Really need help what to do to get my Bearded Dragons to eat

[dathrillwill]

Hi my name is Sheree and my husband (Will), and I have to 8 week old bearded dragons and they won't eat and I don't know what else to do? We have the proper lighting for them and we have the heat lamp, Pretty much everything and they just won't eat. The hot basking side is 108 degrees and the cooler side is 92 degrees. We have a reptisun light 10.0, we have a ceramic heat emitter, We dust crickets and wax worms with calcium,
I've tried holding them and setting the food in front of them, putting them both in separate tanks so they could eat by themselves and that didn't work. Even Stuck them in a tank full of crickets and they did nothing but close their eyes.

 

[Venom508]

Hello and welcome!!

i noticed a couple of things wrong here.

First and formost:

Do not house ur beardies together this causes stress and makes em go off their food. bds are solitary animals and only ever come together to mate, therefore they need their own vivs and own setups. They will do sooooo much better if you separate them. They will also fight i guarantee it. it might be in a week or might not happen till next year but it WILL happen and could at anytime. So they need to be separated as they could loose a foot or even a life! its waaay to risky.

Your basking is a little too hot it needs to be around 100-105.

Wax worms are fatty and addictive and should only be a treat. But crix are fine try getting some super worms they are good.

Also did you only JUST get them? if so they wont eat much due to relocation stress. It cant be helped and its normal, and can last up to 2 weeks and they should not be handled or disturbed during this period except for feeding and removing poo.

What are you using as substrate? if its sand of any kind, turf it out especially if it calci sand as much as you may have been told it good for lizards, its DEADLY cuz it turns to concrete in ur beardies tummy, so people here have aptly named it death sand. any loose substrate is bad cuz young beardies like urs lick things A LOT!!and could eat some by mistake causing blockages . Good things to use are reptile carpet, slate tiles or paper towel.

With young beardies the live feeders need to be dusted 5X a week. you should also be offering greens daily.
Heres a good site for reference we all recommend it. http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

The Reptisun light is an excellent light and it needs to be changed every 6 months cuz the uvb output gets less and less as the light gets older.

Sorry if i sounded like i was being nasty! i wasnt im just trying to stress the crucial points!!

i hope this helps with ur problem and you must post pix else you will be hounded for them!! (we love pics)

Oh yeah if you have a bowl of water in ur viv this could be raising the humidity too much and putting them off their food also . So depending on if you see ur beardies everyday take it out and bath them in a tub or sink in warm water for about 10-15 mins. This is the best way to for them to get water just make sure their bum is in the water as this is where they absorb it from, you can do this everyday or every 2 days its up to you. The water should be no deeper that their arm pits.

Good luck with ur little guys!! i hope to see some pix up on here soon!!!

Sorry again if i sounded like a nasty old lady yelling at you!!!!!

 

[dathrillwill]

(Will)

Yeah I did the temperature test too close to the hat lamp. I tried doing it closer to the the ground and of course it got alittle cooler the further down, I went. With my driftwood in place it read 103. So that will be fine for them.

Yeah we are trying out different things to get them to eat. And Supers are too big for them to eat right now. We use repti-carpet for substrate.

We also do offere greens daily, however they done eat them much. So most of the time we may give it to our crickets and they will eat them. The dragons then in turn may eat the crickets. ANd we dust all the food.

We have taken the water bowl out... testing to see if they are going to liven up a bit with less humidity.

I'll post some pics later, Or have the wife do it for me.

 

[zebraflavencs]

Hi !
Yes, this sounds like relocation stress, as venom suggested. I would just give it some more time, and if after a few weeks, no sign of change, then I would look to taking them to a qualified vet.

I would agree that you need to lower your cool side temps down to around 85*.
And do your night time temps drop below 65* ? If they don't, then you can turn off the CHE.

I wonder though, are you offering a bright white light for basking ? Or is the Che for that ?
You can get a house hold flood light, and use that with the Tube, on one side, that way there will be a temperature gradient, so the babies can move from one side to the other.

Here is how the tube and basking light should look :

--------------------------------------- tube
O bulb

Hope this helps out !
Janie.

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Hello Will,

Sorry to hear your little guys are worrying you! Sheena gave you some great advice. I would like to clear up a few things though. Basking temps for young beardies should be between 105-110 with a coolside temp of 78-82. Can you try to get your coolside temp down, 92 degrees is a bit high, even if you were to get it down to 85(that would be better). What type thermometer are you using? It is very important to get accurate temps.

I also want to mention that Superworms cannot be fed to a beardie under 16" in length. Definitely stick to the crickets(no bigger than the space between their eyes) while your beardies are young. You could also try Phoenix worms, which are small and loaded with calcium.

I have seen some of your other posts and was wondering have you changed the red basking bulb to a bright white bulb as suggested? Glad to see you got rid of the ReptiGlo uvb and replaced it with the ReptiSUN 10. How long have you been using the ReptiSUN now?

Were you also able to separate your beardies?

I believe I read that you just recently got these little guys. If this is true...like Sheena said it could be a bit of relocation stress. At the same time....too high of temps can also cause beardies to lose their appetite and become lethargic. High temps can also cause rapid dehydration. Are you bathing/soaking your beardies?

Dawn

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Sorry Janie...did not see your post! :wink:

 

[zebraflavencs]

Dawn
*flexes fingers*
hee hee, I type fast !
Janie.

