It's been a while since I've posted, but would like a little advice.
Khalil is growing up, bit by bit. He was born in October, we got him in Jan, so he's about 5 months old, and in general doing pretty well. Doesn't like his veggies too much. In the past week, though, he's taken to sleeping a lot more than usual, and it has me a little nervous. Two days ago, I came home at lunch to feed him, and he was asleep. Not "eyes closed on his basking spot," but tucked away in his typical night-time sleeping spot. Again today, same thing. He's not awake when I leave in the morning, despite the lamps having been on for an hour, and he typically goes to sleep before the lights go out at 7:30.
As far as setup goes: temps have seemed good. In general, 105 in the basking spot, 85 elsewhere, with an acu-rite probe thermometer that seems OK. He has had a MegaRay MVB bulb, and in fact, I replaced it with a new MegaRay when they first had problems with the glass. But I've taken the MVB out of the equation entirely two days ago, because spurlee was mentioning that they were having further problems.
He's been eating, although not at the voracious level I would expect from a juvenile beardie. He'll typically eat between 20-40 crickets or phoenix worms in a day. He largely gets collard greens. I've tried some mustard greens and squash and stuff, but he's really not very into veggies. He's been eating crickets his whole life, and I've only ever gotten them from Ghann's and one other place. The batches I've had recently are from Ghann's.
I have an appointment to see a vet tomorrow. It will be his first vet appointment.
Hi Steve, I also agree with Tom, first thoughts are the MVB or parasites. You mentioned that it's a little cool in has basking spot right now, what size tank is he in & what wattage basking bulb are you using?
What was the Megaray wattage and what distance did you have that bulb? Also, had you been using calcium WITHOUT D3? How often were you dusting with calcium? Have you been keeping him well hydrated?
Hi Steve, I also agree with Tom, first thoughts are the MVB or parasites. You mentioned that it's a little cool in has basking spot right now, what size tank is he in & what wattage basking bulb are you using?
What was the Megaray wattage and what distance did you have that bulb? Also, had you been using calcium WITHOUT D3? How often were you dusting with calcium? Have you been keeping him well hydrated?
It's a 40-gal tank. I have two 60w bulbs plus a heat projector keeping the temps up. Like I said, it's been around 98/78 right now, so it's not like it's WAY off of normal. The MegaRay was a 100w that I kept at 18" from his basking spot. The 60w bulbs are at closer to 12". Calcium is WITHOUT D3, about 3x/week. He has water in his tank, and I've been giving him a bath about twice a week.
I'm surprised you're not getting higher temps with two 60 watt bulbs and a CHE. You could actually try one 75 or 100 watt household bulb and see what temps you get then. Are you making sure that the probe end is actually touching the basking surface then waiting about 45 min for the temp to stop rising before getting the final reading? Is you thermometer the type that gives 2 readings and also the humidity? If so, what is the humidity level?
That's good that you've been using calcium without D3 since you had the Megaray. But since he's only 5 months old, you should actually be dusting with calcium 5 days a wk, but only 1 feeding a day and with vitamins the other 2 days a wk, but only 1 feeding a day.
Well, it seems that Khalil was rather impacted. They've cleared that up, although I'm not sure exactly what was impacting him unless it was crickets. (No substrate in my tank, it's pretty clean.) So, that was one thing. They're running a fecal sample, so we'll find out tomorrow if there was any parasite problem.
I think I'm at the point where I'm ready to give up on the MegaRay and just go old school for UV stuff. After the MegaRay problems, and now this lethargy, I'm just not willing to risk it any more.
I need to hop over to the enclosures forum on how to buy the right fixture/bulb for a UV bulb. Any recommendations? Of course Exo-Terra sells a lamp fixture designed to fix my cage. It's $150. LOL. I think I'll look for something cheaper!
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Theres a pic midway down the page then the details are there on how I did it a few posts later. My thread was hijacked for a page or two discussin it, a lot of people are switchin to the reptisun and doin it that way. Call/ text if it's not clear.
I may be using the wrong technical term. I would have used "constipated." FULL OF POO that needed to get out, I guess. They actually give him a little lizard enema, lol!
It kind of makes sense that if he wasn't baskin he wasn't digesting. You are measuring the temps as Diane said right? (Can't wait to hear the smart @ss answer that comes back)