I am glad to hear that your beardie is doing better! I have been trying to get answers from all different sources as to the cause of this untimely death. I am FAR from being ready to get another one, but I would like to avoid this sorrow in the future. One source thought that the substrate I was using could have been the problem. I was using the calcium sand that is sold in most reptile stores. I guess they can't digest it and it becomes toxic to them? Any thoughts/ideas about this?
MissRocky, it causes impaction ! That is why we promote non particle substrates so much !
You may have seen your dragon lick at things throughout the viv ? Well, if enough calcisand is licked up, it causes a blockage in the intestinal tract, which means all the waste product just sits in the tract.
Calcisand is actually the worst for impaction issues, as it clots up into large masses.
I had my first dragon ( an 8 year old, with highly questionable husbandry) on play sand, but after educating myself on forums like this one (LOVE YOU GUYS !) I switched out to tile on all my reptiles.
I lost the old boy at Christmas 08, and since have adopted 3 more, but this time I had all the husbandry correct, and they are all healthy, happy, and controlling me (grin).
Janie.
Janie... thank you for your response. I just don't understand why ANY reptile store would sell the Calcisand if it is so toxic to them. I wish I would have known about this forum when I first got my beardie. I could have saved her life. I can't beat myself up about it, but man, do I feel like crap! I will rely on this site in the future. Thanks everyone for your responses! Beardie owners ROCK!
Sadly it comes down to this. $$ for each product sold, regardless of what health issues it may promote. Also, most ps are either have sadly out dated information or worse, none at all, just winging it with whatever they think or have been told by the owners.
We are glad to have you here, and this place and people do Rock !
Janie.
Unfortunately he wasn't just budging his eyes they were like that all the time, and still swell up a little at night. The Vet said it could be MBD or just malnutrition so we are now focusing on a variety of foods and plenty of sun light we hit 77 degrees today so things are looking good on that end.
A couple weeks ago his throat went down quite a bit and then the next day it was big again. Last night his throat was huge and then all of a sudden this morning it was all gone.
We'll see if it still there tomorrow but this might have been a nutrition/calcium thing. Since it's happened I've got two MVB been feeding him a bunch of different organic baby foods with calcium drops and vitamins mixed in them. He seems to be on his was to recovery.
He is looking better, gradually, so keep on giving him the lower fat foods & the vitamins & calcium. Hopefully he will continue to improve for you. He looks a bit perkier to me as well.
Keep us posted on him! If you can get some real sun for him, that would help him out alot too.