slantrhymes
Member
Hi,
I adopted a 1-year-oldish beardie from a coworker about a week or two ago. She was terrified of him, got stuck caring for him after her kids lost interest, and had him on nothing but spinach and crickets. He wasn't hand-tame at all--did a threat display if anyone even got near his enclosure. Over the past week I've been spending at least a half hour daily very passively around his cage, stroking him occasionally if he seemed calm enough, and had gotten to the point where I could stroke the sides of his belly and he wouldn't react. I was definitely falling for this sweetheart.
I hadn't owned a beardie in a while so I looked it up, and found that spinach can be toxic. Given that this little boy ate nothing but that his whole life, I was pretty concerned and switched him immediately to dandelion, basil, pea pods, and mustard greens, grown organically (as well as crickets from the pet store every couple of days). I dusted his food, gave him fruit every other day, kept his cage around 95 (we had a bit of a cold snap recently, but with the lamp and the heating pad he definitely had a spot of at least 100-105 at one end of the cage). I hand-fed him water until he turned his nose up at the water dropper every day and made sure he had a nice big pool of warm, clean water to soak in. Yesterday, since it was cooler, I gave him a pool of warm water and put the lamp on it, and he sat in it all day. I fed him some mango along with his greens and he seemed fine. This morning before work he seemed a tad bit lethargic, but I didn't see anything severely wrong--gave him a couple of quick pets with his morning greens.
I just went out to check on him and turn his lamp off before bedtime, and I think he might be dead. I have no idea what I might have done wrong. I have him on Aspen bedding--so no impaction from substrate as far as I can tell--and nothing else had changed. He isn't reacting to my gentle tapping on the glass near where he's lying and I'm hoping I'm just overreacting, but he's usually very alert when I come out, even if he's been sleeping. What did I do? What could I have done? Some expert advice would be very much appreciated, as I'm heartbroken to have lost my little rescue beardie.
I adopted a 1-year-oldish beardie from a coworker about a week or two ago. She was terrified of him, got stuck caring for him after her kids lost interest, and had him on nothing but spinach and crickets. He wasn't hand-tame at all--did a threat display if anyone even got near his enclosure. Over the past week I've been spending at least a half hour daily very passively around his cage, stroking him occasionally if he seemed calm enough, and had gotten to the point where I could stroke the sides of his belly and he wouldn't react. I was definitely falling for this sweetheart.
I hadn't owned a beardie in a while so I looked it up, and found that spinach can be toxic. Given that this little boy ate nothing but that his whole life, I was pretty concerned and switched him immediately to dandelion, basil, pea pods, and mustard greens, grown organically (as well as crickets from the pet store every couple of days). I dusted his food, gave him fruit every other day, kept his cage around 95 (we had a bit of a cold snap recently, but with the lamp and the heating pad he definitely had a spot of at least 100-105 at one end of the cage). I hand-fed him water until he turned his nose up at the water dropper every day and made sure he had a nice big pool of warm, clean water to soak in. Yesterday, since it was cooler, I gave him a pool of warm water and put the lamp on it, and he sat in it all day. I fed him some mango along with his greens and he seemed fine. This morning before work he seemed a tad bit lethargic, but I didn't see anything severely wrong--gave him a couple of quick pets with his morning greens.
I just went out to check on him and turn his lamp off before bedtime, and I think he might be dead. I have no idea what I might have done wrong. I have him on Aspen bedding--so no impaction from substrate as far as I can tell--and nothing else had changed. He isn't reacting to my gentle tapping on the glass near where he's lying and I'm hoping I'm just overreacting, but he's usually very alert when I come out, even if he's been sleeping. What did I do? What could I have done? Some expert advice would be very much appreciated, as I'm heartbroken to have lost my little rescue beardie.
