My girl is acting like Satan's Spawn... HELP!

[3DragonGma]

Ok, my sweet, chill angel dragon (Ziggy Morie) is now a little demon! Lol... for the last week, she will not eat, she snorts at me when I pick her up and scrambles to get down, her beautiful enclosure that I spent 6 months of my life building for her is no longer her dream home and she glass surfs CONSTANTLY. I get her out and she runs around the living room like a psychopath!!! Our 2 male dragons (Drogon and Charmander) both reside in my daughters bedroom in their enclosures for now as I am still working on building their 4x2x2 to stack on top of Ziggy's eventually. My girl knows they are back there and if I don't have the living room blocked off, she makes a bee line for my daughters room looking for the boys! She has been completely wild all day everyday for the last 5 days, this being the 6th day. She won't eat her salad AT ALL, she won't even touch superworms which are her favorite! I did manage to get her to eat one large dubia and yesterday I broke down and bought some hornworms because I knew she would eat that if she wouldn't eat anything else. She did eat a large hornworm. She turns herself what I have labeled "sexytime grey" right after she wakes up in the morning and then proceeds to go completely nuts until bedtime when she then climbs up on my chest and wants me to sing "You are my sunshine" and snuggles til she goes to sleep. Its the only calm time of the day... She is drinking water from her syringe and will drink it out of the sink at bathtime. I am pretty sure this is hormonal behavior and maybe she is trying to mate, but OMG she is about to drive me bananas!!! I forgot to mention she is 2.5 years old and I have never seen her act this way for this long of a time period. My question is does this sound like normal hormonal behavior or does it sound like something else and if it is hormones, how long does it usually last? I miss my sweet baby girl!!! I love her all the same, but she is just being so ridiculous and extra right now! Just trying to get an average time line on the whole crazy dragon hormonal thing so I can at least know somewhat what to expect! Thanks for any advice!!!

 

[KarrieRee]

Sounds like hormones --- can you tell us what UVB your using and her basking temps please-- no stick ons for basking temps -- we may haft to call on reinforcements for the behavior thing -- but we need to rule those temps and UVB out first --- no colored bulbs please no heat mats or rocks as well --

 

[3DragonGma]

We have a 36" ZooMed t5 HO fixture with a 10.0 Reptisun bulb, a 100 watt basking bulb on a dimmer, a full spectrum grow bulb, and on the cool side a 10.0 LED UVB spot bulb which doesn't give heat but gives her a little spot where it is cooler but still has light above her cool side hide. There is also a computer fan I attached to the side vent that can be turned on to bring humidity down if needed. All of these are ran through the ZooMed Environmental Control Center (thermostat/timer/humidity control). She is funny about her basking area temp and doesn't like it really hot like our boys. She prefers hers (or always has in the past)between 98 and 101. In her new big girl enclosure she seemed to be ok with 101. Cool side stays at 85. She was perfectly fine in her enclosure and then all of a sudden she started acting like a maniac. Lol

 

[KarrieRee]

Ok good uvb where is it? Inside tank or top of screen? If it's on top screen MUST be a wide hole type-

 

[3DragonGma]

It is on top of the screen, but it is the large hold chicken wire screen. I built her enclosure myself trying to take into consideration how I would install all the light fixtures and heat projector. I can upload pics if I can figure out how... lol

 

[3DragonGma]

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This doesn't show her main UVB as it is in the front of the enclosure, and the tube fixture in the back is just an extra nano tech grow light for added visible light. I also moved the small uvb led to the left cool side of the enclosure. ]

 

[3DragonGma]

 

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[3DragonGma]

 

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[3DragonGma]

Also, these pics were before I added the arid bio substrate to the hot side of her enclosure. That is why you see the ceramic tile just on one side of the bottom. Her background, caves, and basking platforms are all made from foam panels and spray foam that I hand carved with my hot knife and painted with tinted drylock and then sealed with a non toxic foam sealant. The wood pieces are from our back yard in the woods and we soaked them and baked them before putting them in there. Just figured I would throw that out there in case anyone asked.

