epauletteshark
Member
About a week ago, I got a two year old dragon from a shelter and I'm starting to become worried about her. On the day I brought her home, she basked a lot and readily ate 5 dubia roaches and the butternut squash and collards out of her salad. Over the next few days, she didn't eat any salad, but still gobbled down any roach that appeared in front of her. Now, she seems reluctant to eat roaches too, and has spent a lot more time hiding. When I turn the lights on in the morning, she will stay in the place where she had been sleeping for hours with her eyes half open, and at around 4:30 pm will go to a sleeping spot and stay there until lights out(8:00). She has become darker and her stress marks have reappeared after vanishing on day 2. I have noticed that a bath helps temporarily; she will get lighter and be more interested in basking and eating(after a bath last night she ate some butternut squash), but it will wear off after a while and I will find her hiding again. I understand that the timeframe and behavior(not eating a lot, lethargy, hiding) suggest relocation stress, but she seems to be getting worse instead of better over time when I can't think of anything I've done recently that would increase her stress. Is this kind of a 'relapse' of stress normal, or do I need to take her to a vet?
I am thinking she is trying to brumate -- if all is good w/ the lighting and temps and shes 2 years old and its the time of year where they brumate then I would say that is what shes doing --- I would get a weight on her now kitchen food scale weigh in grams keep track make sure shes 
) She hasn't basked or pooped since, and it seems like now she is heading into brumation. Do I need to somehow interrupt her brumation to get her to bask, digest and poop out that roach so it doesn't cause any problems? I've read that food sitting around in their digestive tracts during brumation can rot and make them very sick, but I'm not sure if it's true.
