General health checkup - 1yr old

[smauggle]

Hey guys, it's been a long time since we've checked in

Our little buddy Boris is usually pretty happy and healthy, he gets a fair amount of attention, lives in a clean environment and gets a pretty varied diet. We're coming up on about a year old. He's eaten his veggies since he was just a baby, and had a diet of mostly crickets, with some soft worms. Recently he started turning his nose up at crickets, basically had zero interest in them (right when I had bulk ordered about 750 :roll: ) No big deal, he's about 17" with a big belly, so we switched him to super worms, which he was pretty interested in until these last few days.

Just before the Sept long weekend he stopped eating his small supers. We were heading out of town for the weekend, and left him with our competent dragon sitter. We left small supers, butter worms, wax worms, and three small hornworms, with his usual veg. Got a text saying he wouldn't even eat his horn worms, which normally he LOVES - usually gets 1 or 2 big guys every week. Wouldn't touch the wax worms or supers, had some veg, and put a good dent in the butters. At this point the only worms he's showing any interest in are butter worms, and he eats a good amount of greens for me every morning.

His bathroom routine is pretty standard, he usually gets 2-4 warm baths a week, and has a bowel movement about every 7 days. His urate was noticeably hard for a couple of weeks, but has since softened up for the last 2 weeks. I'm not too crazy about him just eating butters and would like him to get back into his old routine of hard worms & veg, with soft worms thrown in every once in awhile.

He's about a year old, tank temps are 70*, 106-110* in the basking area. We've got a Reptisun 10.0 tube outside the tank - the more powerful one, can't remember the specific model. It was replaced about 2 months ago. Like I said, about a year old, 17" long, haven't weighed him for awhile. Bowel movements once a week. We're starting to get cooler temps in the house, my basking bulb is on a dimmer and we've been adjusting.

Was hoping to get some input/advice if anyone has any ideas, we'd like him to be as happy and healthy as we can provide. And now, just because, pictures!!

Sorry about the rotation, tried to fix it

 

[SpacialCoogs]

He's a good looking dude.

What's your vitamin routine? Calcium and vitamin supplementation are a good add to keep him healthy and happy.

You might want to add a few more branches or something to take advantage of the height.

 

[CooperDragon]

The height of those tanks is a bit deceptive. With a T5 (the higher output model) the optimal output is at about 12'' so that's only about 6'' from the bottom (about even with the black bar at the bottom of the doors). It's OK to build a little higher than that, but not all across the tank.

I agree that he looks pretty healthy. His lack of appetite is probably due to his metabolism slowing down. I'd reduce the worms he gets (especially the fattier ones like wax worms). I would stick to crickets and black soldier fly larvae along with some silk worms and occasional supers. He should be eating primarily veges so a nice big salad every day is good to offer. Slowly start to roll back the bug meals from daily to every other day then every third day or so, especially if he eats plenty of veges. A low fat diet with a nice big variety of veges is best for his health at this point. As long as his weight is remaining relatively stable, the decrease in appetite is pretty normal.

 

[smauggle]

Thanks for weighing in guys, we appreciate it.

When he was still on crickets he was getting Repashy Supervite about once a week and Supercal NoD about twice. We have an incredible reptile food store locally, the cricket gut load they have changes monthly, is made in house, and is full of nutritious goodies. Even has some calcium and vitamins added, so we were told not to go too heavy with the additional supplements.

(If you're local to Edmonton, check out Herp Diner, they've recently got a Facebook page)

To be honest, dusting the worms just didn't seem to be 'sticking' so to speak, so we haven't really been doing it. The way it's been explained to me is with such a range of diet and a good mix of veggies, additional supplementation isn't really necessary. When he was eating a good mix of worms it wasn't really a problem, but now that he's so picky it's definitely tough.

His basking rock is bang on 12" from the UVB tube, and he likes to spend a lot of time on both corners of that tank and on his rock, so I'd say he's usually within 12-18" from the bulb. It's a 22" bulb in a 36" tank, so he's got some shade as well, he's hanging out under his hammock as I write this out. He pops up into his tree and onto the hammock every so often as well. I think he's got decent space, but will be looking to add more by doing a custom tank in the future, between his tree, rock, and fat little body, floor space is at a premium in there right now.

With him turning his nose up at so much food (zero crickets, no Phoenix worms, and very few other worms) we'll just have to make sure he's getting good veggies. I've got access to silk worms with good mulberry chow, as well as a ton of other soft and hard worms. We'll keep offering a variety, and I'll definitely starting keeping track of his weight closer, especially as winter approaches.

Thanks again for the repsonses, if there's anything else please feel free to leave comments

 

[CooperDragon]

That sounds good. Those are the supplements I use too. They're designed to supplement the missing nutrients from bugs but if you're offering a lot of veges and a nice variety that should take care of a lot of the nutrients so I wouldn't worry about it much.

 

[SpacialCoogs]

I'm actually in Edmonton too so I'll check out that bug page. Do you know if they go to the ERAS shows?

 

[smauggle]

I'm actually in Edmonton too so I'll check out that bug page. Do you know if they go to the ERAS shows?

They were just down in Red Deer for a show, I'm thinking it was reptile related. I can only guess, but I'm sure they would be involved with anything in Edmonton as well. The store is just south of Stony Plain road on 151st, small mom and pop shop. They breed their own silk & horn worms and have excellent quality feeders, they really care about the product they put out, can't speak highly enough of them.