My wife and I are going insane trying to figure out what is wrong with our bearded dragon. His name is Neo and he is about 10-11 months old. We don't know his actual age because we bought him from Petco on October 1st 2022 and they told us he was 6 weeks old which would put his birthday in mid august. He has everything he needs. Temperatures from 95*F in his basking spot, 88*F mid cage and on the far cold side its around 82*F. He also has a hide on the warm and cooler sides. He has a 10.0 ReptiSun T5 UVB bulb mounted inside his cage. He was eating veggies/bugs daily and pooping every few days. He's a big boy, around 17" but I've never weighed him as I gave up my weed days years ago and threw out my gram scale lol.
On May 24th, after basking from a meal of roaches he went down into his hide on the hot side and did not come out for a solid week. We assumed he was getting to maturity and was entering his first brumation. I was worried that he went under with food in his stomach but he did bask so I think it was probably digested. After about a week he emerged and was really responsive and ate some food. He still did not poop. We gave him a bath and tried to assist him in pooping but figured he needed some time to get his bowels moving again after brumation.
A few days later he went into his hide again and fell asleep. Now he has not pooped his prior meal and he just ate a recent meal after coming out of brumation and he's brumating AGAIN? So we let him go for a solid two weeks and then got worried and removed him from his hide this saturday and tried to get him to poop again. We thought maybe feeding him would help so he ate now a 3rd unpooped meal. Well guess what, he went into "brumation" again.
At this point now my mind is racing. Maybe he wasn't bumrating and its been its too hot all along!?!?! Why would he be brumating in SUMMER I thought it was when the weather got colder? But he was DEFINITELY asleep. Oh wait, I just read an article that says some bearded dragons brumate when its WINTER in Australia which is our summer? Oh Shoot, maybe he's impacted and he's hiding because he can't poop? Oh I know, its a sperm plug! I read that can cause a form of constipation / impaction. I'm going INSANE it could be millions of things and now I'm changing light wattages, removing his hide, giving him baths, feeding him olive oil.
I hate bearded dragons and I regret ever getting one. Animals don't belong in cages, they belong in the wild. But I have committed to Neo's care so I will see it through to the end but NEVER AGAIN - the level of stress and anxiety this has brought me FAR outweighs any small moments of joy we've had with him.
What the hell do I do? I know someone is going to say bring him to the vet. I cannot afford it. I've already paid a pretty penny to get his husbandry correct so that I wouldn't need to bring him to a vet. I've attached pictures of him, his hide (thats currently blocked) and his entire enclosure.
On May 24th, after basking from a meal of roaches he went down into his hide on the hot side and did not come out for a solid week. We assumed he was getting to maturity and was entering his first brumation. I was worried that he went under with food in his stomach but he did bask so I think it was probably digested. After about a week he emerged and was really responsive and ate some food. He still did not poop. We gave him a bath and tried to assist him in pooping but figured he needed some time to get his bowels moving again after brumation.
A few days later he went into his hide again and fell asleep. Now he has not pooped his prior meal and he just ate a recent meal after coming out of brumation and he's brumating AGAIN? So we let him go for a solid two weeks and then got worried and removed him from his hide this saturday and tried to get him to poop again. We thought maybe feeding him would help so he ate now a 3rd unpooped meal. Well guess what, he went into "brumation" again.
At this point now my mind is racing. Maybe he wasn't bumrating and its been its too hot all along!?!?! Why would he be brumating in SUMMER I thought it was when the weather got colder? But he was DEFINITELY asleep. Oh wait, I just read an article that says some bearded dragons brumate when its WINTER in Australia which is our summer? Oh Shoot, maybe he's impacted and he's hiding because he can't poop? Oh I know, its a sperm plug! I read that can cause a form of constipation / impaction. I'm going INSANE it could be millions of things and now I'm changing light wattages, removing his hide, giving him baths, feeding him olive oil.
I hate bearded dragons and I regret ever getting one. Animals don't belong in cages, they belong in the wild. But I have committed to Neo's care so I will see it through to the end but NEVER AGAIN - the level of stress and anxiety this has brought me FAR outweighs any small moments of joy we've had with him.
What the hell do I do? I know someone is going to say bring him to the vet. I cannot afford it. I've already paid a pretty penny to get his husbandry correct so that I wouldn't need to bring him to a vet. I've attached pictures of him, his hide (thats currently blocked) and his entire enclosure.
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