HELP! Zeus is going down hill and fast!

[vickson420]

Hi
I am so happy to read that Zeus is getting better.You mentioned calcium,is it dust or liquid? I am thinking because of the twitching that the poor fella may have MBD but you can help him by ensuring he is getting plenty of calcium.You may want to orfer some liquid calcium as it is absorbed at a speedier rate then the powder and is effective in battling MBD(metabollic bone disease).In the meantine for a while I would make sure he is getting his feeders dusted at least 5xper week (1 feeding a day) with calcium and the other two days I would recommend a multivitamin like herptivite.Also be sure that his basking spot is within 6-8 inches in distance to the reptiSUN bulb which should be directly beside the baskink bulb(or as close too as possible).
On his temps,it seems like you are using alot of heat,are you letting the probe rest on the basking surface for at least 45 minutes before reading the temp?

 

[hcozart]

Zeus is in a 55 gallon tank. He will not climb right now, so his " log" for basking is pretty low in the tank. I am having to " push" the heat down to him. We hung the UVB fixture lower in the tank after some insiteful use of over the door clothes hanger, and zip ties LOL. I actually am leaving the probe on the basking spot at all times. Sometimes he lays on it, and of course that throws the temp off, but mainly stays around 103-106 (when he is not laying on it). There is about an hour in the afternoon when the room gets full sun ( not directly on the tank) and it will spike to 109. However that is the time, that Zeus is getting feed out of his VIV, being loved on, then bath time, by the time he is returned to the cage it is back to 103.

We are dusting with Calcium with D every day on his live feeders. We are also dusting 2times is week with Repti-Vit. He will eat a one bite of yellow squash now, that is it. So we are feeding Supers, Pheonix and butter worms. We were doing babyfood, but he refuses that now. LOL. He is very active now, have not seen the twitching since last night. This morning when we got him up, we played with him, then fed him 4 butterworms, his beard was pretty light. Ten mins later in the tank, this:
What the heck, why is he so black half of the time?

 

[ziggy23]

Maybe there's something in the tank is bothering him. Maybe, negative associations because of his past neglect. Or maybe he prefers it a few degrees cooler. or maybe he'd just rather spend all day with you.

I wouldn't be concerned about not climbing yet. He may not be strong enough for it yet.

 

[vickson420]

Hi
It sounds to me like he is improving steadily and it is actually a good thing he is not wanting the babyfood as much you do not want to get him into the habit where that is all he will eat(trust me).As long as his uvb is 6-8 inches then he is getting enough so even if his basking is ground level it is ok however you might want to check the cool end temps and make sure they are not too hot since your pumping so much heat(nothing past 80F).Another option you have is to build him an incline on one side so he doesnt really have to climb but his basking area is higher.As for the black beard give him time,he is dealing with alot right now and sometimes it can take a while even for a healthy beardie to adjust.My rescue Apophis has MBD and although he is doing quite well the last few years and is happily adjusted he still quite often sports a black beard(more often then not actually).