Lethargic Beardy

[Beardednoob]

Tiles very good yes the other top substrates are, reptile carpet, non-adhesive self lining, and paper towels. All of them are safe for your BD, remember when you get the tile it will be dusting and dirty cleaning them is a must, also you may have to trim the tile so just thinking in advance. :wink:

 

[Chrismcnicholas]

Tiles very good yes the other top substrates are, reptile carpet, non-adhesive self lining, and paper towels. All of them are safe for your BD, remember when you get the tile it will be dusting and dirty cleaning them is a must, also you may have to trim the tile so just thinking in advance. :wink:

appreciate it! I hadn't thought about having to cut the tile but that shouldn't be an issue

 

[1976dragonmom]

I just rescued a Bearded Dragon from a yard sale, of all places. I live in Washington, and the weather has been chilly. The dragons appearance was blamed on the cold. We brought it home and tried to get her warmed up. The sun came out for a bit and I let her sit in some natural sunlight for as long as we could. I replaced the bulb the previous owners had (53w house light) for a basking light ment for reptiles (75w). This is giving her the heat she needs but I am not sure she is getting the UV rays she most desprately needs. I've read about how lack of calcium can cause their bones to be brittle. She lays flat (maybe even flatter than the picture showen in an earlier post) and she is near black in color. And after further examining her when we got her home, her tail is crooked,, looking like it had broke right where the tail meets the back legs. She is VERY lethargic and I've had to hand feed and water her. Did I make a mistake buying a "used" lizard? Or did I save one?

 

[HKzForDayz]

as long as you can provide your beardie the care it requires, you can save it.

first, I would take your dragon to a vet who is experienced with reptiles.

second, generally a 75 w basking isnt hot enough. you will need two thermometers, one in the basking spot and one on the other end. your basking area should be roughly around 100 degrees. i keep mine at 105, with the cooler side at 85. for its ultraviolet needs , you will need a light that produces uvb. they sell these at pet stores, or online for cheaper lights. the best once you can get is powersun. its about 70 dollars in a store but can probably be found for about 40 online. what size home are you keeping her in? and how old is she?

 

[Chrismcnicholas]

as long as you can provide your beardie the care it requires, you can save it.

first, I would take your dragon to a vet who is experienced with reptiles.

second, generally a 75 w basking isnt hot enough. you will need two thermometers, one in the basking spot and one on the other end. your basking area should be roughly around 100 degrees. i keep mine at 105, with the cooler side at 85. for its ultraviolet needs , you will need a light that produces uvb. they sell these at pet stores, or online for cheaper lights. the best once you can get is powersun. its about 70 dollars in a store but can probably be found for about 40 online. what size home are you keeping her in? and how old is she?

Just to add to this i'll go ahead and link where i ordered my reptisun 10.0 from, if you can get it in a store near you I suggest it though because shipping can take a bit. Sadly that wasn't an option for me and we're holding out till Tuesday when it's supposed to arrive.
http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-fluorescent-bulbs/11442-504983/zoo-med-reptisun-10-0-uvb-bulb.html

Do not mistake reptisun for repti-glo i've only heard bad things about them (causing eye problems and not giving the correct UV levels) someone can correct me if i'm wrong though!

An update on Sheila
After her walk around earlier she crawled back up on her warm spot and just hung out there until bed time. Will be putting her in the window for some good UV rays tomorrow before i have to go to work again and then worrying about her the whole time i'm at work

 

[HKzForDayz]

Petmountain is a very good place to buy from, andvthe reptisun 10 is a pretty decent bulb.however If you have the money id go with the powersun 160w as it prov
ides good heat as well as excellen uvb output. But if on a budget definitely grab the reptisun 10.

 

[Chrismcnicholas]

Well she seems very alert this morning and we're heading to the window now for some uv Her shed started back up FULL blast and the poor thing looks like she's wearing a helmet haha.
Well she just rubbed part of her "helmet" off and the skin underneath is a bit pale. Here's a picture http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd375/camda1/4d561c28.jpg
Anything to worry about? She's shed a million times before but not with me watching this closely. Actually it just looks like her color is coming back a bit I only ask because it had a slight green tint which could just be reflection.

 

[1976dragonmom]

Thanks for the info! I will definately look into those lights. The sun seems like it want to come out, and I have a nice sunny window sill she can relax on. It worked for my plants, so it should work for her. As for her age,, the prev owners (who thought it was a boy) said it was past the juvenile stage. But after researching, I found that "he" was a she (at least I think! I do not see the two "bulges" said to be males), and her size is smaller than juvenile pictures I've come across. I can't get her lay straight because of her tail, but her body is roughly 6in and her tail maybe 8in. I gave her a 20min soak in some warm water and she had a pretty big poo, then seemed very anxious to get out of the water. She was given to us in a glass tank about 4x2x2ft with the red sand. But, I've noticed little white bugs, some that jump and others that crawl. I'm gonna clean all this out and replace with paper towels until I can something better. I do not like the sand... I put a few mealworms in front of her and she made an attempt to grab them, instead getting a tongue full of the sand. We then tried on a flat surface and was very happy when she acctually got one and gulped it down. She must have been sprayed with water,, I also read that Dragons like to lick the running drops of water off the side of the tank rather than drinking from a dish,, because she HATES it! She backs up, sounds like a hiss, and flares her beard.

