How long does relocation stress last?

[Niexist]

Hey all I recently moved about an hour away and one of my beardies has been suffering from bad relocation stress, he hasn't eaten in almost 3 days, and he has dark stress marks, his viv is pretty much exactly the same, besides putting in a reptile hammock.

It may also be possible he's eating the juvenile bearded dragon food I leave in their cage some was scattered around and in his waterbowl, but I question this because I've never ever seen either of my beardies eat this stuff.

 

[Lennifer]

Are your beardie's housed together? If so, that could also be part of the reason as usually one of them will become the more dominant one & possibly not allow the other beardie to eat.

Re-location stress can last a few weeks. I would just try not to handle him as much, other then feeding/bathing & give him a couple weeks to settle in. If he still isn't eatting at all efter 2 weeks, I would take him in to the vet to rule out parasites. Although...if they are living together & one has the parasites...the other beardie will probably have them as well. It doesn't cost too much to have a fecal exam done. Better to be safe then sorry

I feed the RepCal Bearded Dragon food/pellets & Drago loves this one....however he will not touch any other kind of pellet food. I think it's because the RepCal looks & smells fruity, where the other brand of pellets don't smell that great & are not colored so maybe they r less apealing to the eye. lol

~Sandy

 

[Niexist]

Yeah Sandy they are housed together, but my larger one is female and not at all dominant, she is content to sit around, and let the little one crawl all over her without even moving. It's kind of funny they both arm wave at each other like neither of them wants to do anything but relax.

I have the same rep-cal pellets the ones that smell like bananas so it's possible he's eating them but I'd still like him to eat some phoenix worms.

 

[Ethelia]

Im afriad to say I think that the new location has kicked off some co-habiting issues.

Beardies are solitary and territorial creatures and so should always be housed alone.
It is one of the most frustrating thing as a dragon lover that ignorant pet stores insist that this is acceptable. It sends people off with utterly false information which can end horrifically for the dragons, or end the owner up with a whacking great extra spend on a whole new set of equipment.
Unfortunatly you only need a liscence to sell reptiles. You do not need any special training or education to run a reptile store.
SOME reptiles can happily co-habit, however most store lack the in depth knowledge to understand that this is not the case for bearded dragons.

Asside from dominance and territorial issues it is always a dreadful idea to house males and females together.
This can lead to over breeding, or breeding two young, both which put your females dragons health at serious risk, let alone the stress. If you have watched any clips on youtube of dragons mating you will see it is a very aggressive act.
Males can literally breed a female to death if given the chance. Even professional breeders do not allow males and females to cohabit. They are allowed to meet once for copulation out side of the vivs and then seperated immediately.

Mating asside, when beardies are housed together one usually becomes dominant causing the other beardie to not grow properly due to stress, although sometimes stress does not manifest itself physically. I would imagine your smaller dragon will not thrive with a larger cage mate.
This is another missrepresented fact by "common knowledge". Behaviour such as arm waving, head bobbing and sitting on top of one another are all signals of dominance, submission and stress. Yet these are the very characteristics that *****ic store workers sell dragons for!
"Oh they are fascinating. Look how she waves all day long"
Yet the poor dragon is constantly defensive and afraid in her own viv.

The most serious and obvious issue of cohabiting dragons is violence.
Futhermore beardies can and do attack eachother, and unfortunatly dragons are not like dogs, who can be taught about naughty aggressive behaviour. They can live in apparent harmony for months and then one day snap and thats it.
One story that comes to mind is a girl on these forums named Ambulance. She housed two dragons together happily for months and came home one day to find the female had ripped the other dragons tail completely off.
Once it has happened once, it will happen again and again.
Dragons will think nothing of nipping off a chunk or tail/toe in order to defend their basking spot, unfortunatly it is just in their nature.


I dont mean to scare or scold you by any means, but you wanted evidence, so I want you to show you what does happen:

In my time keeping dragons I have rescued three dragons who were living in a viv with other dragons.

This is Dexter. Rescued as an adult.
Dex was small for her age and was missing a bit of her tail, most of her right arm, most of her right foot and alot of her toes.

This is Ruben. Rescued at two months old.
Ruben had his leg and arms ripped off at the joints by his clutchmates.

This is Miso. Rescued at only 3 weeks old
Little Miso, already has a tail nip and is missing most of her back toes.

There are rare cases where dragons show no signs of agression towards eachother, and there isnt too much bullying but it is a risk that is simply not worth taking as Im sure you now understand.
I would suggest you separate your beardies with a cardboard screen for now until you can figure out a perminant solution.
Your dragons will lead much happier healthier lives apart.

Holly

 

[Niexist]

Well the relocation stress ended the little one is back to eating the normal amount. It seems the best cure for a hunger strike is real hunger.

I understand about the dominance issues, but I see no signs of either dragon attempting to be dominant. I don't know, they both seem very happy, lively, have good appetites everything, I understand about the dangers of housing them together, but I also have spoken with the owner of the reptile shop I buy my dragon food from, and he says as long as they are both female they are fine to be housed together. He also has the hugest healthiest beardies I have EVER seen, so I like to stick to what he has.