is something wrong with pacita?

[chrisitine]

pacita is almost a year old. this is our first beardie. our first reptile for that matter. we thought she might be broomating as we were told. but for about a month and a half she seems to sleep in her cave . she lives in 80 gallon habitat. 80 degrees on cool side 110 hot side has uv and basking light. we made a cave that she can bask on top and go in and sleep at night. diet.. greens . and crickets. repto cal for calcium.. and repto life vitamin supplament. crikets and superworms which she usually goes crazy for. laltly she wants to sleep all day in the cave. she doesnt want to eat. we removed cave now during day becuase we are worried she is not getting enough heat. is this normal for her to hibernate like that? please help .

 

[fez09]

110 is too hot for a 1 yr old dragon, try to lower to 100 on her basking spot. What type of UVB are you using?

 

[diamc]

How old is your UVB and what is the distance of it as well as the brand like Katrina asked? Also, what type of thermometer?

Where do you live, if in the US, your beardie should not be brumating in the summertime. Have you had a fecal check done?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Yes, please answer the questions so we can help you better. Thanks.

Tracie

 

[chrisitine]

the light is about maybe 3 months old. we have not done a fecal test. she did poop yesterday and it seemed pretty normal. there was no strong oder.im sorry i dont know how to answer what type of lighting just yet. my husband bought it. he did research and thought maybe we bought the best kind ofr her. there bulbs not tubes if thats any help. do you think its too hot for her. i checked the temp and the hottest right now is 100 and the cool side is about 80. we do live in the us. in ohio .im sorry if i dont have enough answers . i will get specific brands when my husband gets home. i m attached to pacita... i didnt realize how much i could love her. and she is a part of our family. other then she hasnt been eating very well and hides.. when we take her out she seems active so far.

 

[chrisitine]

oh and we have a digital themometer .

 

[beardie parents]

Is you uvb a coil or a strip? To see if it could be the uvb you could take her outside in the real sun, if it's warm enough or not raining.

 

[mickeysmomma]

perhaps she has eggs?

 

[javeroy]

@Diamc

It may be unlikely for a beardie to brumate during the summer, but I live in Canada (not that far north either) and both years we've had ours she's gone to sleep in August. I also happen to work at the local pet store and we currently have a beardie who is beginning to show signs of brumation, even though it's just the start of July. From some of the research I've done, it seems to me that beardies 'pick' when they want to brumate, it doesn't necessarily have to be at the same time of year, or even in the winter.

From what I've read of brumation, I wouldn't disturb Pacita if that's what she's doing. Just let her sleep and she'll wake up on her own!

 

[diamc]

oh and we have a digital themometer .

Does the thermometer have a probe end?

You mentioned that they are regular bulbs but not tubes, are you sure that one is a UVB bulb? Is the shape like a regular household light bulbs, or a coil or compact? If you could give us more info on the bulbs, it would help.

How often have you been dusting with calcium and vitamins? What greens are you feeding? How often are you bathing her?

Before we can say that she is showing signs of brumation, it's important that we rule some things out first. Since she's active when taken out of her tank, I'm considering that there might be something in the setup that could use a little changing.

 

[chrisitine]

they look like household bulbs. calcium dusting once a day... and the vitamins about 2-4 times a weeks greens... we alternat between turnip, collard greens and kale. i think maybe we need a new themeter. the digital one is older. right now we have a strip and a dial themoter. we took her outside as sugested and she did like it. she didnt want to get off my husband. but when she did get back in .. she went strieght to her cave and covered up. the habitat is homemade. my husband made it. it is screened in on three sides so i dont think its humid in there. we werent in the habit of bathing her every week . but since shes been acting like that we been trying to bath her every 2 to 3 days. she does seem to enjoy it. thank you so much to all of that has replyied. i hope that what ever is wrong i can fix it. hopefully its not something were doing wrong but if it is i want to fix it. and again this is our first beardie. and i absolutly love her.

 

[chrisitine]

so far this week pacita has been out of her cave sunbathing. SHe ate about 7 superworms the other day and went for a swim. everything is looking good so far. thank you so much for all your help to everyone that replied.! :headbang:

 

[diamc]

That's great that she enjoys being outside and also ate supers today.

You mentioned that your bulbs looked like household bulbs, did you mean like one of these?

It's very important that we find this out as I suspect you don't have a UVB bulb at all.

Regarding the supplement dusting, you should be dusting with calcium 5 days a wk and with vitamins 2 days a wk. You don't want to over do either one of them.

The strip and dial (round gauge) thermometers can be off as much as 20 degrees. Since it is screened on 3 sides, it probably isn't holding the temps at all. If you have a Walmart near you, you can get the AcuRite brand digital thermometer with probe which will give you the basking & cool side temps at the same time as well as the humidity readout for about $12.00. They would be in the area where the outdoor plastic thermometers are sold, probably the garden center. It is a must to get an accurate thermometer.

Good that you increased the baths, sounds like she was somewhat dehydrated. Please fill us in on the bulb issue, cut back on the supplements and try to get a good thermometer as soon as you can.

 

[javeroy]

Don't the new ReptiGlo's look like the energy savers?

 

[diamc]

Actually, you shouldn't be using a Repti-Glo that looks like an energy saver bulb (a coil/compact) as there have been some serious health issues associated with them. They also don't provide the right about of UVB. In the U.S, the best bulb to use would be a Repti-Sun 10.0 strip fluorescent. Right now I can't recommend a mercury vapor bulb because all the problems haven't been sorted out with those, they're still working on them.