buy the liquid calcium glubionate ASAP. MBD complications can show up after your dragon is rehydrated and gaining weight (as we learned the hard way) and can even kill a dragon just when you think you're winning the battle.

Frank

 

[Twobeardieguy]

How are they doing?

 

[cbranham]

Quagmire and Lois are doing much better. Shedding has been crazy on both of them lately. I appreciate the advice about seperating them, but I am going to keep them together for right now. I do not want them to get depressed and stop eating. They have come a long way since I have had them. I am with them over 12 hours per day and I let them out to play all of the time. I have not seen them aggressive to each other. I will look into MBD right now and I will look into the liquid calcium. What signs will tell me that they need the liquid calcium? Does anyone have a list of the veggies and fruits that dragons can have? I don't want to feed them something that will hurt them. I hear different information from so many people that it gets confusing. I try to do more research before I believe advice.

Thanks
Cathi