RarestDragon
Hatchling Member
A little over a week ago I expressed my concern about Lyrica, trying to figure out if she has parasites or is going through a semi-brumation. I'm still not sure what's she's doing and it's starting to worry me.
I want to take her to the vet but it's unlikely to happen until after the holidays. The reason why is because this is happening at an inconvenient time. Thanks to gift buying, holiday preparations and the necessity to have expensive dental work done to my teeth, I can't afford much in the way of a vet visit at the moment. Also, having guests, including all the kids here is the most effective way to deprive me of time and sleep.
Anyway, to recap, Lyrica is almost 8 months old and I've heard that even though it's uncommon for a beardie under a year old to go into brumation(it's not impossible, though), I know it's pretty common for the older juveniles to go into a winter slow down but not fully brumate.
This started about a month ago near the end of November when she stopped eating her veggies but still inhaled her bugs. Then she started eating her bugs slower, then only ate four or five a day and then about a week ago she's nearly stopped eating altogether. A part of me worries that it's parasites, which is why I want to take her to the vet. But a lot of signs suggest that it's brumation.
The first thing is her odd pattern of being sleepy and active. She'll be drowsy and sleep for one or two days, then for a day or two she'll be quite active and alert. She'll run around her tank, claw at the walls and ask me to let her out for a jog around my bed.
But even though she has days of activity, she has almost no appetite. I did manage to get her to eat a few small dubias today but only after I put them in a bowl and letting them move around. Usually I hand feed her. That's the first time she's eaten in nearly a week. I'm not forcing her to eat or anything but I just give her the option.
Another sign that makes me think it's semi-brumation is that she wants to sleep in her hide in the middle of the day. Normally she sleeps on her log at night but when she starts her periodic one to two day nap she'll go under her log and try to dig. I read that digging is a sign of brumation because it's their instinct to burrow into the ground.
She doesn't seem to be losing a ton of weight, either. I think she lost a little but that might be due to the two big poops she took last week. She's still well hydrated(I still give her weekly baths, sometimes two) and her belly is still nice and big, she has beardie boobs and her fat pads aren't sunken in.
Another obvious sign is that it's winter and she hasn't shown any sort of behavior like this until now.
On top of that, her poops aren't super smelly. They smell bad but cat poop or dog poop(and sometimes human poop) smells exponentially worse. They're semi-solid, kind of the consistency of thick oatmeal. It is a little watery but I keep her well hydrated, normally with juicy fruits or with water sprayed on her veggies. Though the last few poops have been more solid because she's eating less and thus eating less juicy fruits. She's also never had any difficulty pooping.
My setup is as it always has been. Her terrarium is a 36" x 18" x 18" with temps about 78 degrees on the cool side, about 85 degrees on the warm side and her basking spot is about 100-105 degrees, though it can be a little lower. At night, I don't let my room fall below 75 degrees, or if it does it won't be for long. I have a heater with a thermostat to keep the temps in my room under control. The UVB is a repti-sun T8 tube, replaced 2 months ago, that stretches across her entire enclosure. Substrate is just vinyl tile. Yesterday I added a cardboard box with a hole cut in it and one of my old shirts at the bottom as an extra hide but she hasn't really tried it out yet.
Has anybody experienced this kind of thing with their growing beardie? Any insight would be most appreciated. This is my first winter with a beardie and I thought after doing all my research, I would be prepared for this but I guess it doesn't matter. I'm still a worried beardie mom.
I want to take her to the vet but it's unlikely to happen until after the holidays. The reason why is because this is happening at an inconvenient time. Thanks to gift buying, holiday preparations and the necessity to have expensive dental work done to my teeth, I can't afford much in the way of a vet visit at the moment. Also, having guests, including all the kids here is the most effective way to deprive me of time and sleep.
Anyway, to recap, Lyrica is almost 8 months old and I've heard that even though it's uncommon for a beardie under a year old to go into brumation(it's not impossible, though), I know it's pretty common for the older juveniles to go into a winter slow down but not fully brumate.
This started about a month ago near the end of November when she stopped eating her veggies but still inhaled her bugs. Then she started eating her bugs slower, then only ate four or five a day and then about a week ago she's nearly stopped eating altogether. A part of me worries that it's parasites, which is why I want to take her to the vet. But a lot of signs suggest that it's brumation.
The first thing is her odd pattern of being sleepy and active. She'll be drowsy and sleep for one or two days, then for a day or two she'll be quite active and alert. She'll run around her tank, claw at the walls and ask me to let her out for a jog around my bed.
But even though she has days of activity, she has almost no appetite. I did manage to get her to eat a few small dubias today but only after I put them in a bowl and letting them move around. Usually I hand feed her. That's the first time she's eaten in nearly a week. I'm not forcing her to eat or anything but I just give her the option.
Another sign that makes me think it's semi-brumation is that she wants to sleep in her hide in the middle of the day. Normally she sleeps on her log at night but when she starts her periodic one to two day nap she'll go under her log and try to dig. I read that digging is a sign of brumation because it's their instinct to burrow into the ground.
She doesn't seem to be losing a ton of weight, either. I think she lost a little but that might be due to the two big poops she took last week. She's still well hydrated(I still give her weekly baths, sometimes two) and her belly is still nice and big, she has beardie boobs and her fat pads aren't sunken in.
Another obvious sign is that it's winter and she hasn't shown any sort of behavior like this until now.
On top of that, her poops aren't super smelly. They smell bad but cat poop or dog poop(and sometimes human poop) smells exponentially worse. They're semi-solid, kind of the consistency of thick oatmeal. It is a little watery but I keep her well hydrated, normally with juicy fruits or with water sprayed on her veggies. Though the last few poops have been more solid because she's eating less and thus eating less juicy fruits. She's also never had any difficulty pooping.
My setup is as it always has been. Her terrarium is a 36" x 18" x 18" with temps about 78 degrees on the cool side, about 85 degrees on the warm side and her basking spot is about 100-105 degrees, though it can be a little lower. At night, I don't let my room fall below 75 degrees, or if it does it won't be for long. I have a heater with a thermostat to keep the temps in my room under control. The UVB is a repti-sun T8 tube, replaced 2 months ago, that stretches across her entire enclosure. Substrate is just vinyl tile. Yesterday I added a cardboard box with a hole cut in it and one of my old shirts at the bottom as an extra hide but she hasn't really tried it out yet.
Has anybody experienced this kind of thing with their growing beardie? Any insight would be most appreciated. This is my first winter with a beardie and I thought after doing all my research, I would be prepared for this but I guess it doesn't matter. I'm still a worried beardie mom.
