Hello:
Last night we took in a beardie. She (we think it is a she) is in very poor shape. She is about a year old. She is 12 grams and about 7 1/4 inches of which 3 inches is her head and body. She lived on some sort of pet store sand stuff. No UVB. Basking light was too far and on an angle. No calcium. Very few worms or crickets were given to her. She was fed mostly a vegetarian diet that consisted a lot of peas and broccoli. They smoked around her. I can see the bones in her tail and spine. Her legs are about the width of the brown plastic straw stir sticks for coffee. She was quite lethargic, dragging herself on the ground kind of like a blue tongue skink does, and had that dry shriveled dehydrated look to her.
When we bathed her in warm water as soon as we arrived home, and she drank a lot both from the bath water and the water we dribbled on her head. She also knows how to drink from a waterbowl and did so when she was put into her tank. She ate a small silkworm right away and refused anymore food for the evening. We have her set up in a 10 gallon (we will upgrade the size as needed) with a repti-carpet, water bowl, food bowl, basking spot that has several levels so she can decide how warm she wants it, and a Reptisun 10.0 fluorescent bulb. We are keeping a close eye on the temperatures. Overnight she climbed into the plastic vine we have suctioned to the side and seemed to sleep quite well.
Today she had a poop that looked normal for her size and did not have an odd odour. She seems less dehydrated and less shriveled and we bathed her again. She seems more alert and interested in her surroundings. She has eaten a wax worm (for the fat), a silkworm, and a gut-loaded cricket dusted with calcium. I am not a fan of crickets, but they are the easiest way of getting calcium into her. I offered baby bearded dragon pellets, but she has ignored them so far. She has ignored the greens too. I am not sure how much to feed her at a time or how often as I do not want to over-do it since she is not used to an insect diet.
Should we be using something else rather than water to bathe her? Does anyone have any further suggestions on what else we can do for this little girl? I do have reptile experience, but this needs the advice of the kind members on this forum.
Thank you
Last night we took in a beardie. She (we think it is a she) is in very poor shape. She is about a year old. She is 12 grams and about 7 1/4 inches of which 3 inches is her head and body. She lived on some sort of pet store sand stuff. No UVB. Basking light was too far and on an angle. No calcium. Very few worms or crickets were given to her. She was fed mostly a vegetarian diet that consisted a lot of peas and broccoli. They smoked around her. I can see the bones in her tail and spine. Her legs are about the width of the brown plastic straw stir sticks for coffee. She was quite lethargic, dragging herself on the ground kind of like a blue tongue skink does, and had that dry shriveled dehydrated look to her.
When we bathed her in warm water as soon as we arrived home, and she drank a lot both from the bath water and the water we dribbled on her head. She also knows how to drink from a waterbowl and did so when she was put into her tank. She ate a small silkworm right away and refused anymore food for the evening. We have her set up in a 10 gallon (we will upgrade the size as needed) with a repti-carpet, water bowl, food bowl, basking spot that has several levels so she can decide how warm she wants it, and a Reptisun 10.0 fluorescent bulb. We are keeping a close eye on the temperatures. Overnight she climbed into the plastic vine we have suctioned to the side and seemed to sleep quite well.
Today she had a poop that looked normal for her size and did not have an odd odour. She seems less dehydrated and less shriveled and we bathed her again. She seems more alert and interested in her surroundings. She has eaten a wax worm (for the fat), a silkworm, and a gut-loaded cricket dusted with calcium. I am not a fan of crickets, but they are the easiest way of getting calcium into her. I offered baby bearded dragon pellets, but she has ignored them so far. She has ignored the greens too. I am not sure how much to feed her at a time or how often as I do not want to over-do it since she is not used to an insect diet.
Should we be using something else rather than water to bathe her? Does anyone have any further suggestions on what else we can do for this little girl? I do have reptile experience, but this needs the advice of the kind members on this forum.
Thank you