Stressed new beardie Mom!!! Won't eat crickets

[DebbieKelowna]

Ya I can't wait for the Phoenix worms to get here I sure hope that works. I'm not giving up on him. I have been asking around about what vet specializes in reptiles in my town and from what I've heard there is only one that's in the next town. I am surprised because I live in city of over 100,000 people and probably over a dozen vets and not one deals with reptiles.My daughter starts vet assistant school in two weeks and her first semester is reptile and exotic animals so hopefully she could get some good info. If anything she could ask the teacher. Maybe they will do testing on fecal sample as part of the training and I could give her the sample.
For now I'm going to continue giving him the baby food that he seems to take pretty good. He eats at least 2- 2.5 ml each feeding 2-3 times a day. But unfortunately I don't see it fattening him up and it makes me sad to see him so skinny.

 

[timisimaginary]

you can even learn to do your own fecal tests...
though it's best to go through a vet until you get some experience with it.

 

[DebbieKelowna]

Just a little update on Ziggy. My daughter thinks she's a girl but not 100 % but for now she is Princess Ziggy.
So for a week and a half now she's been eating chicken/ veggie baby food mixed with calcium.I try every day to get her to eat live food. I just got my order of Phoenix worms...no interest at all. So now I'm thinking that she is not hungry because she is full on baby food and why would she want to eat bugs when her mom feeds her baby food all of the time. I'm not sure if she is eating any of her fresh veggies, pellets or worms when I'm not home but I'm thinking I would see it in her poop.
I ordered a reptisun 10.0 florescent tube that should be here on Tuesday. So hopefully that will help her eat more. Then I guess I will have to give her tough love and try getting her off of baby food. Other than her not eating live food everything else is normal. Lots of energy, basking like normal, regular poops....that look like baby food and don't smell at all. I don't notice her growing too much but I see her every day so she might be a bit.

 

[timisimaginary]

the easiest way to monitor growth is to get a scale (like this one) and keep a weight log. you can track growth and even after they're grown, weekly weigh-ins can clue you in early to an illness or infection, since weight loss is often a sign of something amiss, and may not be visually noticeable at first until a significant loss of weight.

 

[DebbieKelowna]

I do have a little scale but it's not digital so I don't know how accurate it would be. I will have to look into getting a digital one like that it would probably be better.

 

[Brezzy99]

She is super cute! You can measure her length at least. Mine like to wiggle so I use a piece of ribbon so I can get a more accurate measurement.

 

[timisimaginary]

i've found the best way to measure them is take them out just before bedtime and let them fall asleep, then when they're asleep you can lay them down, straighten them out (especially the tail) and measure them without them moving around. of course my lizard sleeps like the dead so this is pretty easy with him.

 

[DebbieKelowna]

Those are great ideas. I will give them a try. Does she look under weight by the pictures ? She looked plumper when I brought her home but she looks longer now. So far she has only shed once when I first brought her home. Everything but her tail. Than last week her tail shed. I've had her almost a month now.