My beardie lost his appetite. help?

[cupcake143]

i've had my beardie for about a year and a half now. he is almost 2. i've never had any health problems with him, have taken him for vet visits every now and then to get fecals and stuff. i have him in a 55 gallon tank, with plenty of logs/plants for basking. he has a reptisun 10.0 tube uvb, and a 100 watt basking light. hot side is about 100*, cool side is 85*. i usually feed him crickets 2-3 times a week, and greens/veggies every day. but the past week or 2 he has been hiding in the corner instead of basking. if i put him on his tree under the light, within 5 mins. he jumps off and hides again. he doesnt want to eat, unless its crickets- he has stopped eating greens which he loved before. i just had a fecal done 2 weeks ago so its not parasites. whats going on? any ideas will be appreciated...

 

[beardie parents]

It could be brumation. Where are you located? Are you in the Northern Hemisphere or the Southern? If you are in the Northern, he could be tryiing to brumate. There is a great article under the 'Care Sheets and Articles' link above about brumation. I suggest reading it. It does suggest not letting your beardie brumate if he has food in his tummy, also getting him up once a week to soak and weigh him. If he looses a little weight, he's probably just brumating. If he looses a lot of weight, then you shouldn't get him to a vet because there is something wrong. Brumation mimics a lot of illnesses.

 

[cupcake143]

thanks for your reply.. i am in MA. so it is starting to get cold over here and winter is definitly coming. is this why he tries to hide all the time? he goes under his log tunnel and closes his eyes.

 

[beardie parents]

It could be. There is a lot to brumation. Since he just had a clear fecale, I suggest you get a gram scale that goes up to at least 5 pounds if you don't have one, then weigh him once a week. This is to make sure he doesn't loose a lot of weight. I found one at walmart for about $30. Also, as I suggested, read the article on brumation, that will give you a lot of insight into why they do what they do.

 

[beardie parents]

I'm sorry, I forgot to ask, how old is your reptisun 10 tube? When we first got Speedy we had a reptisun 10 tube and when it was 4.5 months old (we'd had it on most of the day) she lost her appetite until we'd replaced it with a new one.

Lori

 

[TamiLynne]

I'm in MA too so I thought I'd chime in. My 7mo old has done the same thing your guy has. Although, I'm annoying and keep waking him up. :wink:

As long as the temps in the cage haven't dropped (I had to make some changes as this is our first winter with my boy) then as far as I have read you should be just fine. Read the brumation article, it makes it less scary. And if you are north of Boston and you have concerns, come to my clinic! I love seeing beardies and my docs do too.

-Tami*