New Girl Acting Weird.

[NeonZebraSpots]

I posted this in the Behavior Forums as well, but i didn't know what category it fell under more since maybe this could be a Health issue also:

Me and my boyfriend have had our beardie Mojo for 2 going on 3 months now. We just picked up a little girl from a recent expo (1 week ago) She's acting really weird. We do have them in the same tank, they are the same size as each other, both about 4 months old. Our male is a little bit fatter than her but same size all in all. They are very young at the moment and we plan on getting different tanks as they grow since taking into consideration that they probably wont get along once older. They are great together and they hang out on the basking log together, she lays on him, he lays on her and they look very happy together. Never and sign of aggression from either. We take them out separately to eat when we feed them crickets, we just put their salad in there for lunch. She doesn't take to much interest in it but he eats it good. She'll eat some if we hand feed it to her. Mojo our fat little guy he eats good. Goes after his food good, runs around...very hyper active. She only eats about 4 at most and thats if they come to her and she takes about 2 minutes inbetween each one. we go in there at random times when she's in the cage and she's standing on the little waterfall. Not really in the water but laying on top of it leaning up against the glass. I put her back on the basking log becasue she feels like shes freezing then she hops on top of Mojo or stands next to him for a bit. might stay there for an hour two and then right back to the waterfall. which is making me wonder, she doesn't use the hide log, just the waterfall at the top against the glass. when we take he out of the cage she just sits there in our hand and doesn't really move alot. almost like she's frozen in place. i just dont understand it. i know that they are scared when you first get them but i dont remember Mojo acting like this when we first got him. If anyone has any insight on it please let me know. She's looking very skinny, and she was pretty skinny when we got her. figured we'd feed her up and get her going but she's just not wanting to work at.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Sounds like it could still be a bit of relocation stress! Also them laying on top of each other is a sign of domination! So I would suggest to start to get your viv in order! Good luck....

 

[NeonZebraSpots]

We have them in a 40g breeder tank at the moment. We were thinking about putting up a solid divider in the middle, since the cage is still so big and they are kinda tiny still. Just didn't know how long it would be before they would outgrow that. We have a extra 10g tank that we are keeping crickets in, we could do something else with them and set that up for her but i really didn't want to throw her in a 10g. I don't have the money extra money at the moment for another 40g breeder tank (plus a full set up) like i would like so trying to figure out something that might be acceptable for about 2-3 months maybe. Maybe i should check out the forums section and see about making one for fairly cheap! :lol: although i've never been much for being crafty. any suggestions are welcome.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

If you split it down the center I think you should be fine for a little while! Look at it like this its a 20 gal for both babies! Use the same uvb and try to split the heat light! Good luck.. :wink:

 

[Rachella]

I'm gonna go ahead and say that I agree with everyone else. Splitting them up would be the best thing to do. It sounds like she could be going under some relocation stress, which would explain her lack of appetite and behaviour. Separating her from the other beardie will give her some peace of mind. A split tank shouldn't hurt for a few months. Heck, my poor Dude and Girl had a split tank for nearly half a year or so before we could get Girl her own happy abode. Just make sure they both can get to a UVB source and have heat lamps.

 

[NeonZebraSpots]

yeah she's getting worse now. We are going to fix it when we get home from work today. Yesterday afternoon after she ate about 3 critckets she ran under the basking log in the back corner and stayed there. My boyfriend got home for lunch about 10 minutes ago to check on them and give them some breakfast and she was still there, i dont think she ever moved. Went to bed like that and stayed there all morning and our lights come on at 6:30am. He moved the log and picked her up and she seemed fine, woke right now. Just really cold and still pretty skinny based on her length. Any suggestions on something to part the 40g Breeder tank or even a efficient way of doing so? The UVB can be shared easily and we have an extra heat lamp just need a new bulb so i dont think it would be an issue at all just getting it all up and figuring out a convient way of working it out.

 

[spyder79]

if they are small a simple thick piece of cardboard taped on the bottom and the sides will seperate them. I have a question though an please understand im not trying to be mean but. Why did you buy a second dragon if you did not already have a enclosure setup for it. This always gets me that people purchase a animal with "plans" to get its housing setup. Thats not how it should work. For the health of your animals you should always have your home prepared for it before you get it.

 

[Rachella]

Cardboard could work if you've got one. We ended up buying a thick piece of poster board from a local arts store and cutting it. Make sure you cut it about an inch or two shorter than the height of the tank to help prevent any chance of the heat melting it.

