HELP!Dragon breathing very oddly

[MissKaterina]

I have a 2 month old bearded dragon, I keep him in a 20 gal tank with uvb light and a 100 wat heating lamp, he has a stick that takes him up close to the lights, the tanks temp is about 90 degrees near the bottom(Currently using stick on thermometer) I feed him 3 small crickets and greens daily, and he has a rock water dish that I change constantly.
Ok now heres my problem, little Homie(my bd) has been breathing heavily(beard is moving with his breathing also) since he ate a cricket earlier. He has eatin salad a couple times since and it seems to go down fine but he still was breathing heavy, I called a vet and they said something might be caught in his throat, and that I should bring him in, problem is is I wont get paid for another week and I have absolutely no money, they didnt tell me anything that I could do.
Is this the only possibility of what is wrong, or could it be something else? And is there anything I could do??
Please help, I just got this lil guy 3 weeks ago and I dont want to lose him

Update: He isnt doing it anymore, still not sure what the cause was. But I have a bunch of questions and Im finding out Im doing some things wrong, so Im seeking advice now, I put up another post, please visit and help me
heres the link viewtopic.php?f=1&t=109917&hilit=

 

[MissKaterina]

PLEASE! Im really worried, so someone post something about it

 

[injectedink]

sorry i dont really know what is happening with your beardie, i just noticed that you said you feed him 3 small crickets and greens daily, i'm hoping that was a typo because that is nowhere near enough food for a growing beardie they can easily eat up to 100 crickets in a day, i hope your bd is okay though

 

[MissKaterina]

No it wasnt a typo, and thats what three different petstore people told me to feed him and I never found anything that said otherwise about it. I know he would eat 100 if I let him, but is it actually healthy for him to eat that much, and if I am feeding him too low of an amount, how many should i feed him daily.

 

[injectedink]

i've found you gotta feed them two to three times a day as babies/juvies and let them eat as much as they will in ten minutes.
My lizard icarus gets fed twice a day, before i go to work and once i get home, i probably feed him about twenty to thirty crickets half inch crickets every sitting,but as well the size of the crickets will also determine how many they will eat, a strong rule of thumb is to feed them feeders no bigger than the space between their eyes; any bigger than that you could run into problems, i hope that clears some stuff up for ya,

by the way feeding him so few crickets a day he wont get near the required amount of protein/other nutrients found in live feeders, if people at the pet store havent told you either its necessary to dust your crickets with a calcium supplement 5 days a week and multivitamin the other two days, just like salting your fries you dont need much just a bit shaken on the crickets'll do

 

[MissKaterina]

i've found you gotta feed them two to three times a day as babies/juvies and let them eat as much as they will in ten minutes.
My lizard icarus gets fed twice a day, before i go to work and once i get home, i probably feed him about twenty to thirty crickets half inch crickets every sitting,but as well the size of the crickets will also determine how many they will eat, a strong rule of thumb is to feed them feeders no bigger than the space between their eyes; any bigger than that you could run into problems, i hope that clears some stuff up for ya,

by the way feeding him so few crickets a day he wont get near the required amount of protein/other nutrients found in live feeders, if people at the pet store havent told you either its necessary to dust your crickets with a calcium supplement 5 days a week and multivitamin the other two days, just like salting your fries you dont need much just a bit shaken on the crickets'll do

No they failed to mention that...*sigh* well Im officially done asking them things haha, thank you though.
How can I tell when hes had enough crickets? Also Ive been wondering when I should up the amount I feed him.

Also for anyone who is reading this Homie is back to breathing normally! Im still not sure what was wrong with him, but at least hes better(I still plan on taking him to the vet when I get paid)

 

[Twobeardieguy]

MissKaterina, how is your tank set up? As in uvb bulb, substrate and if I may recommended getting a digital thermometer as the stick ons may be up to 20% off!!!

 

[MissKaterina]

MissKaterina, how is your tank set up? As in uvb bulb, substrate and if I may recommended getting a digital thermometer as the stick ons may be up to 20% off!!!

I use plain white paper towels, and a 10.0 uvb bulb(zoo-something brand) and he has a 20 gal. tank. And thats actually one of the next things I wanted to get along with a hydrometer(i think thats what its called) which brings another question, what humidity should his tank be at?

