rescued beardie... Twitching

[Leia247]

Hi,
I am new to this so please bear with me. I got a bearded dragon for my boyfriend for his birthday last night. I purchased it from a woman online (I know this is risky but I did it anyway), as it came with a tank already set up...

or so I thought.

Having come on here looking for the right foods to feed, I have realised that she had not been taking proper care of the wee munchkin. I feel so bad for it and want to make sure it gets the best life.

Firstly, ill answer these questions as best I can.
How old is your dragon? The woman said approx 6months

How long have you had your dragon? 2 days

How long is your dragon? I approximate 10-11 inches

What is the sex of your dragon? I think female (going from what ive read online)

What size enclosure do you have your dragon in? a 2ft tank

What type substrate do you have on the bottom of your tank? sawdust

Do you use UVB lights?
Yes, Although I now realise that it isnt appropriate. what is currently in the tank is a coil bulb (I dont know the type, wattage or how old it is).There is also a basking light which is in the middle of the tank.

My question is this: I have read that the twitching is probably due to Metabolic Bone Disease I am ordering an Arcadia light to put in the tank and dusting the crickets with calcium from now on. The problem is that it will take 3-5 days for the lights to get here ( probably longer due to the weekend) as I have to get them online. The pet shops here have reptiglo which I read from here isnt good. Should I turn off the bulb thats there until the new one arrives or just leave it???

Im so frightened that the wee one is going to die
Please tell me what I can do to help her.
(I cannot change the viv though yet as I cannot afford it.)

Also do I take out the crickets she doesnt eat? When I first put them in this morning she ate like 2-3 but the others are still there and its been hours... she hasnt eaten any greens or fruit either....(doesnt seem to want these)

 

[AHBD]

Hello Leia...I'm sorry to hear about the little beardie being ill. The twitching is a sign of calcium deficiency, which would lead to MBD. The good thing is that it can be reversed. But I wanted to mention something before I go any further, you must remove the sawdust immediately ! It will cause a respiratory infection in no time, and/or impaction from breathing it in or accidentally getting a mouth full. Please do that ASAP, and just use paper towels/newspaper. So back to the calcium problem....if you live where it's warm, getting him/her in the sun will do wonders, better than any UVB bulb for now. Just be sure to stay with him / her so it doesn't get too hot, and not in a glass tank. If you can get some calcium in him that will help, be sure his basking temp. is about 105 - 110, he needs it to digest his food + calcium. If you leave the coil on, put it at least 14" away [ it may emit enough UVB to help ] , or else just turn it off. And don't leave crix in the tank, they can bite around the beardie's eyes + mouth. Hopefully you'll help him/her through this !

 

[Leia247]

Hi
Thanks for your quick reply. I will remove the sawdust. Is Kitchen Roll OK? we don't have newspapers...
I live in Northern Ireland and its raining/snowing at the minute and we get very little sun anyway lol

she doesn't seem to be eating the crickets with the calcium powder on them(the ones I gave earlier didnt have it). She hasn't really eaten since this morning but she is moving about the cage - basking then moving to a cooler spot, and shes pretty alert.

Ive been looking into getting liquid calcium (again will take time to deliver)... but could I put some of the powder in water and give it to her to drink? Also if i get liquid calcium is it with or without D3?

So i should I remove these crickets? shes letting them crawl on her! lol
Also I think the original ones were too big so ive got smaller ones

 

[Soulwind]

Not eating may be because she doesn't feel well or it may also just be a bit
of relocation stress, or it could be she doesn't recognize the dusted ones as food.

I'd turn off the coil UV bulb you've got...it's not good for them (as you know),
and it's more than likely at least 6 months old, since it doesn't sound like
the previous owner would have bothered getting a new bulb.

UV bulbs should be replaced every 6 - 8 months, but at this point
a couple of days of no UV (while you wait for the good UV bulb to come in)
most likely won't make much difference.

Keep trying to give her the dusted crickets (if she eats her salad, you can try
dusting that instead of the crickets to see if she prefers her crickets undusted
...but only if she's a good salad eater. You need to get calcium into her.)

