Juvenile Beardie Throws Up Crickets

[dvoratexn]

Heres the story, I have an approximately 5 month old juvenile beardie named Axel, and we recently took him for a 9 hour drive due to moving to a different state. We then had to drive another hour to our final destination, Axel appearing very stressed and scared due to this being his first long road trip. We made sure he knew we were there for him, talked to him, helped calm him down etc.

We go to buy crickets, they're out of the small ones. We consider trying large ones now, seeing as he has grown a lot over the past 3 months and the crickets seem about right for his size of food, about the same as or less than the distance between his eyes. So we upgrade to the large crickets and we feed them to him, he chomps down about 20 or so. Well the next day we're at home unpacking and we notice three 1-inch diameter glubs of eaten and un-digested crickets in his cage. We immediately freak out thinking that he could be sick, I remember reading on here that bearded dragons throwing up is not a good sign ever. I do know that bearded dragons changing environments for living and traveling can be very stressful and change their eating habits, but I certainly wouldn't assume that would include throwing up. Possibly too many crickets too fast due to stress?

At this point Axel hasn't eaten any crickets that we've put in his cage. We gave him a warm dechlorinated bath last night to help his hydration. He appears alert and normal, aside from the fact that he isn't eating. All cage temperatures are normal, warm side 88 degrees, basking spot between 95-110 degrees. Humidity between 30% and 50%. Reptisun 10.0, best of the best. Its definitely not the lights and temps.

I am going to get him to a vet as soon as possible, however none in this area will be able to see him until monday unless its a serious emergency...until then I just needed to hear some advice/input from you all. Have you ever had your bearded dragon throw up? If so, was it after the first long car trip ever? What experiences have you had in this category, and what did you do to fix them? Any advice and input would be GREATLY appreciated, my beardie means the world to me. Thank you.

 

[RioReptiles]

How long did he bask after eating them and what were the temps? If he wasn't allowed ample basking time, it would be common to throw them up. Also if they were too big or he ate too many. It happens to my smaller babies once or twice a week here and there but rarely with a 5 month old. Depending on his size, he should be able to eat 5/8" or bigger crickets. I think it could have been more from the stress of the trip and then the whole combination of things. Give him a day or two and gradually offer him more solid food, not letting him eat too much at a time. If he won't chase crickets, try the butternut baby food, or something watery and soft. Also, offer water several times a day. If there is any blockage, the baths and hydration along with constant basking will usually do the trick. If he isn't acting better by the end of tomorrow, definitely take him to a vet.

 

[dvoratexn]

How long did he bask after eating them and what were the temps? If he wasn't allowed ample basking time, it would be common to throw them up. Also if they were too big or he ate too many. It happens to my smaller babies once or twice a week here and there but rarely with a 5 month old. Depending on his size, he should be able to eat 5/8" or bigger crickets. I think it could have been more from the stress of the trip and then the whole combination of things. Give him a day or two and gradually offer him more solid food, not letting him eat too much at a time. If he won't chase crickets, try the butternut baby food, or something watery and soft. Also, offer water several times a day. If there is any blockage, the baths and hydration along with constant basking will usually do the trick. If he isn't acting better by the end of tomorrow, definitely take him to a vet.

Thank you very much for the advice. His lights were turned on for about an hour before we fed him the crickets, then he basked normally in his spot of about 97 degrees afterwards for a few hours. He threw up his crickets the second day we started feeding him large ones. It appeared that he might have thrown up some of the ones from the day before as well. The hour drive happened on the second day, the same day he threw up. This happened while he was still in his smaller traveling cage. Since then he's basically been hanging out at his basking spot, the temperatures since then have gone down a little bit at his basking spot since he has moved from his traveling cage back to the big 40 gallon. I'll definitely be working on raising his basking spot closer to the light for better temperatures. Thanks again!

 

[RioReptiles]

Yea, just keep an eye on him. Any time you change feeders it should be done gradually but thats easier said than done sometimes. When they throw it up, I feel that its good the body rejected it before it getting stuck further down. Good thing you knew to keep him hydrated. He could definitely use a little more heat, he can always move away from it. I've started using the small 50w halogen spot lights in order to make a better temp gradient. They focus the heat in a tighter circle and the dragons always start in the middle and gradully move towards the outside as they warm up. And I can use a lower wattage and get higher temps.