dragonlover3
Sub-Adult Member
Wow, this make me angry and is just so sad. He's so malnourished, underweight and he's been starved. Fat pad sites on his head are sunken. You can clearly see his spine and hip protrusions! He's so tiny.
He can have a loss of appetite experiencing some relocation stress for anywhere from a few day to a week or more.
You have already received good advice from Esther.
That's good he's taking the reptaboost, mixing it with some baby food squash would be good. I'd get a probiotic and give him a bit everyday to help restore his good gut flora and it also enhances their ability to absorb properly. I'd feed him small amounts at least twice a day but try for 3 times a day. Make sure his temperatures are at optimum for his digestion and body functions.
You don't need a fancy expensive reptile basking bulb, that just makes money for the pet industry. A plain regular bright white light bulb is fine for a basking bulb, it produces bright light to constrict the pupils to protect his eyes from the UVB he needs and it produces heat, some use halogen bulbs.
Since he is so starved I'd not give him any protein til he has urate, even then I'd give very little and re-introduce protein very slowly into his diet. Here is why.
Urate is his kidney waste, like our urine. When they are starved sometime the kidney will slow down or stop working. The by product of protein metabolism is uric acid. When the kidneys are not working well...or at all, uric acid can become so elevated it can cause kidneys and organs to fail.
When he passes some urate his kidneys are functioning but I'd only, very slowly, add protein in small amounts.
I'd hydrate him daily with a 10 to 15 minute very shallow, up to his elbows, warm water and Pedialyte soaks and offer water and Pedialyte orally. Dilute the Pedialyte one part water to one part Pedialyte and use that to mix his food with and for him to drink. You can also splash some into his bath water. You can use the generic infant electrolyte solution.
He show signs of Metabolic Bone Disease. I'd get some liquid calcium and start him on that as soon as possible. It can be the reason or contributing to his shakiness.
Keep him warm and let him rest. Keeping his temp up at night to about 80*F can help boost his immune system.
Mealies, or meal worms are not good for bearded dragons any time but especially when malnourished or ill. You can look up the calcium/phosphorus ratio on line. Keep in mind the perfect ratio is about 2 calcium to 1 phophorus. Mealworms have an extremely poor calcium to phosphorus ratio and will cause the body to draw calcium from his bones to correct the calcium-phos balance and will contribute to Metabolic Bone Disease
I'd get a probiotic ASAP and give him every day. It will help restore his good gut flora
I hope this helps
Amanda
....and Dusti is gorgeous!
Donovan - strong fighter
Callan - strong in battle
Carlin- little champion
He can have a loss of appetite experiencing some relocation stress for anywhere from a few day to a week or more.
You have already received good advice from Esther.
That's good he's taking the reptaboost, mixing it with some baby food squash would be good. I'd get a probiotic and give him a bit everyday to help restore his good gut flora and it also enhances their ability to absorb properly. I'd feed him small amounts at least twice a day but try for 3 times a day. Make sure his temperatures are at optimum for his digestion and body functions.
You don't need a fancy expensive reptile basking bulb, that just makes money for the pet industry. A plain regular bright white light bulb is fine for a basking bulb, it produces bright light to constrict the pupils to protect his eyes from the UVB he needs and it produces heat, some use halogen bulbs.
Since he is so starved I'd not give him any protein til he has urate, even then I'd give very little and re-introduce protein very slowly into his diet. Here is why.
Urate is his kidney waste, like our urine. When they are starved sometime the kidney will slow down or stop working. The by product of protein metabolism is uric acid. When the kidneys are not working well...or at all, uric acid can become so elevated it can cause kidneys and organs to fail.
When he passes some urate his kidneys are functioning but I'd only, very slowly, add protein in small amounts.
I'd hydrate him daily with a 10 to 15 minute very shallow, up to his elbows, warm water and Pedialyte soaks and offer water and Pedialyte orally. Dilute the Pedialyte one part water to one part Pedialyte and use that to mix his food with and for him to drink. You can also splash some into his bath water. You can use the generic infant electrolyte solution.
He show signs of Metabolic Bone Disease. I'd get some liquid calcium and start him on that as soon as possible. It can be the reason or contributing to his shakiness.
Keep him warm and let him rest. Keeping his temp up at night to about 80*F can help boost his immune system.
Mealies, or meal worms are not good for bearded dragons any time but especially when malnourished or ill. You can look up the calcium/phosphorus ratio on line. Keep in mind the perfect ratio is about 2 calcium to 1 phophorus. Mealworms have an extremely poor calcium to phosphorus ratio and will cause the body to draw calcium from his bones to correct the calcium-phos balance and will contribute to Metabolic Bone Disease
I'd get a probiotic ASAP and give him every day. It will help restore his good gut flora
I hope this helps
Amanda
....and Dusti is gorgeous!
Donovan - strong fighter
Callan - strong in battle
Carlin- little champion
I have a digital scale for him and Dusti...However, I am happy to say that he had a bowel movement last night while I was trying to give him the Repti-boost ( 1/2 white, 1/2 VERY dark brown and VERY sandy...he even passed what looked like a tiny stick about 5mm)...The woman that had him before me, had him on REAL beach sand!! Like wtf ugh some people should be smacked!!! I hope my poor lil angel pulls through!!! Please keep him in your thoughts!!! 
