probiotics and eating less?

[Nikki05]

I started my beardies on probiotics from the vet this past saturday. It's benabac gel and a pain to give it to them. He wanted me to start them on this before I got the fecal tests done because he said that normally every beardie he sees has a parasite that they have to treat. So starting them now would keep their natural bacteria at a good level.

Now my beardies have always loved their salad (and they are still very young, one is 30 g and the other is 25) I've noticed since starting the probiotic, they haven't been eating as many crickets, but about double the amount of salad. Is this ok? they are still eating, but it's down to maybe 10-20 crickets per beardie per day. They especially avoid the crickets when they are dusted with calcium or the vitamins.

I feel like I'm being paranoid, because even though their eating has slowed down yoshi (the bigger one) just did a full shed not even a whole week ago is starting another shed on her tail (this is the start of her 3rd shed in 2 months). And swampy just finished a full shed yesterday (his 2nd one in a month).

Even though the vet told me I'm doing a good job, I'm an anxious person and I can't help but worry if there is a change in their behavior.

I feel like I've been posting nonstop about things that are simply explained away but after losing a beardie out of the blue my anxiety is in overdrive worrying about these little guys!

 

[brittani299]

It's ok I am having the same problem. Stated daisy on probiotic and she is like blah. Someone on here told me that it is normal for this to happen

 

[vampy]

There's nothing in probiotics themselves that would make them feel ill, but perhaps whatever they are mixed with to make it a gel is making them unhappy. Or maybe they are just in a bad mood cos they are stressed at being syringe fed.

Have you been giving them regular baths? I'm not sure if this is true for beardies, but generally animals know what they need, so it could be that if they are eating a lot more salad than normal, they are a little dehydrated.

Or they might be grumpy due to the shed, or having a phase where they don't like crickets that much...some beardies can be pretty fussy at times. Have you tried other live feeders?

If they dont like the crickets dusted, have you tried dusting their veggies?

I wouldn't worry tooo much, if they are eating, even if not as much as before, and pooping ok and generally looking healthy, and they are going to have a fecal soon anyway, then your vet will catch any issues with their tummies if there are any.

 

[Nikki05]

They definitely hate being syringe fed! I do give baths about once every 3 days with the reptisafe water additive in it. Sometimes they drink it sometimes they don't.

How much would I use to dust their veggies? Just sprinkle some on the top?

And No I haven't tried any feeders with them besides crickets, but I was looking into reptiworms/pheonix worms. I just don't know how to store them :/

Thank you both for your input! :] it's very appreciated!