Since she hasn't been eating much you may want to try and offer her some baby food, like chicken, and see if she'll eat some of that. If she won't lick it off of a spoon you could use a dropper to gently smear some along her mouth, that sometimes works too. For the most part though I'd leave her alone for a few days to let her recover and get used to her surroundings. Feed and bathe her as normal, but just try to let her get accustomed. Leave a plate of chopped up veggies in there for her all day and watch it to see if she ever takes a nibble.

Hope she starts eating more soon.

 

[NeonZebraSpots]

Well when i was at the expo i was talking to the breeder lady that i got her from and she said that a male and female would be fine together until they are to reach puberty and then he will get aggressive toward her. But she said as long as we take them out and feed them separetly then they will be fine. She just stressed the fact that if we had a male we absolutely HAD to get a female if we was going to house them until puberty. We figured great, she's beautiful and this lady breeds them so she must know something. She had been breeding them for a while, had pictures of her set ups at home, she takes orders online and ships them and things. When we got our first from the petstore we told ourself that we was never going to believe another person about Beadies except breeders, someone that has actually had experience with them because the petstore had no clue what so ever what he needed and almost EVERYTHING we got at the petstore has already been replaced due to their misguidence. So there we was talking to a breeder. All of her dragons were together, non had stress marks, they were all eating fine. Of course non of them were together that were bigger than maybe 12-14 inches. She had separate tanks there for each of the bigger ones. So we didn't see any reason not to trust what she was saying. I never really read into it when looking on here and searching these forums because we didn't have the issue of having two dragons together until now. But she was just very imformational and very persistant in what she was saying. Nothing like the petstore says, "Here's your new beardie, get him a fluorescent bulb, a heat rock, and a few mealworms and your good, oh and dont forget the iceburg lettuce very important" type of talking.

 

[spyder79]

your biggest problem is males can start puberty as early as 5 months. he will kill her trying to breed her. I am sorry that the breeder wanted to make a sale so badly that they missinformed you that is just sad.

 

[NeonZebraSpots]

yeah i agree, my boyfriend has her out of the cage now spending a little time personally with her. He's about to give her a swim/bath and maybe try to get her to eat something. I get off in 1 hour and then we are going to rearrange the tank and set it up propertly for them both. Thanks for everyones posts and help on this. I'll post pictures later of the new set up and see if everyone thinks it will be suitable for a while. Thanks guys.

 

[spyder79]

just so you know another way to do this and not take any space away from them would be to get a large sterlite container they are normally around 8 bux or so for a good sized one. you already have a heat light you would just need another UV light and you would be good and that could be used as a setup for longer than splitting that 40 gallon.

 

[Rachella]

Unfortunately, even at the expo's, reputable breeders can and probably will say anything to get someone to buy their beardies. It's a matter of clearing out space, making a sale and thinking, 'Oh hey, if they really care they'll research this and then they'll fix it'. I don't mean to insult any breeder out there, I recognize the hard work it takes to do what they do. But I also recognize that things will be said to make a sale to pay off for their table, feeders, lights, phones, etc.

In my opinion and nearly everyone else's here on the forums, keeping a male and female together is a disaster waiting to happen. Keeping -any- of them together is a disaster waiting to happen, but the male/female combination even more so.

But hey, that's what the forum is here for. To get this knowledge out and stop bad things from happening with some good old fashioned preventive measures! I'm sure your girl is going to be much happier and feel much safer with her own space and not having to worry about anyone else taking it or her food.

I can't wait to see pictures of the setup! Not only will it allow us to give you more advice if you need it, but also, I enjoy seeing how other people have set up their vivs in general! I lack in the decorating department, myself.

 

[NeonZebraSpots]

Well we finished redoing the tank and i took a couple pictures but i think my computer might take all night to upload them, dunno whats wrong with it.

We had to use some of our old stuff so it would all fit and they would both have access to the heat lamp and both have a hide box but i think its pretty decent and will be ok for a couple of weeks until i get paid. any suggestions for a quick fix is welcome. thanks for the help guys, i'll post pictures when they all upload.

 

[NeonZebraSpots]

Ok, here's the pictures. Good enough for 2 weeks? We did a temp test and basking around for boths sides is about 105F-106F and cool area is sitting about about 79 on Mojo's side and 81 on Kaela's side.


The Whole Cage

Kaela's Side

Mojo's Side