You also need to be dusting with a good reptile multi-vitamin 1 feeding per day
2x a week. Try to find a vitamin powder that uses Beta Carodine rather than
artifical vitamin A (BC is metabolized into vit A as needed and helps to prevent vit A
poisoning...or at least that's what my bottle of Herptivite says).

Definately don't leave crickets in her cage unattended...remove any of them
that she hasn't eaten in about 10-15 minutes each feeding (2x a day feeding
for her at this stage).

Also, that cage might be OK for now while she's small, but with proper care she's
going to start growing like a weed, and you're going to need an adult-sized cage
within a few months. [Minimum size is 36" long x 16-18" wide...with bigger being
better if you can swing it -- I keep my scalebabies in 48x18 cages and would like to
give them even bigger, but there's just no more room for it].

I hope everything works out for you, it does sound like she'll be living much better
with you than she's ever had before.

 

[Leia247]

So I took out the sawdust and put down kitchen roll.
Last night she climbed up on top of two branches in the corner and went to sleep.
I turned her heat lamp back on at 7.30 and she was still there. But when I got up to go to work she was still there too but awake.
I put two crickets in but she didn't seem interested and she's not eating greens. Moved her to under the lamp and she pancaked out for about 15mins then draped herself over the log.

When I get home from work in 3hours I'll offer crickets again.

I dropped water on her nose and she was lapping it up so I put a bit of powder on my finger and she licked it off. I'm thinking she could be dehydrated or impacted cause the crickets were too big... Should I give her a bath later?
Do I give her baby food if she's possibly impacted??

 

[AHBD]

Yes, if she's impacted, try baby food squash , canned pumpkin or baby food prunes. The last 2 act as natural laxatives. You can try a drop or 2 of olive oil as well. A shallow warm supervised bath may help her as well, but pat her dry + put her right back in the tank after. To see if she'll eat any crickets, try smashing one until the guts come out and rub it lightly on her nose, that sometimes works to stimulate the appetite. Be sure it's a small one.

 

[Leia247]

home now.
she went for one cricket but missed and its just watching the others...

I will make a trip to tesco later to hopefully find some baby food as nowhere near me seems to have it! Glad I dont have an actual baby yet...

Going to try a bath soon

 

[Leia247]

So we had a bath. She didnt seem to mind it...but no pooping or anything.
Now back in the tank but still no interest in crickets.

 

[Leia247]

We ate three crickets before bedtime.
Had to remove all furniture from tank though :roll:

 

[AHBD]

That's good that she ate Leia....just be sure to coat them with calcium, and/or let her lick it from your fingers. Also, be sure to have at least 2-3 hours before you turn off his lights when you feed her, she needs the heat to digest food. You can also hand feed if she's not catching them early in the day.

 

[Leia247]

We were loving life eating away this morning but they were too quick for her lol going to have to pull off a few legs

UVB should be here Tuesday as ordered express delivery.

Got waxworms to put in her salad to entice her to eat it.

Looking much more active and was blackbearding today

Edit: oh and we had a poop this morning.... In her salad bowl

 

[Leia247]

Hi guys

Should've put an update on here, she's now eating her crickets... Not as many as people on here are suggesting for her age but she eats until she lets us know she's full by walking away.

She'll only eat of we take out all the furniture in the tank though as she refuses to chase them behind logs lol
She does chase them around the viv but then gets too tired/bored and will stare at us until we herd them into a corner for her. Spoilt rotten.

Also her poops are normal. So yay!
She didn't go a few days back so I have her a warm bath and she pooped In it ( first time) and he got all excited. She tried to hold it for a bath now it seems. I don't think she likes to go in her viv cause she used to do it near the door and then get as far away as possible and Blackbeard until it was gone.

She's even started to eat a bit of salad! I was gob smacked when I offered her a bit and she just munched it straight away!

Such a wee munchkin!

Her legs have also stopped twitching and she's much more active since getting her new Arcadia UVB

So all is well well for now

 

[AHBD]

That's great ! I'm happy for you and your wee munchkin