Jessieamandabhb
Member
I posted last week about losing my bearded dragon to gout at roughly 3 1/2 months old, and I received a lot of good information from those that posted. Well after a week of moping around and doing more reading, I purchased a baby today. I will say that he is tiny, but he is very alert and wants to know everything we are doing. Since getting him home a few hours ago, he has already eaten some crickets and a few bites of greens, explored his set up, pooped and drank water from me from a cup. However, I do have two concerns.
My first concern is with hydration. When I had to put down my first beardie baby, Louise, the vet mentioned the importance of misting the dragon several times a day. I have misted this new one, and the water seemed to really irritate his eyes. Isn’t there a concern that misting could cause a possible upper respiratory infection due to moisture getting in his nose/ears? Also, with my previous dragon, I would hold a 2 oz cup full of water in front of her and she would drink it. I offered the same to this baby, and he gulped it down happily. Is it safe to offer them water like this?
That leads me to my second concern. He has been “twitching.” The first time I noticed it was about 10-15 minutes after he had eaten his first cricket and was basking on his tree. The second time was after I let him drink from the cup of water. This second time, it was like full fledged hopping around to the point that I worried he would fall off his tree. I want to say that maybe he just didn’t like that his feet got water on them, but it still seems abnormal to me, especially because he seems very alert and healthy otherwise.
Does anyone have any insight on this? After losing my first baby to gout, I am trying to do everything exactly right this time.
My first concern is with hydration. When I had to put down my first beardie baby, Louise, the vet mentioned the importance of misting the dragon several times a day. I have misted this new one, and the water seemed to really irritate his eyes. Isn’t there a concern that misting could cause a possible upper respiratory infection due to moisture getting in his nose/ears? Also, with my previous dragon, I would hold a 2 oz cup full of water in front of her and she would drink it. I offered the same to this baby, and he gulped it down happily. Is it safe to offer them water like this?
That leads me to my second concern. He has been “twitching.” The first time I noticed it was about 10-15 minutes after he had eaten his first cricket and was basking on his tree. The second time was after I let him drink from the cup of water. This second time, it was like full fledged hopping around to the point that I worried he would fall off his tree. I want to say that maybe he just didn’t like that his feet got water on them, but it still seems abnormal to me, especially because he seems very alert and healthy otherwise.
Does anyone have any insight on this? After losing my first baby to gout, I am trying to do everything exactly right this time.