How young is to young for Brumation?

[as89amanda]

Here is George's information. He is a very active little guy until two days ago he slowed down his eatting and lays in the corner on his cool side ALL DAY! He keeps his eyes closed and does nothing! When I gave him a bath last night he just laid his head on my hand and sat in the warm water with his eyes closed. He didnt want to wake up so I picked him up and tried to feed him and he finally did. George had 12 crickets yesterday and the day before he eat 18 not very many at all.(not eatting yet today) I put one wax worm down in his greens (he dosen't get them very often) and he didn't eat it! Thats not like him he loves to get a worm!!! He hasn't eaten any greens in two days either. His age is a guess> I got him from a local pet store and they told me he was a few weeks old. I talked to a girl at petsmart and she told me that by the length of my little guy he was older then a few weeks more like a few months. I have read other fourms but they haven't answered all of my questins. The weather has been HOT for Feburary a week ago it snowed and today its 62 and tomorrow its going to be in the 70's and then back down. Globle warming sucks! Georges room stays warm. He just got done with a shed is took about 2 1/2weeks for full body. Jd told me that I am over reacting, but I don't think so. Can anyone tell me if this sounds like brumation? Do they often just slow down? (I read the article about burmation that really helped but just to make sure I thouhgt I would ask)

How old is your dragon? Around 8 to 9 months old
How long have you had your dragon? 1 month
How long is your dragon? 9 to 10 inches from tip to tail
What is the sex of your dragon? male
What size enclosure do you have your dragon in? 29 gallon
What type substrate do you have on the bottom of your tank? reptile carpet
Do you use UVB lights? yes, repti sun 10.0
If so, Is it a coil, compact, fluorescent tube, or Mercury Vapor bulb? Compact
How far away is the UVB bulb? 12"
How far away is your basking bulb? 6"
How old is your UVB bulb? a week
Do you use a separate basking bulb? What kind and what is the wattage? yes, 100watt house bulb
What are the basking temps? 108
What is the cool side temp? 87
Do you take the temps with a stick on thermometer, a digital thermometer with a wire and a probe end or a temp gun? probe, I take them once a week
Where exactly are you taking your basking temps? The highest spot george can get
Do you use a heat rock or heat pad? of course not
What do you feed your dragon? Please be specific. crickets, occasionally waxworms, mustard greens, colard greens and pellets
How often do you feed and what time do you feed (morning, afternoon, night)? 7am, 12pm and 5pm
Do you gutload (feed) your crickets, worms, etc? yes, I feed the crickets whatever I feed my Dragon greens pellets and Fluker's orange cube
Do you use vitamin or calcium supplements? What brand(s)? How many days a week do you use each of them? Yes, herpcare cricket dust once out of his three feeding everyday
Is your dragon having regular bowel movements (poops)? Yes, twice a day But not yet today and they are solid and no more smelly then normal
Do you bath your dragon? How often? Yes, everyday
Do you mist your dragon or offer water other than in the bath? He has a water bowl that he lays in but doesnt drink and he doesnt seem to like misting so I dont do it a whole lot
Does your dragon share an enclosure with another dragon? no way, he's my one and only
Have you gotten a vet check and fecal done? No

 

[as89amanda]

George had nothing to eat yesterday but he eat 7 crickets this morning. He was more awake this morning when I gave him his bath. George is my first beardie and I'm not sure if this is something normal. Do I take him to the vet or do I let him make up his mind of what he wants to do. Like take long naps and eat as little as he wants to. He is active one day and the next 3 he is sleeping all day and not eatting much. Does anyone else have this problem??? Do I just have a lazy Dragon?

 

[Grommet]

Hi!! I think it's great you brought your questions here, and no, I don't think you are over reacting! Beardies are finicky little ones, but it sounds like you are taking wonderful care of George.

From your answers, the only thing I see that could be affecting George's activity is your compact UVB. Use the search engine on this site and I'm pretty sure you'll come up with all sorts of horrible info. My own dragon reacted very negatively to a compact UVB - hiding all the time, refusing to bask, eventually not eating, and extremely agitated / scared. Within hours of changing to a Reptisun 10 TUBE, her health improved. The compact is dangerously hard on their eyes.

I'm unfamiliar with your calcium supplement (someone else here will probably be able to chip in on this), but it's helpful with bearded dragons to have a separate calcium and a separate vitamin supplement - I have good results with Repcal brand - so that you know exactly how much vitamins your beardie is getting in comparison to calcium (they need 3x the calcium dusting to 1x vitamin dusting, I think.... Grommet is 7 years old, so she doesn't get as much as on as young as George) The care sheets and articles link above has some info on this.

Good luck and I hope others have good advice to post!

Kailin

 

[as89amanda]

Thank you Kailin for the advice. I turned the compact bulb off and I am looking at new hoods for george with tube bulbs. I'll search though some of the other fourms and see what they say about them. I'll search for the calcium supplements too. Thanks again!