HaleyandMushu
New member
It has been a while since I was on here because our first ever bearded dragon, Mushu, died and we were heartbroken. We got Mushu from a rescue.
My 13yr old daughter had researched for a year plus on what was needed, common health concerns... We were very proactive in the rescue world of dogs and fostered for years, was on the board.... she even trained dogs herself at her age. But this was new to us. Her dream is to work with animals when she gets older and have somewhat of a sanctuary of all sorts. She was very proactive and it took mom a while to be convinced of adding a beardy to our family. So proud of her and after reading thru everything, I finally agreed.
We got him from a rescue and his history was that his previous owner was a youth and mom called the rescue asking them to get him because her son was not taking care of Mushu like he should have been. He was 2 when we got him as best as they know. He came home with us and immediately was part of the family with such an amazing personality. He pooped regularly. Loved his greens, had mainly freeze dried bugs and on occasion live roaches/crickets.... He had a tank both here and at her dad's. So on weekends she went to her dad's he would ride in the car - he loved it and was oh so cute looking up at sun... he would be in his enclosure or hang out w/ us running around the room, cooking w/ us (on our shoulder...) falling asleep while we studied and put him back in enclosure... He was curious about the dogs and they were good w/ him. He loved the sunlight and anytime he was out of enclosure near a window or even on our shoulder he would lean toward the light. He had the UV light and a heat light and at night he slept on a heating pad that did automatically turn off after some time.
Well his final night, my daughter had a friend over and she had just given him a bath. He was active after his bath, running around the bathroom and jumped at the tub a few times (seemed cute/funny at the time) but then all of a sudden he stopped jumping, got low to ground and stopped moving. My daughter rushed him to me, he was not moving much, seemed almost lethargic. I tried to love on him, warm him and suggested we put him under his heat light. He died that night and we do not really know why. He was acting perfectly fine before that. We had him for about 6 months at the time.
We are wanting to get another one now and want to make sure we care for him and prevent something from happening to him. So in being completely transparent, we had not taken him to the vet since we got him and actually were going to take him in the next week for just a routine visit. This time we plan to do so after a week or so of having him and plan to feed and possibly raise dubious roaches to feed him. We also plan to get a red bulb for at night. Our UVB also wasn't a tube light. So we plan to do that as well.
I wanted to check though also with you all and ask if anyone had an experience similar to ours or has any suggestions or input on why he could have died and if there was something we could have done to prevent it/rather prevent from ever happening again. We want to love our dragon and enjoy a long life with him.
Thank you!
My 13yr old daughter had researched for a year plus on what was needed, common health concerns... We were very proactive in the rescue world of dogs and fostered for years, was on the board.... she even trained dogs herself at her age. But this was new to us. Her dream is to work with animals when she gets older and have somewhat of a sanctuary of all sorts. She was very proactive and it took mom a while to be convinced of adding a beardy to our family. So proud of her and after reading thru everything, I finally agreed.
We got him from a rescue and his history was that his previous owner was a youth and mom called the rescue asking them to get him because her son was not taking care of Mushu like he should have been. He was 2 when we got him as best as they know. He came home with us and immediately was part of the family with such an amazing personality. He pooped regularly. Loved his greens, had mainly freeze dried bugs and on occasion live roaches/crickets.... He had a tank both here and at her dad's. So on weekends she went to her dad's he would ride in the car - he loved it and was oh so cute looking up at sun... he would be in his enclosure or hang out w/ us running around the room, cooking w/ us (on our shoulder...) falling asleep while we studied and put him back in enclosure... He was curious about the dogs and they were good w/ him. He loved the sunlight and anytime he was out of enclosure near a window or even on our shoulder he would lean toward the light. He had the UV light and a heat light and at night he slept on a heating pad that did automatically turn off after some time.
Well his final night, my daughter had a friend over and she had just given him a bath. He was active after his bath, running around the bathroom and jumped at the tub a few times (seemed cute/funny at the time) but then all of a sudden he stopped jumping, got low to ground and stopped moving. My daughter rushed him to me, he was not moving much, seemed almost lethargic. I tried to love on him, warm him and suggested we put him under his heat light. He died that night and we do not really know why. He was acting perfectly fine before that. We had him for about 6 months at the time.
We are wanting to get another one now and want to make sure we care for him and prevent something from happening to him. So in being completely transparent, we had not taken him to the vet since we got him and actually were going to take him in the next week for just a routine visit. This time we plan to do so after a week or so of having him and plan to feed and possibly raise dubious roaches to feed him. We also plan to get a red bulb for at night. Our UVB also wasn't a tube light. So we plan to do that as well.
I wanted to check though also with you all and ask if anyone had an experience similar to ours or has any suggestions or input on why he could have died and if there was something we could have done to prevent it/rather prevent from ever happening again. We want to love our dragon and enjoy a long life with him.
Thank you!
