Pellets?

[jwideman]

What brand of pellets are best and where can I get them?

 

[sweetiepie9]

I've never used pellets, but the ones I did buy were by Rep-cal. My dragons just don't like them, but I've heard alot of people buy that brand.

 

[LLLReptile]

Rep Cal is generally the most preferred, as the bright colors and fruit flavor/smell entice them pretty nicely. Nature Zone bearded dragon bites are also usually eaten with no problems.

-Jen

 

[jwideman]

Thanks, both of you. Naturally, I'd rather use live food, but with the weather getting colder that gets problematic.

 

[jwideman]

Update: Got Nature Zone Bites. The problem is, she won't touch them. I tried hand feeding and she spit out the first one, won't open her mouth for another try. On the other hand, she actually went after her superworm (only eats one a day, and seems to only want one) on her own today, which is a huge improvement. Wouldn't touch turnip greens either, or even apple.
Temps peak at 100, though it stays at at least 95 for hours. She actually moved off the basking spot when it got over 95, after having climbed all the way into it on her own (another huge improvement). She's alert for most of the day, but starts getting sleepy around the 11th hour of light mark. UVB is good, though after years of not having it at all, she still has MBD (though has grown quite a bit in our care.)
She'll climb under her log at night, where the temp dips below 70 (but still above 65). Anyway, should I keep trying to get her to eat?

 

[PastelBeardie]

I have experience with MBD, but not in bearded dragons. You want to make sure she gets lots of calcium, especially for the first several months, since her bones will be weak. I'd suggest feeding her the most calcium dense worms she'll eat, maybe Phoenix worms, and keeping a dish of calcium powder in her enclosure for her to lick as needed. My MBD crestie licked up quite a bit of that powder when I first got her. Mine wouldn't eat much either, and I ended up hand feeding her for about 6 weeks before she started eating on her own.

 

[LLLReptile]

Update: Got Nature Zone Bites. The problem is, she won't touch them. I tried hand feeding and she spit out the first one, won't open her mouth for another try. On the other hand, she actually went after her superworm (only eats one a day, and seems to only want one) on her own today, which is a huge improvement. Wouldn't touch turnip greens either, or even apple.
Temps peak at 100, though it stays at at least 95 for hours. She actually moved off the basking spot when it got over 95, after having climbed all the way into it on her own (another huge improvement). She's alert for most of the day, but starts getting sleepy around the 11th hour of light mark. UVB is good, though after years of not having it at all, she still has MBD (though has grown quite a bit in our care.)
She'll climb under her log at night, where the temp dips below 70 (but still above 65). Anyway, should I keep trying to get her to eat?

This time of year, it's entirely possible she's trying to brumate.

Unfortunately, without knowing more about the situation leading up to this point, it's hard to say exactly why she's not eating. :/

-Jen

 

[sweetiepie9]

As a rescuer & having had 2 beardies with MBD you definitely need to give her lots of calcium. I dusted all Angel's food (she's the one that had the most severe MBD, she was almost 2 yrs old & had never had any UVB) plus gave her a dose liquid calcium (which came with her) every day. Plus a bath every day, which she always tried to jump out of & that strengthened her muscles, which is really important. You can reverse the MBD a bit but not all, so her bones will stay a bit soft, so muscle tone is the answer to getting her on her feet. I fed her a couple of supers, then chicken babyfood & babyfood squash with lots of calcium in it, as she couldn't deal with greens yet. After a month of that she was better with eating supers & I was making a squash/collard greens salad for my 2 babies, so ground the squash in my small food processor & cut the greens in little pieces, mixed it up with calcium & she ate quite a bit of it every morning before bath & supers. After 2 mo she was running around and had gained quite a bit of weight (she was severely skinny when I got her). It was great to see. So don't worry about the bites, they're not full food anyway & really are treats. Mainly you want to get alot of nutrition into her, even if it's babyfood by syringe until she'll eat more beardie food.

 

[jwideman]

I have experience with MBD, but not in bearded dragons. You want to make sure she gets lots of calcium, especially for the first several months, since her bones will be weak. I'd suggest feeding her the most calcium dense worms she'll eat, maybe Phoenix worms, and keeping a dish of calcium powder in her enclosure for her to lick as needed. My MBD crestie licked up quite a bit of that powder when I first got her. Mine wouldn't eat much either, and I ended up hand feeding her for about 6 weeks before she started eating on her own.

Wait, they can lick up the powder itself? *facepalm* I've been cleaning it up! *sigh*
We've had her awhile and she's been steadily improving. We've been hand feeding her mixed vegetables, apples, dusted superworms, and dusted crickets. Live insects put up too much of a fight, but we've reversed the MBD enough now that she can handle a superworm on her own.
I've been wanting to get Phoenix worms. It's just a matter of finding a local supply.

And yeah, I'm thinking she's trying to brumate, which is why I wasn't sure if I should continue to try feeding her.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Yes, because she shouldn't be brumating at all, she needs to build up her strength alot more before she can sleep. So make sure you get her up every day, feed her & make sure she basks for at least 5 hours. If she goes to sleep early, that's fine. I have a 9 1/2 yr old dragon named Lonzo, he damaged his right lung this past spring so that it hardly functions. As a result he's not allowed to brumate & he's fed every day, as he's been losing weight. He doesn't like it as he's used to sleeping for at least 3 months every winter, but I wasn't taking any chances with only 1 lung functioning. So he's up every day, gets his food, basks & if he wants to sleep by 4p, he's allowed to. But he's up every single day, like it or not (and he really didn't like it when I started getting him up every day in September, his usual sleeping time, talk about death glares! :lol: )

 

[PastelBeardie]

Wait, they can lick up the powder itself? *facepalm* I've been cleaning it up! *sigh*
We've had her awhile and she's been steadily improving. We've been hand feeding her mixed vegetables, apples, dusted superworms, and dusted crickets. Live insects put up too much of a fight, but we've reversed the MBD enough now that she can handle a superworm on her own.
I've been wanting to get Phoenix worms. It's just a matter of finding a local supply.

And yeah, I'm thinking she's trying to brumate, which is why I wasn't sure if I should continue to try feeding her.

She probably could lick the calcium powder up if she chose to. For a while after I rescued her when her MBD was at its worst, my gecko was licking up quite a bit. I don't know if a beardie would be as interested in the powder as the gecko was because it just sits there and doesn't move, but it probably wouldn't hurt to try. Someone who knows beardies better than I do could give you a better guess.