Hi there,
I rescued/adopted a bearded dragon last week. As far as I could tell, he was not abused, but the people who owned him didn't know what they were doing. They weren't using UVB light, they weren't giving him any supplements. According to what they have told me, he is under 1 year old. They also had him in a 20-gallon cage.
I have spent the last week really trying to set up a new life for him. I got him a 4 x 2 x 2 Mellamine cage, bought the Rep-cal Herptvite and Calcium supplements, and got him the proper UVB light (Reptilight 10.0). I am also using a GE Reveal heating bulb. I have thermograded the cage, so it's the proper temps. He just got moved into this cage 3-4 days ago.
My main concern right now is that he is really not eating that much. A few crickets here, a few superworms there, and he absolutely will not eat greens on his own. I have gotten him to eat a few pieces by holding it by his mouth and essentially force feeding him.
I'm by no means an expert on beardies, but he's not showing any major signs of distress. The woman who sold me the cage was a professional breeder and she checked him out for him, and said that other than a bit of dehydration, he looked relatively ok. Once again, I'm not sure how old he is, but from what I can piece together, he is under a year. He weighs .6 lbs and measures in around 16-17" from nose to tail. He's skinny for sure, but seems generally ok. He takes awhile to get up in the morning, but he does get a little feisty throughout the day, and then calms down at night. He gapes in heat, bombs his head, and uses his tongue a lot. From what I can read, these are all good signs.
But he just isn't eating much. I have still yet to give him dandelion/turnip/mustard greens (trying to find them here in Santa Barbara, CA, and plan to at the farmer's market tomorrow), but I've been doing kale and collard greens.
I suppose that there is the chance of brumation, but I think that he's way too active to be doing this. I am not sure...perhaps this is a build up to a shedding period?
Anyway, I wanted to ask all of you kind folks on this forum what I might be doing wrong, or at least provide some sort of an explanation as to what might be going on. As I said, he really isn't showing any overt signs of being sickly. I am letting him out occasionally to run around my apartment, which he seems to love.
Any help that you could offer would be greatly appreciated. I have grown to attached to this guy in the last week, and I just hope that there is nothing majorly wrong. I have seen all kinds of testimonies from people who have beardies that are not interested in food for whatever reason...what do you think?
Graciously,
Andrew
I rescued/adopted a bearded dragon last week. As far as I could tell, he was not abused, but the people who owned him didn't know what they were doing. They weren't using UVB light, they weren't giving him any supplements. According to what they have told me, he is under 1 year old. They also had him in a 20-gallon cage.
I have spent the last week really trying to set up a new life for him. I got him a 4 x 2 x 2 Mellamine cage, bought the Rep-cal Herptvite and Calcium supplements, and got him the proper UVB light (Reptilight 10.0). I am also using a GE Reveal heating bulb. I have thermograded the cage, so it's the proper temps. He just got moved into this cage 3-4 days ago.
My main concern right now is that he is really not eating that much. A few crickets here, a few superworms there, and he absolutely will not eat greens on his own. I have gotten him to eat a few pieces by holding it by his mouth and essentially force feeding him.
I'm by no means an expert on beardies, but he's not showing any major signs of distress. The woman who sold me the cage was a professional breeder and she checked him out for him, and said that other than a bit of dehydration, he looked relatively ok. Once again, I'm not sure how old he is, but from what I can piece together, he is under a year. He weighs .6 lbs and measures in around 16-17" from nose to tail. He's skinny for sure, but seems generally ok. He takes awhile to get up in the morning, but he does get a little feisty throughout the day, and then calms down at night. He gapes in heat, bombs his head, and uses his tongue a lot. From what I can read, these are all good signs.
But he just isn't eating much. I have still yet to give him dandelion/turnip/mustard greens (trying to find them here in Santa Barbara, CA, and plan to at the farmer's market tomorrow), but I've been doing kale and collard greens.
I suppose that there is the chance of brumation, but I think that he's way too active to be doing this. I am not sure...perhaps this is a build up to a shedding period?
Anyway, I wanted to ask all of you kind folks on this forum what I might be doing wrong, or at least provide some sort of an explanation as to what might be going on. As I said, he really isn't showing any overt signs of being sickly. I am letting him out occasionally to run around my apartment, which he seems to love.
Any help that you could offer would be greatly appreciated. I have grown to attached to this guy in the last week, and I just hope that there is nothing majorly wrong. I have seen all kinds of testimonies from people who have beardies that are not interested in food for whatever reason...what do you think?
Graciously,
Andrew