 

[diamc]

Did the petstore mention that you should feed him crickets NO larger than the space between his eyes? If you fed him one larger than that, it could explain the behavior that you saw.

You should increase the amount of crickets now, all of the appropriately sized crickets he can eat in about 10 to 15 minutes, he will stop when he's had enough. Also, be sure to remove any uneaten ones as they will chew on him causing nasty sores.

If the temperatures are off, that can affect the way they are breathing too. The only 2 ways to get accurate readings are with either a temperature gun or digital thermometer with long wire & probe end. It's very important that you have accurate temperatures.

Are you feeding fresh greens daily? Even though babies don't usually eat many, it's a good idea to offer them every day. Here's a site that shows the best to feed: http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

Hopefully the pet store didn't give you incorrect info on the UVB too. Since there are some that are very dangerous and others that are useless, could you please give us the brand & type (coil, compact or strip fluorescent) that you're using? The info about the bulb should be printed right on the side of it. Also, how close is your beardie from that UVB light?

 

[MissKaterina]

Did the petstore mention that you should feed him crickets NO larger than the space between his eyes? If you fed him one larger than that, it could explain the behavior that you saw.

You should increase the amount of crickets now, all of the appropriately sized crickets he can eat in about 10 to 15 minutes, he will stop when he's had enough. Also, be sure to remove any uneaten ones as they will chew on him causing nasty sores.

If the temperatures are off, that can affect the way they are breathing too. The only 2 ways to get accurate readings are with either a temperature gun or digital thermometer with long wire & probe end. It's very important that you have accurate temperatures.

Are you feeding fresh greens daily? Even though babies don't usually eat many, it's a good idea to offer them every day. Here's a site that shows the best to feed: http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

Hopefully the pet store didn't give you incorrect info on the UVB too. Since there are some that are very dangerous and others that are useless, could you please give us the brand & type (coil, compact or strip fluorescent) that you're using? The info about the bulb should be printed right on the side of it. Also, how close is your beardie from that UVB light?

I put a stick angled so he could be as close or far away from the light as he wants to be. And he climbs on it frequently.
Thats one thing the petstore people did tell me(no bigger then between there eyes thing), and that if the crickets are too big itll cause impaction, so Ive been making sure I feed him small ones, and the one he ate before that behavior was teeny tiny, smaller then ones Ive fed him before.
Its Zoo(something) brand I cant remember its name exactly, zoo-med maybe? Idk, but it was recommended for me, I have a strip one, and its 10.0

Also after i read that one comment I went and fed my lizard a bunch of crickets. Basically did what you suggested. And yes I feed him salad daily, I have a false rock that has two dishes, one I fill with water, and the other I put the salad in. I bought the salad from the petstore, it has variety of greens and veggies, he likes celery so I add that in. I cut it up more than it is before feeding him also.

How do you recommend removing the crickets? I hate the things so dont like touching them lol.

 

[zebraflavencs]

paper towel tubes woman's greatest friend lol
Janie.

 

[MissKaterina]

I forgot I wrote down the brand before I threw away the box, I just checked it out and yes it was zoo med brand
Its an 18" also if that helps any

 

[zebraflavencs]

So it is a tube, good. How high above the dragon is the tube ? Should be in the range of 4-8" away.

I'm sorry if I missed it, but what are the basking temps, cool side temps and how do you measure them ?

Janie.

 

[MissKaterina]

So it is a tube, good. How high above the dragon is the tube ? Should be in the range of 4-8" away.

I'm sorry if I missed it, but what are the basking temps, cool side temps and how do you measure them ?

Janie.

Basking temps is around 100. I use a stick on, but its temporary I plan on getting a digital one this weekend. cool side is between 75 and 80. At night his tank gets between the 60s and 70s.
The light is a little higher then that, but like I said I put a stick in there so he could get as far as 2 inchs away from it if he wants. I also read that mesh screens block out a lot of the uv rays or something like that, so how could I lower the light and solve the mesh problem? do I figure out a way to put the light in the tank?

 

[protiemama]

A helpful hint- use a small fish net to catch the crix. It works wonderfully. It can also be used to herd crix to a lazy dragon.

Sandy H