eating habits are changing

[verena]

Hi everyone I am a first time owner of a lovely bd and everyone here has been helping me since Lalo was 5 inches long. Now Lalo is about 20 inches long and 7 months old. He used to eat about 50 crickets a day plus some mealworms or butterworms. He has never been to fond of his veggies despite the fact that I try to provide him with a varied diet. Anyway, about two weeks ago, Lalo's eating dropped drastically. He is barely eating 10 crickets a day, mostly in the morning. He will not eat crickets in the afternoon and he is hardly touching his veggies. He will eat giant mealworms, waxworms, and butterworms. I give him frequent baths to keep him hydrated...his behavior has also changed. He seems to be less active and he prefers to go under the half log instead of basking on top of it.
Does anyone know why he suddenly lost his appettite?
should I stop the crickets for a while and feed him worms? would this be healthy?
What is brumation? could he going in brumation?
I just want to make sure that he continues to be healthy and give him any kind of food that would help...in the right quantities

 

[ICoreyI]

I'm no Bearded Dragon expert but it seems that your Beardie is probably going into brumation. Brumation is basically hibernation and I think they will sleep up to like 3 months or something. Your better off getting information from someone else but I'm just trying to help.

 

[peera]

Brumation is highly uncommon in dragons under 1 year, although the larger ones are more inclined towards it. http://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/brumation/
What kind of UVB are you using? How old is it? If he's still eating supers and butters, go ahead and feed them, there's no reason not to, but cut out the mealworms, they're pretty much nutrition-less. If everything checks out, my guess would be you have a hormonal teenager on your hands.

 

[verena]

Hi, thank you so much for your suggestions...he is about 7 - 8 months old. At home I have a uvb repto glow 10.0 . I just bought a new one to replace the old one. Should I stop feeding him the crickets? how many worms should he be eating daily? I was told that superworms can be dangerous for bd...is that true? Please help. Thanks. Verena

 

[peera]

Supers are not at all dangerous to a dragon who's big enough. Both of my adults live off of them. Same rules apply to worms as apply to crickets- up till 1 year, he can have all he wants 2x a day. Mealworms are the ones that are dangerous, as their shell is a lot harder than that of supers. As for the crickets, well, if he's not eating them, there's not much you can do aside from force feeding him, and if he's eating worms, there's no reason for that.
ReptiGlo 10.0 isn't a horrible bulb, as long as you how a bright white light next to it to keep them from looking directly at it, it's the tube not compact/coil, and it's under 6 months old. You should consider replacing it with the ReptiSun 10.0 tube(can be found for $20 at http://www.petmountain.com.)