Found these, only 40w but going to give it a shot.
Well I came home at lunch and temperatures are where I want them so I'm holding off on replacing the CHE. I bought some superworms and he ate 1 and then he ate 10 crickets (made sure to dust them with calcium since he hasn't had much lately) taking this as a sign to stop tinkering and observe temperatures and his behavior.
Daily update: he seemed pretty sleepy when I went to feed him (eyes only half open) but after I picked him up and checked on him he ate 19 large crickets. He's not chasing them, but just waiting till they get close. But it's much improved from ignoring them altogether. Starting to think that other than some small temperature issues it may just be slowdown.
He didn't eat a lot again today, only 5 crickets and some salad. And he was asleep in his cave by the time I got home around 3pm. His lights are normally on from 5:30-5:30. I know sleeping early during the winter can be normal, but I'm going to replace the UVB bulb as I'm wondering if I got a defective one and his symptoms are starting to make me think it could be a factor. I'm also the kind of person who can't stop worrying, so who knows. I'm looking into switching from T8 to T5, what's the most cost effective way to do so?
He didn't eat a lot again today, only 5 crickets and some salad. And he was asleep in his cave by the time I got home around 3pm. His lights are normally on from 5:30-5:30. I know sleeping early during the winter can be normal, but I'm going to replace the UVB bulb as I'm wondering if I got a defective one and his symptoms are starting to make me think it could be a factor. I'm also the kind of person who can't stop worrying, so who knows. I'm looking into switching from T8 to T5, what's the most cost effective way to do so?
When I went home at lunch and checked on him today he was kinda just laying on the bottom of his tank with his mouth cracked open again. Temps looked ok, so I decided to just stick with T8 because I already have the fixture installed but replaced with a new bulb. I put a super worm in his salad and he perked up and ate it immediately.
Got home and he's still in roughly the same place I left him, having a really hard time figuring out if he's having some sort of issue or if he's just being lazy and it's driving me nuts.
Got home and he's still in roughly the same place I left him, having a really hard time figuring out if he's having some sort of issue or if he's just being lazy and it's driving me nuts. View attachment 77391
His appetite has stayed pretty good but he still hasn't pooped so today I decided to give him a bath to see if that would help move things along. I put about 1in water and he drank quite a bit. Afterwards I was letting him soak and he tried to dig into the water multiple times. So now I'm paranoid he aspirated water. I tried lifting his rear above his head in what I've seen called the teapot method but couldn't tell if anything came out. He seemed to be breathing heavily at first but it may have been his frantic attempts to escape being "teapotted" as he seems fine now and went up to bask. I also tried to pet his beard and listen for crackling, i thought I heard something at first but im pretty sure it was my finger against his scales, no noise when breathing otherwise. As always, no black beard during any of this. He also pooped shortly after going back into his tank and it was a doozy.
Oh poor Estinien, that had to have been stressful.
Has his beard been normal color or did it turn a bit darker than it should have? They do have a
tendency to aspirate water in their baths sometimes if they put their head under water or drink too
much at one time.
For now, just watch for loss of appetite, clicking/popping or wheezing noises, etc. You can try placing
him on a slight decline to sleep overnight just in the case he did aspirate any fluids. If you can keep
his tank temperatures around 75-80F overnight, that can help to boost his system, too.
Let us know how he is doing.