UVB - Toxic?

[proudbeardieowner]

My beardie is not your typical beardie that will run for bugs, in fact he is quite lazy I have even brought him to the vet when he turned about 6 months since that is when he started with this. He is now a little over 10 months and has gotten worse. In fact, he will lay in the sand probably forever if I did not pick him up and put him in his basking area. If he is up there (temp at around 105 using digital thermometer), and sees a cricket he may go and get it, but superworms I have to hold in a tweezer for him to eat, and very rarely will he eat his greens anymore. When I went to the petstore today, they told me that maybe he is getting too much D3 because of the UV light, and his repcal calcium with D. They said that could be toxic, how do I know if this is the problem?

Set up:
40 breeder
ReptiSun 10.0
sand subtrate
100 watt basking light with 100 watt heat lamp towards far end to keep temp warmer now that it is cooler in house
soak him 4x a week

All he wants to do is lay low on the sand, and could probably care less about eating which is getting worse. Any suggestions?

 

[cwj93]

I'm not an expert by any means but I have learned a lot over the past few weeks. Heres a few questions that might help a more experienced member help you out with your problem.

What kind of reptiSUN bulb do you have? Coil or tube fluorescent? How close can he get to the UVB?
If you are using the reptiSUN then using calcium with D3 is good. When using a mercury vapor bulb you don't want to use D3 because beardies get enough from the bulb.

Also, How often does your beardie poop? I would get rid of the sand substrate. Bearded dragons lick everything, and when they ingest the sand it clumps up in their bowels and can cause impaction. You would be much better off using newspapers, paper towels, reptile carpet, or tiles. -- your beardie will thank you.

 

[proudbeardieowner]

The reptisun bulb is a tube, which is 24 inches long. My tank is 36 inches long, and the bulb is mounted inside towards the back of the tank screwed in from the screen right in the center of the tank. His basking area is directly in the center of the tank, and is 7 inches from him.

Today after reading so much about sand and impaction, I removed all the sand and put the left over lenolium from my kitchen in his tank. It has design with some groves, so it makes it so he is not able to really slip, yet the groves are small enought that I will be able to clean it when he poops. Was that a good idea... lenolium ok? He was around his cage checking it out licking as he walked around.

My beardie does not eat that often so he doesnt poop that often either. He poops about every 4 days, but when he goes it looks normal. I think I will soak him now since he did eat about 8 superworms yesterday, abot 2 or 3 crickets today, and actually ate about 3 or 4 pieces of collard greens.

Everyday whether he eats of not, I put kale, collard green, dandelion green and chard in his bowl. I wish he would just surprise me one day and eat it all!!!!

 

[cwj93]

The linoleum you used doesn't have a self sticking adhesive on the bottom does it? If so, when the adhesive is heated it can give off toxic fumes that are very harmful to your beardie. If not, then I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be fine as long as he can get traction on it. Your lighting seems to be good. What are the temps in the basking area and cool side, and what kind of thermometer are you using to measure the temps? The round ones and the stick on strips can be off by 20 degrees so you really want to get a digital probe thermometer or temp gun. Hopefully you will see an improvement now that you got that sand out of there.

 

[proudbeardieowner]

Sorry for the late reply, been a while since i sat in front of my home computer, spending too much time on the work computer

The linoleum I used is not self sticking, it does not peel or anything. Is that ok? His traction is a little slick, but he seems to run around alot more then when I was using sand. In fact the last few days his lettuce has been everywhere in the tank, not just in the bowl!

The temp in his tank is 105 on the hot basking area and 85 on the cool side. I use the digital thermometer with the cord and probe that I put in the area I am checking the temp of.

He seems to be liking his lettuce more atleast this week, but not his crickets. How do I give him his calcium that way, do i sprinkle it on the lettuce? The reason I ask is because he went poop the other day and it almost looked like a very small amount of undigested lettuce. Could that be because he needs more calcium or a new UV bulb? I ordered a new one just in case from petmountain (reptisun 10.0 tube), but I am thinking it could be because he is not getting his vitamins lately since he is so finicky. What do you suggest?

 

[Seiryu]

Did he eat his greens really well before this started happening? I'm just wondering if he's now showing the possible issues of all that Oxalic acid hes been eating.

All of the greens you have listed have Moderate to High Oxalic Acid in them. Oxalic acid binds calcium and if fed too much can cause issues.

Get rid of the chard (very high in oxalic acid), feed kale sparingly (high oxalic acid). Dandelions/Collard also have a moderate to high amount. I would look into feeding Endive and Escarole as more of the "staple" greens. And feed the dandelion, collard, and kale 3-4 times a week. You can also give some squash too (Butternut, or "Winter" squash) are good.

Good that you got rid of the sand, it causes more issues than it's worth.

 

[proudbeardieowner]

My beardie was never a big green eater:-( However, when he does eat them he seemed to like kale the best. I will try introducing him to Endive and Escarole, and the different squashes and see if any improvement.

Hi new bulb came today, so hopefully that may help.

Ugh! I have gotten attached to this lizard, if anything happens I will be so sad:-(

Thank you for everyones help!

 

[Seiryu]

I hope things are getting better!

I didn't see it in one of your posts, but how old was your 10.0 reptisun. I know you just got a new one (which is good!), but they *shouldn't* go bad until they hit 5 or 6 months.

The temps sound good, but I also missed your part about the un-digested lettuce. Usually that means the temps are too cool, OR the lizard for whatever reason is not utilizing the basking spot.

It could be TOO hot (maybe your thermometer is off?) and he's avoiding it. I have a temp gun and never looked back after getting it. So much more accurate than a digital.