The sun is out! Let me go put her in some sun for a bit. How do you post pictures here? I would like to share how she looks for some advice. Thanks for the help,, will keep you all posted on her condition!

 

[Chrismcnicholas]

Thanks for the info! I will definately look into those lights. The sun seems like it want to come out, and I have a nice sunny window sill she can relax on. It worked for my plants, so it should work for her. As for her age,, the prev owners (who thought it was a boy) said it was past the juvenile stage. But after researching, I found that "he" was a she (at least I think! I do not see the two "bulges" said to be males), and her size is smaller than juvenile pictures I've come across. I can't get her lay straight because of her tail, but her body is roughly 6in and her tail maybe 8in. I gave her a 20min soak in some warm water and she had a pretty big poo, then seemed very anxious to get out of the water. She was given to us in a glass tank about 4x2x2ft with the red sand. But, I've noticed little white bugs, some that jump and others that crawl. I'm gonna clean all this out and replace with paper towels until I can something better. I do not like the sand... I put a few mealworms in front of her and she made an attempt to grab them, instead getting a tongue full of the sand. We then tried on a flat surface and was very happy when she acctually got one and gulped it down. She must have been sprayed with water,, I also read that Dragons like to lick the running drops of water off the side of the tank rather than drinking from a dish,, because she HATES it! She backs up, sounds like a hiss, and flares her beard.

The sun is out! Let me go put her in some sun for a bit. How do you post pictures here? I would like to share how she looks for some advice. Thanks for the help,, will keep you all posted on her condition!

You can upload them to photobucket or another site like that and then use the img tag at the top by your font options. it will look like this without the parentheses around it (

)

On a side note i noticed in another thread you mentioned you were feeding mealworms correct? From what i've read mealworms are not very good for your beardy as they aren't very nutritional and their chitin can cause impaction. You may want to think about switching to a different live feeder.

Also, you didn't mention having a calcium powder for supplementing the live feed, do you have some? If not you should get some! It helps a lot and thats one of the things I neglected to use for quite a while and it seems to be helping a lot! From what i've read you should get the pure calcium without d3 because they produce their own d3 when they have the correct lighting. I actually got the stuff WITH d3 which i'm using until her new light comes at which point I will be switching to pure calcium supplement.

The last thing i have to say is that I agree with gimmie, you really should find a herp vet in your area if you can as they will be able to tell you a lot more because they will be able to run tests and such.

 

[HKzForDayz]

Thats good the she is getting better. Make sure the window is open, as uv wont penetrate glass. Also of your gonna shop online check out reptileuv.com. And you coukd even keep paper towels as your substrate. They are really easy t o keep clean

 

[Beardednoob]

I would like to add as I have said in the past the glass does not take out all UV rays but does diminish them. As for the Powersun 160w bulb this is the best on the market, heat, UVB and UVA all in one bulb, makes the basking area as efficient as it can be for what our technology has to offer. This is what I use for all 3 of my lizards (2 BD and 1 Uro). So how is your little girl doing atm?

 

[Chrismcnicholas]

I would like to add as I have said in the past the glass does not take out all UV rays but does diminish them. As for the Powersun 160w bulb this is the best on the market, heat, UVB and UVA all in one bulb, makes the basking area as efficient as it can be for what our technology has to offer. This is what I use for all 3 of my lizards (2 BD and 1 Uro). So how is your little girl doing atm?

Right now I am at work 2 and a half more hours till I can get home and check on her. She wasn't really moving around a lot today but she did seem very alert and she did sit in the window for about 45 minutes this morning before I had to come in. She moved around more when being fed too so I believe she is making progress


Uvb light is 315 nm–280 nm and ordinary window glass passes about 90% of the light above 350 nm, but blocks over 90% of the light below 300 nm.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet
(I know, wikipedia isn't the most reliable place)

So yes glass will block MOST of the uvb but it can still be beneficial especially if you have a bad uvb source in the enclosure. I honestly can say I did see improvement after letting Sheila sit in the closed window for almost an hour the other day!

 

[Beardednoob]

I am very glad to hear she seems to be improving. You know if your glass panes are old you will get even more UV rays come through too. Just a FYI thought, I tend to write what I think. Anyways, have you been dusting her food?

 

[Chrismcnicholas]

I am very glad to hear she seems to be improving. You know if your glass panes are old you will get even more UV rays come through too. Just a FYI thought, I tend to write what I think. Anyways, have you been dusting her food?

Every day with calcium that has D3 since the issues started, i've heard under normal circumstances the d3 can be a bit much but I figured if i was having issues with the UV lighting the d3 might help. I plan on getting regular calcium supplement once her new light has been in for a bit. Also i'm picking up a vitamin supplement tomorrow because I don't have one

 

[Chrismcnicholas]

Just got home and she's looking very good! Shed is in full effect so she looks a little silly though. She was hiding under her wood but came out to see me when i walked up to the cage she also ate some of her mustard greens which she usually barely picks at! Although I will admit that I've started cheating with her greens and topping them with the nature zone bearded dragon bites because she LOVES those.