our dragon is 5 months old now
about 9 inches long from nose to tail tip
we have not weighed her
enclosure is a 55 galon tank with a screen top
substrate is dark grey tile, no sand
light source is a reptisun 5, it is 2 months old. that is how long we have had the dragon too, everything was bought new for her
she can get to within 4 inches of the light at her highest point
the hottest spot to bask is around 100-105 degrees, there is a large piece of wood leading up to the basking platform so she can go up or down to get to where she is comfortable
the cool side of the tank stays around 80 degrees during the day, at night all lights are turned off and it drops to room temp which is around 74 degrees
I have 3 of the dial type thermometers in the tank at different spots to measure the basking spot, cool side and middle of the tank
There is no humidity gauge in the tank right now, she tore it off and dropped it in the water bowl
I feed her live crickets, wax worms and meal worms
her preferred food is the cooked crickets in the can though. I buy the mini ones for her as she is small
all her food is cut to pieces about the size of corn kernels
all food is dusted with calcium powder before giving it to her
crickets are gut loaded with commercial cricket food
she eats romaine lettuce, celery greens, squash, green beans, rapberries, blackberries, squash usually. I also have a commercially made mix which has dandelion greens, cactus, beans, banana, zucchini and other veggies and vitamins added. she will eat it maybe once a week and only if i mix in the canned crickets
she has a large water bowl on one side of her cage which she usually wades in and drinks from daily, it is cleaned and changed daily
she is sprayed with the vitamin mist every day
whe is bathed at least once a week, she loves to play in the water, i put a light on over the tub and she will usually swim around and drink for about 20-30 minutes.
She just has stopped eating completly and
drinking with this shed. She is shedding her head this time, face, nose, beard.
We got her from a pet store set up in someone's garage at 3 months of age, she came from a breeder they said. She was very thin when we got her and has been eating like a champ ever since. She looked excellent before this last shed started. 2 weeks after we got her she shed her legs and back. just after christmas she shed her tail. Both of those times she stopped eating for a day or two and got a little crabby but nothing like how she is now. And the toe twitching and
black beard is new.
I have read that the twitching is from calcium deficiency which she probably has from not eating correct?
The
black beard went away and turned white again after her marathon
drinking tonight.
I think I said earlier she was not puffing her beard up at that time, she was laying there with her eyes shut and it was black.
I have read that I can try to gently force feed her some baby food mixed with calcium. Is this something that usually works? I'm a little afraid to try it for fear of her choaking. She did eat those dusted worms tonight by me just putting them on the side of her tongue while she was
drinking and she jsut kind of worked them into her mouth with the water. I was thinking of buying her some squash organic baby food and mixing in a little calcium powder and seeing if I can get some of it into her mouth that way.
Thank you for the reply to my earlier post and hopefully you have some more adivce for me.
Jodi
