Is this normal after brumation?!?

[Weirdybeardie]

I wanna go ahead and apologize for how long this is, but I don't want to leave anything out.

I have a beardie that is about 10 months old, and I'm starting to get very worried (which I tend to do way too much) and I need some advice. I'll start with the back story on our sweet little Floki. My boyfriend and I got her last May from a Reptile store, she was only a few days old, and she's beautiful so she caught our eye right away. One problem, she wasn't nearly as active as the other babies running around the enclosure. We were first time reptile owners and didn't know much about them, so we didn't think much of it. When we pointed her out to the associate, he told us that she hatched with her yolk sack still attached and they didn't know of she was gonna make it. We were already in love and decided to give it a go at making her healthy. It was a long slow process, she didn't wanna eat or drink anything at first, but after gentle coaxing, and trying different insects we found out she LOVED dubia, so that was her staple diet as a juvenile, and she grew very fast both length wise, and width, haha. She seemed to flourish, and we were so excited we bought another Beardie(we keep them in separate enclosures) and shortly after that when she was about 7 months old she went into brumation. (Or I hope it was brumation) At first we had no idea what was going on, we didn't know anything about brumation, so we thought she was sick, after researching we were pretty comfortable thinking it was brumation. She slept for about 2 months straight, and then started waking up about 4 weeks ago. She hasn't been right since. She was VERY restless the first week after waking up, constantly climbing her cage walls bobbing her head just being restless, and she hasn't been pooping right, or eating very much. She doesn't seem to have lost weight, and all her Temps are fine, and today when I came home from work, she was sleeping and she finally had a full BM, but the urate is completely yellow. I have researched and researched, and I see that they can be weird for a little while after brumation, but should I worry? We feed her fresh greens every day, and also offer crickets daily (we have to order more dubias) someone please help me. I dont know if I'm being an over protective mother, or if I really should worry, and take her to the vet.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Sorry your girl is worrying you, they are good at that!
Just how yellow in color was the urate?
Please review your tank setup for us, such as the type & brand of your UVB, the supplementation you use & the temperatures in the tank. You can post some pictures of her & the tank setup also by clicking on the XIMG to start to upload your pictures so you can post them.
Has she acted restless, or had any strange behavior like digging, or scratching a lot?
Which greens do you feed & is she eating very much right now?

Tracie

 

[Weirdybeardie]

Thank you so much for the speedy response!
The urate is pretty yellow in color, and it's the whole urate not just the tip (like I've read will happen with dehydration) I will upload a picture of it as well. She is in a custom built enclosure, that is about 24" by 30" she has a basking spot that ranges from 100° to 110° with the warm side staying around 90° and the cool side around 80°, and we provide a simple hide at night of egg carton because she likes to sleep under it. We have been keeping a water bowl on her cool side in case dehydration is a factor here. Her UVB is a Repti Sun 5.0 UVB and we have the blue exo terra heat bulb. Maybe the supplements are some of the problem here, she used to get calcium dusted on her veggies twice a week, but since she has woken from brumation it has been hard enough to get her to eat anything at all, that the calcium dustings went out the door. Could that be the problem?
As for her diet, she has been eating crickets as her staple insect, which aren't her favorite, but she eats them. We will be getting more dubias soon. As for veggies, every morning I give her a bowl full before I go to work, we always have kale or collards as the greens and then switch up different veggies to mix in (we premix a Tupperware so it's ready to go all the time) the veggies we mix with the greens are carrots (she LOVED those) red and yellow bell peppers, squash, and the occasional fruit treat, like a bit of apple or a few pieces of strawberry. She seems to tend to go for the brightly covered veggies. When I fed her breakfast she didn't really eat much, maybe 1 or 2 pieces of squash, and she is still acting sort of Lathargic. Also we bathe both of our beardies twice a week, and we have been bathing her 3 or 4 times a week since she's been so weird. She was scratching and being very restless, to the point that she split her face open a little bit on the very tip of her mouth, which I have been putting neosporin on with a Qtip. Is this normal after brumation?

Those are the pictures, I have one of her set up, one of her poop with the yellow urate. It's kind of dried out since it was when I got home from work, but we always clean the poop up as soon as we see it.

 

[kyleena29]

I can't really say much on that urate but it certainly doesn't look right. Hopefully someone else knows.

What exact uvb are you using? Reptisun? Tube, compact, etc?
How close can she get to it? I would get rid of any colored lights as well and use bright white.

 

[Weirdybeardie]

Thank you for the reply. Hopefully some one can tell me something about the urate.
The bulb is the Repti Sun 5.0 UVB compact. She has a rock under the heat light, and in the picture her other rock isn't where it usually is, it's usually directly under her UVB so that she is able to get about 8" away from the bulb to bask. Also, as a side note, the enclosure she is in, is spilt in half our other beardie is on the other side, exact same set up mirrored, exact same lights, temps, diet, etc. And our Hedes is a happy healthy girl so I'm not leaning towards it being the lights. How do you supply heat at night with out the colored bulbs? We are in a cold state, and it stays too cold in our room to have all the lights off at night.

 

[kyleena29]

That bulb is for tropical reptiles. It does not provide adequate uvb. You'll have problems in the long run if the current problem is not related. You should get the 10.0 tube type asap. I don't think anyone recommends even compacts. Also, I don't know how old the uvb is but they do need replacing after a number of months. (Depends on the bulb)

You can use a CHE (ceramic heat emitter)
Like this
http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-incandescent-bulbs/11442-603035/flukers-flukers-ceramic-heat-emitter.html

 

[destiny1998]

Hi. Definitely get grid of that colored bulb. Replace it with a nice bright white bulb. I use halogen flood bulbs. Also the uvb needs to be replaced. You want a reptisun 10.0 T5. Also you should put the basking light and uvb light right next to each other so when she basks she also gets uvb. With these adjustments she'll improve.