My bearded dragon is regurgitating its food!

[mistybugs]

I have a bearded dragon that is about 3 months old and these last couple of times that I have fed my bearded dragon she has regurgitated its food. She is still very active and still has good bowels everyday. I have noticed though that in the last couple of days she has regurgitated all the mealworms and only one cricket that I have fed her. I just wanted to know if there was something wrong that I needed to take her in for.

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

Could be your temps are to low.
How do you check them and what are they?

What uvb bulb do you use?

 

[mistybugs]

I have a regular thermometer that is circular that is stuck to the back of her cage on both sides. The warm side reads between 95 - 105 and the cool side reads around 80 - 85. At night I keep a red light on her and her tank is at 75 - 80 all night. I have a dessert reptile UVB light that sits across the whole top of her cage so that way anywhere she is she always is getting the UVB.

 

[Jess]

Those stick on thermometers dont give you an accurate temp... Get a digital one w/ a probe, place the probe directly on your basking spot, and wait 45 min for an accurate temp reading. Babies tend to like the 105-115 range.
Also, ditch the red light- they can see those, and it disrupts their sleeping patten. As long as your temps are above 65, she is fine. If the temps get to low, get a ceramic heater instead.
Exactly what brand is the UVB? You need a ReptiSun 10.0. If it is anything else, like a ReptiGlo or a Zilla, you should return it. You can get a ReptiSun for $30 shipped at petmountain.com.

And BTW- make sure she is getting enough time to bask and digest after having a large meal. Once I took my beardie out too long after he ate a ton of supers, and he ended up throwing up over night. Now I always make sure not to handle him for more than a few minutes after he eats, and I havent had a problem since.
The experience totally turned him off to supers though LOL :roll: Poor little guy.

 

[mistybugs]

The thermometers that you are talking about are they just the household regular thermometers that you would use so check your childs temp in their mouth? Or is it the ones that you would put outside your house? Thank you for the advice about the red lights I did not know that I have a heat emitter It just makes her cage way to hot for the night. The UVB bulb that I have is a Reptisun 10.0. That is the only kind that any store in my area carries. I know it is not from me handling her because I do not handle her for at least an hour after she eats because i did that when I first got her and she vomitied on me so I learned really quick not to do that. The only other thing that I can think of is that maybe things are not digesting properly so I gave her a both today about 90 minutes after she ate and hope that helps.

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

Hi Again Misty,
On cooler nights here in Philly, I use a 50 watt blacklight during the coldest part of the winter. The rest of the year I dont use anything at all.
If your using a reptisun 10 thats fine, Ive used repti-glos as well with no adverse affects as well (knock on wood). How old is the bulb?
You can get a digital therm at walmart, your local pet store ect ect. They are just more acurite(sp). A basking spot about 105 to 110 is more than sufficent for the little pooper. What wattage bulb are you using for heat?

 

[mistybugs]

50 watt in a 10 gallon tank because she is still so small. I also noticed last night after I got off the computer to clean out her cage that when she is regurgitating her food it is only the shell. The reason that I know this is because when I cleaned the cage and picked the regurgitated food up with the scopper it completly fell apart like there was nothing inside. It reminded me of when you feed a snake an egg and than they regurgitate the shell but the shell is still formed to look like there is still stuff in there.

 

[Jess]

Try moving her to a larger tank- in a 10 gal, it can be hard to get the right temp gradient, so if your temp gradient is off that could be part of it, but we wont know untill you get a good therm.

Maybe she is having problems digesting those hard shells, if thats what she is throwing up. You said you were feeding her mealies, right? Those are pretty hard for them to digest. You can try giving her a soft bodied worm, like Pheonix worms, instead and see if that helps.

 

[mistybugs]

I think that is what I am going to try to do is feed her a softer worm. Do you know other kinds of soft worms because I have never even heard of pheonix worms in Idaho.

 

[Jess]

Pheonixworm.com has the best pricing on them.
You can also try small hornworms, silk worms, and butter worms. Here are a few sites for those:
Coastalsilkworms.com
Greatlakeshornworm.com

 

[mistybugs]

I am so excited My beardie has not regurgitated her food for2 days now. I started to feed her many more times a day instead of just 2 times. The only thing is that she seems to be kind of stressed from me switching her food schedule because her tummy is darker than normal but does not have much of a darkened beard. Kind of odd.