Not eating. Need advice.

[BigPapaMoai3]

Big Papa has been acting strange the last month. I just got him this summer and he had been doing great, eating plenty, very active. Now, he doesn't seem himself. He's been basking but not eating much of anything (no bugs, crickets or greens), his bowel movements are puny, and his skin seems pretty wrinkly. Is there something in my husbandry that is causing his lack of appetite? I've been an avid reader of this website and thought I was doing it right for the most part. Please help me.

http://s719.photobucket.com/albums/ww192/jpfei410/

To top it all off I've noticed that his hands look pretty roughed up. He snuck into the wall last week and I'm not sure if they're just scratches from that or if I should be more concerned. He doesn't seem to mind when I touch his hands.


How old is your dragon? Not positive, I would guess he's about 11 months to a year old
How long have you had your dragon? 8 months
How long is your dragon? 19 inches
What is the sex of your dragon? I'm pretty sure it's a male but I haven't had him sexed
What size enclosure do you have your dragon in? 4 X 2 X 2
What type substrate do you have on the bottom of your tank? Tile
Do you use UVB lights? Yes
If so, Is it a coil, compact, fluorescent tube, or Mercury Vapor bulb? Fluorescent tube
What is the brand name and number of your bulb? Wattage (if MVB)? Reptisun 5.0 but I've got a Reptisun 10.0 on it's way
How old is your UVB bulb? 3 months
How close can your dragon get to the UVB? 13 inches
Do you use a separate basking bulb? What kind and what is the wattage? Yes, Zoo Med 75 watt basking spot lamp bulb
What are the basking temps? 105
What is the cool side temp? 74
Do you take the temps with a stick on thermometer, a digital thermometer with a wire and a probe end or a temp gun? digital thermometer (cool side) and a digital thermometer with a probe wire (basking spot)
Where exactly are you taking your basking temps? Where he basks
Do you use a heat rock or heat pad? No
What do you feed your dragon? Please be specific. He hasn't been eating, so I've been trying to vary his diet. Usually he has mustard greens and collard greens and occasionally tulip greens when I can find them. Once every couple of days he'll get some fruit like strawberries or blueberries. He never really has gone all out on veggies but he's stopped eating them completely now. For live feeders, he gets a combination of superworms, mealworms and waxworms but he has eaten no more than 4-5 at a time now. I recently got him crickets, which he used to go for when he was younger but he didn't show much interest in those either.
How often do you feed and what time do you feed (morning, afternoon, night)? He gets fed once early in the day, around 10am and again at 5pm
Do you gutload (feed) your crickets, worms, etc? Not normally. He doesn't usually get crickets.
Do you use vitamin or calcium supplements? What brand(s)? How many days a week do you use each of them? I use powdered supplement (Repashy Superfoods Bearded Dragon Calcium Plus) with vitamin d3 every other feeding.
Is your dragon having regular bowel movements (poops)? He has been pooping about every other day but the bowel movements are a fraction of their normal size.
Do you bath your dragon? How often? Since he's been acting strangely, I try to give him one once a day.
Do you mist your dragon or offer water other than in the bath? I offer him water from a dropper every 2-3 days.
Does your dragon share an enclosure with another dragon? No
Have you gotten a vet check and fecal done? When I first got him he had coccidia and was treated with albon, then I gave him acidophiliz but he had gotten yellow fungus already, so I treated him for that, too.

 

[Embee]

I'm sorry Big Papa isn't eating for you.

You set up looks good. The only thing I might offer is that with the ReptiSun tubes (both the 5.0 and 10.0), ideally your dragon should be able to get within 6-8 inches of the bulb. As good strong UVB can certainly stimulate appetite, I wonder if you might want to modify some things in his enclosure so that he can get closer to the tube? Good that you have a 10.0 on the way.

We were using a ReptiSun 5.0 tube when we learned that our original UVB was less than stellar (a compact, yikes!). What we found was that initially, the 5.0 gave our beardie a good uplift as she hadn't been eating much/had been sluggish, under the compact. After about a month under the 5.0 however, her appetite tapered a bit, and the sluggishness was starting to come back. The change just wasn't as dramatic as we would have liked. We were going to upgrade her to the 10.0 which I think would have certainly helped however, we ended up finding a new, larger enclosure and were able to get her under a MVB (which has been great). At any rate, I do believe the 5.0 tubes taper off more quickly than the 10.0 tubes, and perhaps after 3 months, it's losing some power. That, along with beardie being 13 inches away could certainly be affecting his appetite.

The only other thing I would suggest is a fecal, if beardie can manage to "serve one up" for you. If he had Coccidia early on, perhaps there has been an "uprising." Not as common when not feeding the hoppers I know, but maybe it would be good to at least rule it out? :dontknow:

Other than that, nothing jumped out at me. Perhaps someone else will see something I haven't, another suggestion to try.

The best,
Em