Plzzzzzz help my beardie barely eating!!

[brazilman93]

Backround information:
I i got my bearded dragon name sandfire about one week ago at a well known reptile store in San Antonio, TX. I had purchased a snake and box turtle their before and the people have always been very knowledgeable so i do not think it is a parasite or illness but i am still goign to take her to our reptile vet. Sandfire is about 4 months old. Right now she is kept in a 30 gallon tank but i am currently building her a 4x2x2 vivarium to transfer her to when she gets a bit older. In her cage i have a basking light with the temperature reaching about 110 degrees on the basking rock underneath the light. There is also a reptisun 10.0 bulb for the uva/uvb spectrum that i know she needs. Right now i am using paper towels as my substrate because i know when they are young there is higher risk of impaction, i plan to eventually use zoomed repti sand when she is older(is sand a good substrate). The temperature in her cage during the day is about 90 degrees and at night it is about 80 (are these the right Temps.?)

The problem: I turn the lights on at around seven AM in the morning and lights out is around eight PM. At around eight every morning i finely chop some green beans, collard greens, and mustard greens and put them in a clear feeding dish in her cage. I also change out her water dish every morning and put in distilled water because the tap water in my area as a few chemicals to keep it clean that i don't think would be good for her. I keep about 200 crickets at my house. The crickets are about 3/8 inch-1/2 inch wich is about the size of the space between her eyes. I feed her about twice to three times a day and offer her as many crickets as she can eat in 10 minutes, the problem is that she only eats about 1 or 2 crickets and then compleatly ignores the crickets. She also barely touches her veggies but i know this is normal for a young beardie. Am i doing something wrong? Because from what i have read at her age she should be eating more then 4 crickets a day!

Please help me!!
I want the best for my beautiful little beardie.

 

[peera]

Try getting smaller crickets until she gets up to the numbers you should be seeing (30-50 per feeding). Miss Priss wouldn't touch more than 8 1/2" crickets when I got her even though she could eat them according to the between the eyes rule.. but once I got some 1/4" she couldn't get enough of them! And so after a couple weeks of her eating tons of the little ones she was a lot more willing to eat as many of the 1/2" ones as she needed. Also, make sure she's warm when you try to feed her, being cold makes them less interested in food... warming up the feeding enclosure a bit can be a good idea too so her belly isn't on a cold floor.

The only sand that is ever recommended (and only for adults over a year) is washed and shifted silica free childrens playsand. Almost all the reptile sands have added calicium to encourage them to eat it, and clumping properties that form big impacting balls in their intestines.

Your temps sound great, although night temps can (and should) drop to 60-70*, so if you're using a heat emitor or something to keep them up at night, you can turn it off if your house doesn't drop below 60*.

Your water dish is probably unnessisary, most dragons never learn to drink out of standing water dishes and it'll get used as a toliet. Are you give her baths? Daily baths will keep her as hydrated as she needs to be (adults can go longer without them since they get more moisture in their diets from salad).

 

[brazilman93]

Thanks for the advice i guess i will get her some smaller crickets, i thought 3/8 was small enough though. Also i do give her baths about every other day and have been since the day after i got her (heard it was not good to mess with them the first day because they getting used to new habitat).

 

[brazilman93]

Thanks for the info on the smaller crickets but i don't really believe that is the problem, because the crickets are already small enough i mean they are about 3/8 which is plenty small for her size.

Does anyone else have any other ideas? Could she be about to shed? (I heard shedding can cause them to become less active and eat much less)

 

[LJean]

Some dragons get grouchy and eat less when shedding. She may also just be tired of crickets. Have you tried using another feeder?

 

[brazilman93]

It's all better now, I just changed her feeding schedual and bought some smaller crickets. Today she at like a pig, almost 17 crickets in 10 minutes, second feeding she ate only 9 but i guess she was kind of full. LOL Thanks from me and my beardie. :lol: