Gravid, MBD and underweight??

zonkey

Member
Original Poster
So, I have a maybe 3 or 4 year old female beardie (as the vet guessed) with MBD. Got her about two weeks ago now. She’s also rather underweight and maybe dehydrated too, judging by how wrinkly and dry she feels. Also is missing 4 toes, though that’s not terribly relevant I guess lol. Anyways, before me, for a couple of weeks she was in the care of the girl who initially found her in a dumpster. She was eating her greens, veggies and bugs just fine it seemed. When I first got her, she ate her greens immediately as soon as I put her in her tank. And she would go crazy for dubia. That’s how it was going for a few days. Then as you may remember from my other post lol; I realized unfortunately I was giving her too many bugs and she started not caring about greens at all. I was going to just “wait it out,” but others encouraged me to just to keep on giving her gutloaded bugs given she’s underweight and I was told I can worry about getting her on a regular diet once she’s up to a healthy weight. So I gave her some more dubias, which I have been gutloading with veggies and greens. Was also giving her some wax worms here and there. But primarily dubia. Anyway, then all of a sudden she didn’t really want to eat anything at all, and has sometimes been pooping multiple times a day (usually very small or just urate) whereas before she’s pooped maybe, 2 times in the time I’ve had her, but then this week since this has all been unfolding, she’s pooping ALL the time. And she would get major zoomies and just run frantically and climb and just very restless, which I thought at first was maybe just the poop (I cleaned it as soon as I could) but then this behavior has continued regardless of poop or not. At first it was just very restless running around and climbing, but now she is also glass surfing as well on top of that. And she doesn’t want to eat anything, not even her fav dubia or a hornworm treat. She basks, then she’ll start going crazy again, poops several times a day now usually, even if it’s just a very tiny amount or only urate. I’m starting to suspect she’s gravid, but obviously, this has concerned me, because she’s already underweight and dehydrated, and now she doesn’t wanna eat anything. I give her baths so she can soak usually everyday, in hopes of getting her to drink or whatever, but I’ve only seen her drink water maybe 3 times the whole time I’ve had her these last 2 or so weeks. I sprinkle water on top of her head (she drank it the first time when I first got her) and she drank when I gave her her first bath, and I think she even took one lick out of her little water bowl once too. But I haven’t seen her drink anymore besides that, unless I just haven’t seen it. I know they get hydration from their veggies and stuff too, but she’s not eating right now so that’s tricky. But regardless, given I’ve just barely got her, and just want to help the poor thing get back to better health, you guys can probably understand my frustrations and worries about it all. Just an inconvenient time to be gravid LOL. But I guess I just wanted to ask if this does indeed seem to be gravid symptoms, and what I should be doing? I have made her a dig/lay box. And any time she gapes while basking, I have been trying to sneak veggies, greens and bugs in her mouth. It’s only worked a few times. But from what I understand loss of appetite is normal when gravid.. but it’s just concerning me given her condition— I mean she’s not like deathly horribly underweight, but she is underweight, and with her MBD too, it’s frustrating with her not eating since that’s where she gets her calcium powder (she does have a good UVB bulb, at least). So yeah, just any advice, information, help etc would be so very appreciated. I just wanna help this poor girl.
I’ll attach some pics of Martha <3 She is pretty spunky (especially now LOL) and despite her MBD and missing toes, she really does a good job getting around and climbing, even if it takes her a minute sometimes, she’s very determined.
IMG_4868.jpeg
IMG_4869.jpeg

PS. You guys see that darker bit on her beard?? It’s very similar to a chunk on her tail— is that shed?? Cos it’s always like that. She had part of this darker she’d come off her tail, but there’s some more still, and it kinda looks like she’s got some on her beard too? Idk lol, but like I said I have been giving her a lot of soaks.

Thank you guys sm. I really appreciate you al and I really love this forum. Everybody is very nice and helpful here and you guys don’t make me feel stupid when I ask all these weird questions 😂💖
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Sounds good ! She's a tired girl so that's O.K
After she warms up for an hour tomorrow you can give her a short warm soak to give her a chance to drink, then pour some over her head if she has much caked dirt . Then pat her dry + put her back in her enclosure to let her totally dry off . After an hour or so put her in the lay box.
 

zonkey

Member
Original Poster
Goodmorning all! Just got Martha back in her laybox a few mins ago. Starting her initial “let me outta here” fit of trying to climb out. Hopefully she gets back to digging soon. Took her about an hour yesterday to finally give in
 

zonkey

Member
Original Poster
Yep I cleaned it immediately! Should have said that before oops 😅😅
She’s very off and on rn! She will dig for a few minutes, then want out again, then dig again, etc. she was just digging and now she’s just staring out at the open corner of the bin with her little dirt covered face 😅😂
 

zonkey

Member
Original Poster
So far she hasn’t really done much. She has done a few minutes of minor digging here and there but overall has either just been sitting there or actively trying to crawl out of the bin. Should I put her back in her tank to warm up for a bit and try again a little later?
 

zonkey

Member
Original Poster
IMG_4956.jpeg

Well, I put her back in the laybox over an hour or so ago (once I noticed she was starting to go crazy in her tank) but she really just sat in there again and might have taken a short nap too? Anywys, I have to leave for a few hours and won’t be back til late tonight. So I took her out, gave her a quick bath (which she did NOT like, lol) dried her off and put her back on her basking spot. She did drink a little bit of water from a syringe but has so far refused any food.
Hopefully there will be better progress tomorrow 😵‍💫 I just want the poor thing to get this over with already so she can get back to eating regularly!! I was feeling her belly after I gave her a bath, it’s squishy and maybe a little plumper than it was when I first got her 3 or so weeks ago. Not sure if I feel any lumps or not 🤔🤷‍♀️ though honestly I didn’t check that hard, lol, just gently kinda felt around cos I don’t wanna hurt her.

She was basking.. she is now currently, glass surfing and being restless again (throws her bowl, her greens everywhere, basically reorganizes everything LOL. But I feel bad for her. I hope she’ll lay these eggs soon.

need to also really clean my bedroom floor so I can let her adventure around more.
EDIT: and now she just pooped some urate(?) juice while glass surfing, oh Martha 🥲🥲
 

zonkey

Member
Original Poster
good morning my friends—

After giving Martha some time to warm up, I put her back in the laybox. So far she’s just kinda been sitting there and occasionally trying to escape, as she does lol. Tried to give her a big dubia roach.. poor thing tried two times to grab it and failed. I wonder sometimes if she has trouble seeing, or what it is. Sometimes she can get them first try. But other times it takes her a few tries, and sometimes if it’s 2 or 3 tries she just gives up. I try to dangle them in front of her face some times to help her but she never is really interested when they’re like that. Again, first week or so when I had her she would get so excited for bugs and food and would race to get them, and she was a great eater. But since this whole gravid business it’s just very little eating and much less motivation to do so. Which I get is normal for gravid, the lack of appetite thing. But I just still feel bad for her 😩 but Hopefully she gets to digging soon!
 

zonkey

Member
Original Poster
I don’t think so, but I will check to see if I can find any! She did poop again in there, she seems to poop every day right around 10:30-11am 😅😂
She has been doing pretty much the same as yesterday, occasionally digging for a minute here and there, but then she just sits there or tries to crawl out.
 

zonkey

Member
Original Poster
I was just about to go search, and she’s currently curled up right in the hole she’s made, so hopefully that means something. I took a pic quickly but apparently, too quickly so uh.. oops LOL. I did just 15 or 20 mins ago move the laybox to the living room to try to give her somewhat more peace and quiet. It was in my room before where I’m at currently, working.
 

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