NEW BABY BEARDY WONT EAT!!! HELP

[treezababe]

Hi Guys on saturday (2 days ago) I brought my fiance a bearded dragon,
he/she is nearly 4 months old and is begining to become a cause for concern.

We have a 3ft viv, the temps are regulating at 105 at the hot end and 80 at the cool end, the uv we have was recomended by the pet shop not too sure what it is, and the substrate we are using is wood chipping.

Since we got him/her home it has been completely uninterested in food, there is fresh greens, carrots apples, and some soaked pellets in the food dish and it hasnt even looked at them.

the day we brought him/her home we tried giving it crickets and it didnt want to know but as it was probably scared we didnt think too much but yesturday and today it has only eaten about 3 and that was with us sat there for over an hour trying to coax it with them.

we have tried hand feeding it them, we have tried hand feeding it bits of lettuce, but completely uniterested to the point that it lets the crickets run around him/her and even at one point sat there basking with one squirming under its foot.

she/he has also been getting stress marks on its belly which we were worried about and rang the pet shop, they said it was just to absorb more heat, but its happening frequently its going back white then there coming back again any ideas????

anyone got any idea of what we can do?? i dont want him/her to get sick

 

[corinthian]

its probably relocation stress.. from what i've heard they can take up to 10 days/2weeks to settle into a new environment and fall into a regular eating pattern so i wouldnt worry too much at this stage... just keep offering the food and he'll take it when he's ready... i'll admit i'm not that experienced but i'm sure someone will correct me if i'm wrong but i would give it at least a week or so before getting too concerned..

on another note, don't leave him unsupervised with crickets in his tank as they can bite your beardie, stressing it out even more and risking infection...

hope this puts your mind at rest a bit

 

[treezababe]

Oki thankyou will keep offering him them and see how it goes

 

[Kalyn876]

If by chance she starts to lose weight, you could try a critical care supplement to kick start his appetite. Try not to handle him too much this first week maybe taking him out for 10-15 minutes once a day just so he can get used to his surroundings without too much stress from being handled. Babies can be very stressful at times but they are so worth it!! Try not to worry too much and maybe try to get some water into him... I use a syringe and put a drop on their nose eventually they lick it off. Soon enough all you have to do it get the syringe and they start licking their lips :lol:

Jut curious about what size of food you are trying to give? If it's too big or small my beardies ignore it.

 

[treezababe]

Ok thankyou will make sure I keep an eye on the weight

And that was another thing I was going to ask actually atm we havnt handled him atall as we were scared it would stress him\her out too much with the move and everything, when would you suggest that it would be okie to handle him without stressin him too much? he looks so small and delecate at the moment am scared of hurting him!

and as for the crickets were feeding him medium sized ones as the pet shop guy told us when we brought him that he had just moved to them from the small ones, we did get him to eat three yesturday morning and he seemed to eat them with no problems, and there no bigger than the space between his eyes

 

[Kalyn876]

As long as they are no bigger than the space between his eyes he shoud be good. I would definitely start handling in small increments. Otherwise they can slowly revert back to their natural instincts. I find the best time to hold them is at night when they get sleepy. Not too much can stress them out when they are tired. I cuddle both my guys seperately every night. When you pick him up a lot of beardies prefer to be "scooped" rather than have the hand come from above. Be confident when you pick him up as they can sense your energy and he will feel more condfident as well.

 

[SoleSky]

On another note, you said you were using wood chippings. I would strongly suggest removing these out of the viv and putting in papertowel, slate tile, or nonadhesive shelf liner. The wood chips, when he does start to eat, can cause serious impaction (get lodged in their intestines) Since babies are such clumsy eaters the risk is extremely high. Also you should have a tube UVB bulb, reptisun 10.0 UVB is the best.

http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiSun%C2%AE-Fluorescent-18-Inch/dp/B0009YJ3BE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310397470&sr=8-1

heres a link for that. Also how are you measuring your temps? A digital thermometer works best and is most accurate. The stick on therms aren't accurate enough.

To the problem where he won't eat: It's most likely relocation stress from only having him for two days and he will most likely eat soon. You can expect one to two weeks for that without cause for alarm. Congrats on your new baby

 

[treezababe]

Ok the wood chipping pieces are very large but just incase I will change that, and we have a tube uvb set up in there and two digital thermometers so I think that's okay

And yeh quite a lot of people have said it will take him a bit of time to get used to the environment and eat, he ate quite well last nite got him to eat about 15 crix so I think he'll be fine

Thankyou all for advice

 

[SoleSky]

That's great! I'm happy he ate for you! Wait until he starts eating upwards of 50 crickets per day!