help required

[francothedragon]

Hello I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice please, last Thursday I got a 2year old bearded dragon he's a bit nervous he's in a lovely 4ft tank with everything he needs but I can't get him to eat any fruit or salad, the first 2 days I gave him some crickets but he's not eating anything else I was advised yesterday to not give him any live food butill he starts eating his greens he's been 3 days now and hasn't eaten anything, any other advice would be greatfully received xxx

 

[sweetiepie9]

First welcome to this site and congrats on your new beardie!

There is something that beardies suffer from when they change households, and it's called relocation stress, so that could be it. It just means that your beardie is stressed at his new situation and can put off all his normal routines, plus he's not longer with his original owner.

It would also be good to go over your setup, as it's not always the best, so if you could answer these few questions, I'll see if it's something there or relocation stress, which can last 2 weeks. The previous owner could have been making some mistakes.

What type UVB light are you using? How close can your beardie get to the UVB light. Is it a tube and if so is it on top of the mesh tank or inside the tank?

What are the basking temps and what are you using to measure them?

What sized crickets are you offering your new beardie (needs to be smaller than the space between their eyes)

And you dusting the crickts with calcium without phosphorus and with Vit D3? And also with vit/min. An adult beardie would need a meal dusted with calcium 3 times per week and a meal dusted with vit/min once a week.

Did your beardie eat greens and veggies with his previous owner? And what kind?

So if you could answer these questions, I could figure out if that's all good & then we can figure out what do to about the rest.

If it's relocation stress, you need to be patient with him and assure him you're his new owner and will take care of him. Did you get his routine from the previous owner? It's important you stick to is as close as possible. One thing I've been told by alot of new owners is they take a Tshirt they've worm, before washing it, put it in the tank for the beardie to nestle in at night, he smells your scent and will get used to it.

So let me know the above info and we'll see what we can do to make your beardie & you more comfy with each other.

I have 5 male adults, I've been raising dragons for 6 years and learned all I know from the good people on this site. My 5 are very easy to handle, love to cuddle and love their routines.

 

[francothedragon]

hi there thanks for your reply, our dragon is in a wood vivarium 4 by 2 by 2, her uvb tube is at the top front of the tank its a arcadia12% + D3, the spot light bulb is a 60wat and the temp of the basking area is around 100f i dont know the temp at the other end, shes about a foot away from the uvb tube at his closest,she has a large stone under her basking light so when on this shes about a foot from the bulb too, she has a reptile carpet and a sand box at the cooler end of the tank, the last owner said she ate mixed salad leaves, cucumber, peas, apple, grapes, every day and gave her dead live bait brought on line, which he froze, we were under the impression we bought a male dragon, its only when we took here to our reptile shop they said she was a female, healthy but a bit over weight, so we were advised to put 3 mealworms in her salad everyday as if she sees it moving shes more likely to eat her salad as she hasnt eaten any salad yet i put it out every day but its always untouched , and 4 large locusts aday, then when shes eating better and lost weight to give her between 8-10 large locusts everyother day with salad still every day, since we have had her (just over a week) she still isnt eating her salad but is enjoying her locusts, i sprinkle calci dust on her salad everyday and nutrobal powder on her locusts one day a week, shes a little bit anxiouse but does love coming out of the tank she scratches at the tank to come out, she poohs on average once a day or every other,
i gave her a bath the other day i dont think she had had one before as she didnt know what to make of it, i think it spooked her a little, let me know if you need any more info thanks for all your help x

 

[sweetiepie9]

Sounds like you have everything in good shape for her, so she's just going through relocation stress. I'm sure she'll eventually eat her salads, just keep putting them out. Just no meal worms, they have no nutrition and are hard to digest. If you want to use worms, try superworms, they're better for her and bigger worms so more protein, my 5 males are adults and eat them every other day, so that might help with the salads. You can also get some dubia roaches (where are you located?) as they're also good for your dragon and don't smell like crickets.

The UVB is a really great one and your basking temps are spot on. Calcium should be dusted 3 feedings a week and then vit/min once a week. That's all that's necessary for her at her age.

A bath every other day makes sure she's well hydrated, as they soak up water through their vent and my boys, getting baths daily, poop in their baths, which makes clean up really easy!

I think after another week she'll warm up to her salad. Here's a nutrition list that's great, has everything listed www.beautifuldragons.com so check out under Nutrition, it even has flowers at the end of the food list. I use it all the time, as found out my dragons like to eat impatients, so when it gets warm I buy some to put on my balcony and they just chomp away! It's funny to watch!