Hi, everyone. I just registered for the site, but I've been lurking the forums for a couple weeks now. I just got a baby beardie about three weeks ago. He's about six and a half inches now. He's been fairly happy and friendly, with a healthy appetite up until last night. He hasn't eaten anything in almost two days. Now his head is down and he barely opens his eyes. Also, half of his tail and the bottom of his beard have turned dark. I gave him a warm bath for about 20 minutes and he drank some water. He's back in his tank now and he just now slightly lifted his head. He must know in talking about him, haha.
He's in a 40 gallon tank, with a dry towel as a substrate. His basking spot is about 115 according to the dial thermometer, I'm planning on buying a temp gun this weekend.
Hi. Its very likely its way to hot. I'd try moving the basking lamp up or get a lower watt bulb. Those dials can be off by 20 degrees. So it might be more like 135 in his basking spot. Do you have a uvb bulb? What kind?
He is a little cutie for sure.
I agree, the dial thermometers can be off by a lot. What wattage is your basking bulb?
The Reptisun UVB is the 10% tube bulb then? How far away do you have that UVB light placed from him?
Definitely purchasing a digital probe or temp gun will help out greatly in measuring the temperatures.
For now, try to change basking lights to a lower wattage, if possible until you can get a better thermometer.
He will need some hydration so use a plastic dropper or plastic syringe to drip water onto his nose to help with rehydration for him.
Let us know how he is doing.
The basking light is 100 watts. Both lights are about 16.5 inches off of the floor in the tank. I had a rock in there for him to bask which was about 4 inches high. I just took that rock out and put a 2 inch skull for him to bask. Hopefully the 2 inches is significant for now.
Poor little guy. Were the feeder insects all smaller than the space between his eyes ? Eating too large of a prey item can cause impaction and even death, but I doubt that it was anything you did. I'm so sorry that you had to go through this heartbreak so soon with your baby. My heart goes out to you.
I appreciate it everyone. This was actually my second beardie. The first one was very sick, also from petsmart. Once her condition got worse is when I started reading up on them. I took her back to the store, and they told me she wasn't going to make it, but that clutch was already sick. They had just gotten a new clutch, and I chose this little guy. I can't help but blame myself, but I'm going to try one more time. This time I'm going with a breeder though.