Poop question and seeming lethargic

[JesterDS]

Recently got a beardie for my daughter and helping her take care of it. Owned a few 15 years ago before going off to college and giving them to a fitting household that wanted them. Not completely inexperienced and have done quite a bit of research but still a little puzzled by her actions lately.

She was hatched early april of this year. She is around 16 inches head to tip of tail and seemed quite healthy. Pretty good live feeders eater but does not eat much veggies that I have offered (greens and squash). Dust her food and give her vitamins. Eats dubias/supers/crickets. I spray her daily and give her a soaking bath 2x a week. She has a basking light that gets her basking spot roughly 95-100 degrees. Brand new reptisun 10.0 T8 that spans the length of her cage and is not blocked by screen mesh or anything. Coolside of the tank is around 75ish in the day and the ceramic heater doesn't seem to do much at night. House cools to 65-68 F at night. She seems to pop daily - every 3 days. Does not drink water when offerd on the tank wall or drops on her nose. Havent been offering standing water in tank lately as she didn't seem to drink it anyways and didn't want to risk her pooping in it and drinking.

Use paper towels as tank flooring, except removed the papertowel to see how much liquid her next poop would have so the papertowel wouldn't absorb it. She normally poops in the same spot in her tank.

So my main questions are - can a dragon her age be affected by brumation?

And does her poop look normal or is this diarrhea poop? You can somewhat see how much extra liquid (pee?) was with the poop? Did have a smell but don't really have a baseline to say if it was smellier than it should be?

She didn't eat dinner last night which was rare for her and didn't come out this morning when her lights went on (has a rock she usually gets inside to sleep). Don't want to wait too long to take her to the vet or should I give it a little more time?

Thanks for the input!

 

[JesterDS]

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

She could definitely be affected by seasonal changes. At her age, it is a large possibility.
They can go into brumation phases as early as 6 months of age, so it isn't uncommon
The stool doesn't look out of the ordinary. The urates are hard or soft?
The ceramic heater probably does help keep her tank from getting too cold at night, so it
is probably a good idea to use it since it is wintertime now & your house is a bit cooler.
Most of them do not drink water off of a dropper or out of standing water unless you work
with them early on.
Is the Reptisun 10 tube mounted directly overhead or on the back wall?
Has her beard been dark or normal color recently & is her weight stable?


Tracie

 

[JesterDS]

Hello,

She could definitely be affected by seasonal changes. At her age, it is a large possibility.
They can go into brumation phases as early as 6 months of age, so it isn't uncommon
The stool doesn't look out of the ordinary. The urates are hard or soft?

The urates seemed softer to me but looked a bit brown/red from other pictures I had seen (I haven't noticed her eating her buttermilk squash but maybe she did. She also eats more superworms than anything else currently.

The ceramic heater probably does help keep her tank from getting too cold at night, so it
is probably a good idea to use it since it is wintertime now & your house is a bit cooler.
Most of them do not drink water off of a dropper or out of standing water unless you work
with them early on.

Ok, Ill see if I can keep the ceramic closer to her sleeping area to raid that temp up a bit more at night and hopefully I am getting her enough hydration with bi weekly baths/misting + anything she gets from eating?

Is the Reptisun 10 tube mounted directly overhead or on the back wall?

Mounted overhead - ~8-10 inches from her basking area, direct contact, no plexiglass/screen mesh. I actually cut the screen away so the light could directly fit. My tank is 36" long and my light is exactly 36" long as well, so could not mount inside.

Has her beard been dark or normal color recently & is her weight stable?

Have not seen any dark on her beard or any part of her body that is out of norm. Her weight seems steady but I will go pickup a gram scale to chart her weight to be more exact. She seems like she has a healthy weight/muscle mass/no bones showing to me.

At what point would you try to get her into the vet vs. thinking its possible brumation and letting her do her natural cycle?

Thank you Tracie!