I just got King Arthur (my bearded dragon) 2 saturdays ago, the guy I bought him from said he is about a year old. I haven't measured him or anything (didn't know I was suppose to). Arthur was eating 6 crickets a day and running or limping around his tank, but now he sits on his rock and waits for the crickets to come to him. I put 6 crickets (dusted) in at lunch and now after dinner there are still 4 crickets left and he hasn't moved from that one spot. I tried putting baby spinach in there but he won't even touch it. his hot side stays in the 90s, if not hotter. Due to the placement of the room over the garage, I keep a space heater turned on in the room at all times. Only recently with odd snow fall (I'm located in Alabama, we don't get much snow down here) have I turned up the heater to full blast and pulled the heater away from him.
His front legs seem odd. they look rather puffy. He doesn't like to use his right one even though he still has feeling in it and can move it if necessary. Could a parasite cause all this? Is bathing Arthur really necessary? He baskes under a repti-light, is this right?
I know all lizards are different, but I haven't had this kind of trouble with my leopard gecko (Queen Guinevere). I've had her for over a year now.
Hi...I am going to ask a few husbandry questions so we have an idea what your set up is.
What size is his tank?
What substrate is on the floor?
What is the brand and number of your uvb? Is it a long fluorescent tube, compact, coil, or MVB (Mercury Vapor Bulb that has UVB plus heat)?
How close is the UVB to him?
What is the watts of his heat light? Is it colored or white?
What is the temp of his basking spot?
What is the temp of his cool spot?
What do you use for a thermometer? stick on, temp gun, digital with a probe at the end of a wire?
What kind of calcium and of vitamins are you dusting his food with? How often?
How often does he poop? Is it really smelly?
Being specific, what kinds of food are you feeding him?
If you could answer these, maybe we can find something that needs tweeking. Also, they usually go thru a period of relocation stress. Do you know what the previous owner was feeding him and what lights he had?
Good luck
Patsy
Are you soaking him? How often?