 

[dathrillwill]

Well after a process of elimination. I have actually come to the conclusion that its the temperature. The cause is the house. I'm renting the house I'm in right now. And unfortunately the AC unit has gone out. For the past two weeks we have had windows and fans going. We haven't got any word on when they will fix the AC unit. So no AC + living in New Mexico + summer time = angry kids, angry parents and angry dragons. The highest I have seen in this house as of late is 86 degrees. So yeah I think it is definitely affecting the temp inside my tank. But We spray them down and I give them baths. A Lot of times they are lively and going around the tank or just basking with each other. But they wont eat.

Im using a Zoo Med thermometer with the white little stick thing. I forgot the actual name of it. Unfortunately I made my tank and design the top before I found out its supposed to be like this...

_____________ <----UVB
O <--- basking lamp

I have this setup...
-------------O

Then I started on the next tank with the heat bulb on the side. I will figure something out though.

And yes I will post pics of the tank. Once I use this polyurathane to coat the new tank then I will do the electrical work and put a ballast inside the tank and buy another lamp. But I will post some pics now.

 

[zebraflavencs]

That's great you will have the new viv with the correct lighting soon !
Oh I feel your pain with the heat ! I too have no central heat/air, but I got a window unit, and with that, and lots of fans, I was able to bring down the temp in the house from almost 90, down to a comfy 85.
Good luck! Oh and pics or it didn't haapen !
Janie.

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

If your temps get too high with it being warm in your house, you could try a smaller watt basking bulb to bring your temps down. So sorry to hear your A/C is broken. I live in FL....so I know the heat can be killer, especially with no A/C!

Good luck and hope you get A/C soon!

 

[dathrillwill]

Its been kinda cool in my house lately. However, I tried to feed the BD's some tiny crickets today and they wouldn't eat. The female (Mink) got stressed out and turned dark underneath, and (male) X-oshi just laid there. They both have there own enclosure now. I finished X-oshi's some time middle of last week. I moved him in Saturday. But I take them out of their homes and feed them in a separate area. I think im just going to take them to the vet and see if they can help. Im really about to say screw it, and sell all this stuff. I mean what kind of animal starves theirselves. I mean, my Oscars could do that but will start eating again, when they need too. I have spent so much time and money building them houses. I put alot of work into this. I mean when I first got these things. I never expected to be on the negative side of this place. I shouldn't have to worry about why my dragon isn't eating all the time.

Before it get asked. We use Reptisun 10.0 tube, Ceramic Heat Emitter. It is set like this. ---------O, (for Mink's home) and like this for X-oshi, O----------.

I got the temparature more managable in their homes now. The temps on the hot side are usually between 101 to 107 depending on how high I place the probe. The cool side is 87 on X-oshi's tank and 88 on Mink's. We offer them Natural Zone Total Bites Dragon Food, Crickets (smaller than the width of their head), collard greens, seaweed, strawberries, kiwi (sometimes). We use repticarpet in both tanks. X-oshi has the added benefit of some slate. They sometimes have stress marks on their bodies but not all the time. I bathe them twice a week. And spray them down 3 to 4 times a day for at least 2 minutes, not more than 4. We dont do the water bowl thing. I read about the possible rise in humidty. We live in the desert and we have no ac right now. Our temperature at night doesn't get nowhere near 65.

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Hello again,

Sorry to hear you are getting discouraged with your beardies. Please give it some time.

First we need to get your temps worked out. You need to take the ceramic heat emitter out of their tanks. The CHE's are only for night time use, if your temps drop below 65 degrees in their enclosures.

What you must get are basking bulbs. You do not neccessarily need to buy basking bulbs from a pet store. You can use regular household bulbs. They must be bright white bulbs, like halogen flood bulbs. The bright white will simulate the sun much better than a CHE. I don't recall you mentioning the sizes of their enclosures, so you will have to experiment with different wattages til you get the right temps. You said you were getting basking temps of 101-107, those are great temps for your babies. The coolside needs to be a bit cooler.....try bringing it down to around 80 degrees. Try not to let it go over 85. They have got to be able to thermoregulate. As for measuring your temps on the basking side...try to put the probe exactly on the spot where your beardie basks.

The crickets you are feeding, are they no bigger than the space between their eyes(not head)?

Since they are still fairly new to you and you have been doing some rearranging with enclosures....give them some more time to adjust. Beardies can get stressed very easily when it comes to a new environment.

Beardies are like any other pet. They do have problems you have to deal with, but please don't let it get the best of you. I promise with time you will see they are worth every moment of worry. I have had my beardie going on 6 years now and yes, even now I still worry when she won't eat or if she hasn't gone poop in a few days. It's all part of owning a pet.

Hang in there!

P.S.....don't forget those bright white basking bulbs.

 

[poop202034]

you need not only a che but a bright white basking bulb instead. without one the uvb light is hard on their eyes and they may not eat. CHEs are for night if it gets below 65 degrees

 

[dathrillwill]

So take out the CHE's and put a flood light in. I hope I can find a Flood light for the clamp lamp I have. Well the little crickets I have are no bigger than their heads.

 

[spurlee01]

I definitely think the lack of bright white light is inhibiting their appetites. It is easy for my boyfriend and I to just buy basking bulbs from a pet store. The floodlights were $7-9 when we've looked and basking bulbs $9-11. The basking bulbs fit in the fixtures we already have. If you don't want to replace the fixture, you might go this way. Exoterra basking bulbs are fine and a little cheaper/more available than zoo med
Sara