Juvenile bearded dragon eating less and less

[theshoeshoe]

Hi all,

My juvenile bearded dragon is about 5 or 6 months old and right about 17 inches. Lately the last couple of weeks he has been eating less and less feeders, while still eating a good amount of greens. Today he pretty much stopped eating all together. He ate a few dubias and hardly any greens.

I had moved him into a 120 gallon 4x2x2 enclosure about a month ago and upgraded his lighting in the last week thinking that that was my problem but it doesn’t seem like that’s doing much. Before the last few weeks he had a very good appetite, eating probably 30-50 crickets a day and greens 2-4 times a day depending on work schedules.

He does not look stressed at all in his cage as he shows essentially no stress marks, though he does spend about an hour or two each morning running back and forth trying to get me to take him out while I work haha. He is usually very active, save for when I had inadequate lighting for him, and otherwise perfectly fine.

I’m thinking he has parasites, but would like some advice. I do have an appointment for him to get checked and for a fecal sample as well to test for parasites. Any feedback would be super helpful!!

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, it's not uncommon for fast growing dragons to hit a sort of " teen-age " stage for a short time and become super restless and ignore food. It doesn't usually last long but once in a while they can decide to go in to a short brumation. The other possibility is parasites so having a fecal done will give you that answer. Can you post pics of him and the entire enclosure ? Here's how to post them :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ use the XIMG to upload them.

 

[theshoeshoe]

Hi there, it's not uncommon for fast growing dragons to hit a sort of " teen-age " stage for a short time and become super restless and ignore food. It doesn't usually last long but once in a while they can decide to go in to a short brumation. The other possibility is parasites so having a fecal done will give you that answer. Can you post pics of him and the entire enclosure ? Here's how to post them :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ use the XIMG to upload them.

I can post pictures in the morning! I did kind of read about that sort of teenage stage a little bit. I don’t think it’s brumation as I live in Ohio so his temps are always about 75-83 on his cool side since it’s summer. He does seem fairly large for his age being almost 17 inches at around 5-6 months old.

The only thing that has changed since I upgraded his lighting was that he was hiding A LOT before I upgraded. He would be out from the about 730 am (lights turned on at 6 and usually I’d have to take him out and put him in the basking area) until about 1030-11 most days and then hide for several hours and come back out for an hour or two and then the lights turn off at 9. I’m not sure if that’s cause for concern. Today he was out and active and basking from 630-around 5 when I got off work and then went back and hid for the rest of the day. He is also pooping normally, they don’t seem abnormal as they are formed and good looking urate, albeit quite a lot of water come out with them.

I will reply with pictures for you in the morning!

 

[theshoeshoe]

Hi there, it's not uncommon for fast growing dragons to hit a sort of " teen-age " stage for a short time and become super restless and ignore food. It doesn't usually last long but once in a while they can decide to go in to a short brumation. The other possibility is parasites so having a fecal done will give you that answer. Can you post pics of him and the entire enclosure ? Here's how to post them :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ use the XIMG to upload them.

Here are the photos, one thing that concerns me is the random single patch on his body that he is shedding. He would always shed in whole segments instead of just a random patch.

 

[theshoeshoe]

He has now started to twitch his back leg a little every once in awhile, which from what I read is from a calcium deficiency. Makes sense since he wont eat I gave him some water and calcium from a syringe to hopefully help hydrate him and get him some calcium.

I have a vet appointment tomorrow so hopefully they can tell me if he's just acting goofy or if he's got parasites. He does look rather skinny as I can see the bottom of his ribcage near his tail/legs. I haven't weighed him yet so I don't know if he is losing weight but I am worried at his lack of appetite recently.
Any help or advice is really appreciated!

 

[KarrieRee]

Please tell me what your using for a UVB? And do you have it in the tank? The twitching of the back leg leads me to believe he is developing MBD -- the lack of UVB would be a reason for not eating - they wont eat w/ out proper basking temps and UVB --- what are the basking temps and how are you taking them --- ? No stick ons please