 

[KarrieRee]

Your tank looks very nice ---does the UVB have a reflector on it? Are using a coil UVB if you are please get rid of it --- the UVB in the front of the tank is a what brand and bulb please? And your basking light is a bright white bulb from the pic it looks like a yellowish type

 

[3DragonGma]

Thanks! The UVB fixture in the front is a 36"ZooMed T5 HO Fixture and it has a reflector in it. The coil light in the corner is a reptisun 3 in 1 just to give extra uvb in another ZooMed fixture with a reflector. The basking bulb in the can light is a ZooMed Reptisun 100 watt basking bulb. It is a yellowish color though. I honestly don't think it is the enclosure and the reason I say that is she was fine with it before and she also has a spot in the living room that I fixed up with a tall LED shop light that i have 2 ceramic dome fixtures clamped onto the stand with a 3 in 1 uvb and a 100 watt bright daylight bulb in the other where she could sit there and watch TV with me and she would sit there all the time when I was in the living room right beside me. I have a digital thermometer probe in a heating pad cover and it sits on the arm of the couch under the lights. I keep it at 100 degrees and the humidity stays around 30%. She LOVED her spot on the couch but she won't sit still now ANYWHERE. When I get her out she doesn't want to be held. She doesn't want to sit in her spot. She just wants to run spasticly all over the house.. She will run to my daughters room where the boys are and sit in front of their enclosures, turns herself sexytime grey and stays there waving and nodding at the boys. I really think she wants to mate. I am just worried because she won't eat and she is losing weight! She wouldn't even eat repashy grub pie yesterday after I fixed a whole batch of grub pie cookies for the dragon babies. Could this be her trying to prepare to brumate? I know they can stop eating to prepare for brumation, but is this whole running around like a psychopath and not being still for 2 seconds... is that also something that comes with brumation? Our dragons have never brumated before and are just hitting the age where they may want to. But honestly she is losing so much weight already I am terrified to allow her to brumate now.

 

[KarrieRee]

Shes losing weight is not good --- please get rid of the yellowish basking light and get a bright white one-- the 3 in 1 is that a Mercury Vapor bulb? If so those are more for heat than UVB - your basking bulb is what starts digestion and her not eating could be the basking bulb causing that issue - you want to mimic the sun --- the distance for the T 5 should be 12-15 inches directly over the basking decor -- as far as the behavior it sounds like she is looking for a mate which is odd since mating season is usually spring - here is a link for brumation https://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/brumation/
they tend to slown down do a lot of sleeping or laying around -- eating may slow down as well -

 

[Charliesnewmom]

Ok, my sweet, chill angel dragon (Ziggy Morie) is now a little demon! Lol... for the last week, she will not eat, she snorts at me when I pick her up and scrambles to get down, her beautiful enclosure that I spent 6 months of my life building for her is no longer her dream home and she glass surfs CONSTANTLY. I get her out and she runs around the living room like a psychopath!!! Our 2 male dragons (Drogon and Charmander) both reside in my daughters bedroom in their enclosures for now as I am still working on building their 4x2x2 to stack on top of Ziggy's eventually. My girl knows they are back there and if I don't have the living room blocked off, she makes a bee line for my daughters room looking for the boys! She has been completely wild all day everyday for the last 5 days, this being the 6th day. She won't eat her salad AT ALL, she won't even touch superworms which are her favorite! I did manage to get her to eat one large dubia and yesterday I broke down and bought some hornworms because I knew she would eat that if she wouldn't eat anything else. She did eat a large hornworm. She turns herself what I have labeled "sexytime grey" right after she wakes up in the morning and then proceeds to go completely nuts until bedtime when she then climbs up on my chest and wants me to sing "You are my sunshine" and snuggles til she goes to sleep. Its the only calm time of the day... She is drinking water from her syringe and will drink it out of the sink at bathtime. I am pretty sure this is hormonal behavior and maybe she is trying to mate, but OMG she is about to drive me bananas!!! I forgot to mention she is 2.5 years old and I have never seen her act this way for this long of a time period. My question is does this sound like normal hormonal behavior or does it sound like something else and if it is hormones, how long does it usually last? I miss my sweet baby girl!!! I love her all the same, but she is just being so ridiculous and extra right now! Just trying to get an average time line on the whole crazy dragon hormonal thing so I can at least know somewhat what to expect! Thanks for any advice!!!

I have no answers…. But I’ve gotta say this made my day by your explanation of what’s going on gave me a good laugh!! Of course I know it’s not funny in the least to you and your family… but the way you told your story is just too funny because of the mental picture I had in my head!!! … but on a serious note I really hope it all gets settled and better for your family