Older Bearded Dragon -have questions

[Lgray]

I am taking care of my sons beardie while he's out of town. I am not sure how old she is at least 10 if not older.
Lately she hasn't been eating. I asked pets mart they told me colder months they don't eat much so I didn't worry to much about it. I continued to have her food Flukers Buffet Blend in her dish and in another dish I would have cilantro, bell peppers, kiwi, grapes. Cilantro is her favorite. I stopped giving her crickets about 6 months ago because she wouldn't eat them and they would just get on her and her eyes and I knew they couldn't be good for her.
I have continued to feel her superworms because that's really all she eats and sometimes she won't eat those. I also feed her horn worms because she loves those and will eat them

I have sand in the cage
I just replaced the UVB with a 26 W 150 Reptile brand
I have that one during the day with 150w basking light

At night I only 100 infrared red bulb

Her day temp is about 100/110 in the warmest spot
At night temp is about 80

She has a tree she can climb to get heigher and a log tunnel she can go into to

On Monday I almost killed her. I put her outside it was only about 85 outside she was out there about 30 minutes
When I went out to bring her in she had pooped ( last time she pooped) she was an ash color and her eyes were bulging out of her head
I rushed her to the vet they said she had heat stroke ( I felt horrible ) they gave her floods and does of meloxicam then and I gave another dose 24 hours later. They didn't take blood because she was so stressed they didn't want to add to her stress
I have since been giving her 2 baths a day - the first day after I gave her baths 1/2 in water 1/2 in pedilight as vet recommended
Now just giving her normal bath

Now her back leg is twitching - not bad but it hasn't done that before

I bought Flunkers liquid calcium (haven't given her any of this yet because she's never had it and really don't know if this is issue just didn't want to give her anything)
I bought Zod Nef Adult Bearded. dragon food with vitiams ( and I bought Flunkets medley treats not sure if she's eat it because she's not eating the food in her bowl

Should I worry
The vet I took her to wasn't a reptile vet ( they said they treated all animals but not many reptiles) just had to get her to someone quick the day I took her
Any advice would be great

 

[VenusAndSaturn]

I would avoid listening to petstores at all costs, especially petco and petsmart as they have no idea what they are saying, they have no experience and shouldn't sell live animals.

It is true in the colder months they slow down, they go into a thing called burmation, sometimes it lasts a month, a few weeks, other times it can last up to 7 months or more.


10 years is a pretty good run, still has about 5-10 more years left though if well cared for. On average they generally live for 15-20 years. Some may make it over that. In all honesty most reptiles have a lifespans of 15-20 years, some like the ball python even 20-40 years in captivity.

I would stop feeding her pelleted food, they can cause digestive issues.

heres a feeding guide, it pretty much covers the basics
ll life stages eat 10-20 bugs a feeding.
1-4 months 3x a day.
4-12 months 2x a day.
12-20 months once a day.
20+ months twice a week at the least, every other day at the most.

Staple feeders - Crickets, locusts, grasshoppers, silkworms, black soldier fly larvae, dubia roaches, turkish roaches, possibly earthworms.

Treat feeders - Waxworms, hornworms, superworms, mealworms, butterworms.
Wax worms - once a week, 4-5 max.
Hornworms - every other day to every two days, 4-6 max.
Mealworms - every other day to every two days, 5-10 max. Only for beardies above 6 months.
Superworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max. Only for beardies above 12 months.
Butterworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max.

Daily greens- Turnip/collard/mustard greens, endive, and kale if added to a mixture of the other staple greens mentioned.
Fruit once or twice a week - Banana, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, red raspberries.
For more food items -
http://www.thebeardeddragon.org/bearded ... ta.php#veg
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

You want two supplements at the very least, a calcium and a multivitamin.

Generally beardies below two years need calcium 5x a week and multivitamins 2x a week.

However beardies above two years or at two years of age need calcium only 1-4x a week with
multivitamins 1-2x a week.
This depends on how your adult beardie is with diet, health, just laid eggs, is laying eggs, etc.


As for your setup get rid of the sand and replace with paper towels, non adhesive shelf liner, or tile.
You can also use repticarpet but it is a big pain for cleaning and nails get stuck in it.
Plain sand is unnatural for them, they live mostly on a dirt, clay and rock mixture with lots of vegetation. However in captivity they do not to so well on this as most people don't have a large 6x3x3 enclosure with tons of climbing space for the bearded dragon to get off the substrate.
All particle substrates will cause impaction, prolapses, joint issues, a bacterial infested breeding ground, scale rot, fungal infections and of course death.

I assume you have an Exo terra 26w 150 bulb, if its not mounted inside at about 6-8 inches above the basking spot at the very most then it will not produce correct UVB.
If you can get a Reptisun T5 HO 10.0 22" bulb at the very least with a fitting reflective fixture.
You can also go for another brand/bulb like the Arcadia T5 HO 12% or 14% bulbs.
By the way without proper lighting the reptile will slowly fail to thrive and die a very agonizing painful death as its bones will break and turn rubbering and sometimes it gets so bad the reptile can't even eat so it has to be tube fed.

You can get the reptisun and fixtures off of amazon, and then arcadia off of lightyourreptiles.com

https://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-26061-Reptisun-Fluorescent/dp/B00AQU8HAO/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1523140595&sr=1-1&keywords=reptisun+t5+ho+22%22
Thats the Reptisun T5 HO 10.0 bulb

I can not find the fixture that I was going to send so this one will have to do, it may come with a bulb and that bulb is probably going to be a 5.0 so do not use it unless it actually is a 10.0.
https://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-26053-Reptisun-Terrarium/dp/B00AQU8F2O/ref=pd_bxgy_199_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00AQU8F2O&pd_rd_r=NEXXBBMAX4XDQM9EEH5Z&pd_rd_w=O7CQG&pd_rd_wg=g0TJK&psc=1&refRID=NEXXBBMAX4XDQM9EEH5Z


You do not need to use heat at night unless it drops below 65, so please turn that off as beardies also see in color which effects their sleep when they have a bright shining light over them at night.
If it drops below 65 get a ceramic heat emitter.

Make sure your monitoring the temps with a temp gun or digital temperature gauge with a probe.
Both can be bought on amazon.

Basking temp 100-110.
Warm side (area around the basking spot(s) 88-95.
Cool side 70-85.
Night time temp no lower than 65 and no higher than 85.

Also being outside for 30 minutes at 85 is fine, actually 85 is a perfect temp for going outside if I'm honest.
Being outside does stress beardies out, I brought my adult female outside a few days ago when it was about 68 for a few minutes and everytime my mom stood up she'd puff up and move a bit away from her, she actually almost bit her when she came toward her. Meanwhile in the house she's fine as this is where she's used to and theres not a bunch of new smells, noises and birds around.