To be concerned or not to be concerned...

[beardie789]

Seems like all us newbies have lots of concerns and worry about our new babies.

My new baby, Sobe has been with us since last Thursday (so 5 days). He's eaten some greens and I started out with feeding him 12-15 crickets a day for the first couple of days to let him adjust to his new home, etc and today decided to see how many he would eat and he ate 40 of them! Fairly quickly too I might add! In probably 10 minutes.

SO my concern is this, I see him laying fairly limp today and start to worry and he seems tired sometimes today. I have tried to do the baths and he wants NOTHING to do with that yet so I have misted him. But yesterday when he was splashing in the bath, I think maybe he drank some water by accident, not on purpose for sure.

My concern at the moment really is that maybe that he's getting dehydrated. So I tried to drop some water on his nose but he didn't do anything. He has rubbed his head a few times on his log so I know that means he's going to be shedding but I haven't noticed any skin off yet.

I don't have accurate temp reading right now and my temp gun and new uvb bulb (powersun 160) will be here tomorrow. So do I just need to try the bath again tomorrow and see if I can't get him to drink something?

Is it normal for them to lay around like this sometimes? How many hours a day should he be basking? He's probably 2 months old.

Here's a photo of him tonight:

Please help!

 

[beardie789]

can someone please help me out here? I just want an idea if this is normal for a baby who is adjusting to a new home, etc. Like I said, he's been eating very well, dusted crickets and some greens just not wanting anything to do with water so I don't know what to do

 

[sprinz03]

Hi! I'm pretty inexperienced myself so take my advice with a grain of salt.

Don't worry about him not liking his bath - mine hates it. He won't dehydrate overnight either. Try misting his veggies.

I know I'm pretty sluggish after a big meal, he may be too. The important thing is that he has an appetite and moves his bowels. Maintaining the proper temps is vital to his digestion.

Good luck!

 

[kcarello]

What size are the crickets you are feeding him? Has he gone poo since you've had him? The temps are so very important! What type of basking light do you have, how many watts?
You should tty to give him a bath again, they absorb water through they're vent so that will help him stay hydrated.

 

[beardie789]

Hi

thanks for the replies. I've been giving him small crickets and I too was thinking that maybe because he ate the most ever yesterday compared to the other 4 days since we had him that maybe he over did it.

I have been misting his greens so hopfully that has helped him too. He made a little mess with his greens yesterday while I was out buying crickets. He really ate most of all the greens I gave him yesterday morning (just a small leaf of dandelion greens and a very small leaf of endive greens).

I'm probably worrying for nothing but I just love this little guy and really tried to educate myself as much as possible before bringing him home.

I know he's been pretty hot because he's been sitting with his mouth open alot an di can see his little tongue. SO yesterday I placed a log in the cooler side and that's were he hung out more yesterday so I was worried he didn't spend enough afternoon time basking but like I said I worry alot.

Today I am expecting some items to be delivered that I ordered online including a Powersun 160 bulb and a temp gun because my temp gauges aren't accurate and I ordered some Phoenix Worms that should be here by the weekend.

 

[kcarello]

When you say small crickets..exactly what do you mean..hopefully they are tiny..like pinheads...no bigger than the space between his eyes. Has he gone pop at all? I don't know much about mvb's but there discussions on here regarding eye problems with the powersun bulbs..you should read them. It is good you are getting a temp gun...temps are SO important.

 

[Heptane]

I am also a new baby beardie owner, and have the same "OMG" reaction when ours acts anything out of the ordinary too - so you're not alone

I've read that gaping (when they sit there with their mouths open) usually indicates that they are too hot, or that there is something interfering with their breathing. I don't want to add yet ANOTHER thing to worry about - but since you don't have anything to accurately measure temps with quite yet, and since your baby moved to to the cooler log, I'm going to go with it's just a bit too hot for him. And temps are VERY important, if you read my only other post on this forum you'll see why I also say/agree with the other posts about temps being vital.

As far as him just laying there and becoming more sluggish, I've also read that they can become that way when they start to shed. Their entire temperaments can change during this time actually. Our little baby is also starting to get into the shedding stages, rubbing his head on things and what not. He also lays there just like in your pic some times, although a quick misting of water on/around him usually gets him to perk up - he starts going to town rubbing his head on things when he's a little moist.

Hope this helps

 

[beardie789]

I placed his misted greens in his tank today and while I went out for about an hour, he was still in the same spot paying fairly limp
I also teased him with crickets outside of his tank which he usually starts dancing around for but he didn't

So I just gave him a bath and did poop in it He has pooped every single day so far

I placed him on his basking log after his bath today and here's what he looks like now! He seems so much more alert!

I'm going to let him bask for at least an hour and then see how he does with his crickets. The crickets are small but I have never seen pinhead size crickets. :? Here's a comparison size to my hand photo(the length of my hand from bottom of wrist to top of middle finger is 6 1/2" :