I'm worried about my baby.

[narwhal]

Dolly has been quite the little problem child, as of late. She is now roughly eight or nine months old, and I decided a few weeks ago that she was big enough to go up to the medium/large sized crickets. None were larger than the space between her eyes. She ate them and became impacted. After four days of stomach massaging, warm baths, and canned pumpkin, she finally pooped. Since I was worried about her, I went back to the small/medium sized crickets, just to make sure that she could pass them. Much to my dismay, she didn't poop for three days after I fed her the crickets. She eats plenty of greens (she loves dandelions!) every day, and I usually feed her 6-10 crickets a day, depending on the size.

Last night, I put her to bed in her log "house" and she snuggled up inside. Her lights are on a timer, so they cycle on and off every 12 hours. Because of this, they turn on after I have already left in the mornings. When I got home from school today, Dolly was still inside of her house, looking quite...sickly. I took her out and placed her on the rocks beneath her heat lamp. She still seemed to be acting lethargic, and keeps going back into her house. I'm really worried about her. What can I feed her, since the crickets aren't working out?

Just for the record, her cage is about 102 on the hot side and 86 on the cool side.
She is still on reptile carpet.

Please help, I'm really scared. I don't want anything to happen to my baby.

 

[Zemanski]

take the hide away; if she is having problems digesting she needs to be in the light as much as possible

make sure her basking spot is 110 - to aid digestion and stop the lethargy

you could give her small locusts or horn or phoenix worms but to be honest she shouldn't be having problems with crickets like that



may be worth talking to a vet, perhaps a fecal to check for parasites would be a good idea

 

[narwhal]

Oh, goodness.
I have no money to take her to the veternarian.
Generally, how expensive is a visit? I heard that reptaile vets are really expensive.

 

[Zemanski]

I'm in the uk and it seems to vary here - mine is one of the more expensive ones :x but she's excellent

 

[Poisoned1]

How old is your dragon?

 

[narwhal]

Dolly is around eight or nine months, I'm guessing. I got her from PetSmart in June 2008. She measures around 12 inches from her nose to the tip of her tail.

 

[narwhal]

You know, the more I research, I'm beginning to suspect that her lethargy may caused by tail rot. A few weeks ago, after Dolly's last shed, the tip of her tail became noticeably darker than the rest of her skin, and there is a slight bend there as well. I read that tail rot can cause dragons to become lethargic and lose their appetites.

 

[Poisoned1]

It could be that just so you know from a baby a dragon needs to eat 40-100 crickets a day, as much as they can eat in the small amount of time. At 9 months and 12 inches your baby is kinda small.

I recommend getting soft bodied worms like hornworms from http://www.mulberryfarms.com They are just great and will really work well plus no impaction at all.