Blackbeardie
Member
I have two bearded dragons, G’Kar and Na’Toth. G’kar hunts and pounces when presented with live food. However, it became clear pretty quickly when Na’Toth was a juvenile that something was very wrong with his vision. He simply cannot strike accurately at his food, even when it is an immobile vegetable. He is always 1-2 inches off, no matter where it is placed. As such, I’ve had to hand feed him with tongs from the beginning.
He’s coming up on 2 years old now, and although he has thrived in every other respect, he still cannot feed himself, and runs smack into walls when he’s roaming outside his cage. However, he’s clearly not blind; he tracks moving objects, and reacts to light.
I’m pretty sure it’s not a nutritional or vitamin issue, as he eats quite well and gets vitamins. He has excellent calcium intake, a Reptisun 10.0 HO UV bulb, and bright visual light illumination in his tank. G’Kar has a nearly identical tank setup and diet, and sees just fine.
I’ve had him looked at by a couple of different vets about this issue, and both felt it was a visual impairment issue. His current one noted that his corneas protrude to an unusual degree, and while I hadn’t noticed this before pointed it out, she’s absolutely right. Compared to G’Kar and other dragons I’ve seen, his corneas are quite long and convex. On closer observation, I’ve also determined that he sees things much more clearly at a distance of a few inches, and loses them when they come closer.
So, it looks like a case of pretty bad refractive error, and I don’t expect that I’ll be able to do anything about it unless I can find a reptile optometrist. It reminds me somewhat of a human eye disease called keratoconus, but I’ve been unable to find anything about whether it’s known to occur in reptiles.
Has anyone here come across this, or know of a more specific diagnosis?
Any tricks or tips for teaching a dragon like this to find his food? He would certainly starve to death if I didn’t hand feed him.
He’s coming up on 2 years old now, and although he has thrived in every other respect, he still cannot feed himself, and runs smack into walls when he’s roaming outside his cage. However, he’s clearly not blind; he tracks moving objects, and reacts to light.
I’m pretty sure it’s not a nutritional or vitamin issue, as he eats quite well and gets vitamins. He has excellent calcium intake, a Reptisun 10.0 HO UV bulb, and bright visual light illumination in his tank. G’Kar has a nearly identical tank setup and diet, and sees just fine.
I’ve had him looked at by a couple of different vets about this issue, and both felt it was a visual impairment issue. His current one noted that his corneas protrude to an unusual degree, and while I hadn’t noticed this before pointed it out, she’s absolutely right. Compared to G’Kar and other dragons I’ve seen, his corneas are quite long and convex. On closer observation, I’ve also determined that he sees things much more clearly at a distance of a few inches, and loses them when they come closer.
So, it looks like a case of pretty bad refractive error, and I don’t expect that I’ll be able to do anything about it unless I can find a reptile optometrist. It reminds me somewhat of a human eye disease called keratoconus, but I’ve been unable to find anything about whether it’s known to occur in reptiles.
Has anyone here come across this, or know of a more specific diagnosis?
Any tricks or tips for teaching a dragon like this to find his food? He would certainly starve to death if I didn’t hand feed him.
