Venting for my Baby Beardy Mortikus- RIP :(

[acdcman75]

I am in the Army and wanted to get a little reptile for me and my wife to take care of... So we decided on a Bearded Dragon from Petco. They told us the Zilla starter set is the one we wanted, so I bought it. 300 Bucks for the set. I faithfully got him crickets every couple of days, dusted them, gave them flukers water and calcium feed... kept his heat lamp right over him and his UVB next to it... his temperature stayed at 100... So I had him a month and a half to two months and saw him dragging himself, and saw white worms in his poop... seemingly overnight... so I took him to the vet(about 140 bucks) and bought him a reptisun 10.0 tube to replace the reptiglo which I highly suspect killed him. And also bought a uvb/heater mercury bulb for him(about 100 bucks)... Now in the midst of feeding him baby food, pedialyte baths, oral calcium, and oral dewormer... he just up and dies, nothing I could do about it... I feel like the most irresponsible owner out there, and I had fed him crickets and layed beside him everyday... The wife said I can get another, but I probably will never get one, cause he died so fast... What I mainly want to find I guess is assurance I didn't kill him... I just got done burying the little guy in sand overlooking the lake, cause he loves great views... but I tell myself the worms might have been eating his calcium and he had them from petsmart... but reality is I believe I got a crappy bulb and killed him...

 

[william488]

sorry for your loss, most likely he allready had the worms, and petco set you up for failure to begin with. Don't let this turn you away from them. I would suggest reading as much as you can on this site and learn all you can. Once you learn it as best as you can, it becomes easy to take care of them. By what you said, you did a good job, you changed out his bulb, you took him to a vet when you seen issues, don't beat yourself up. Take some time, learn a bit more, then go for it again, this time, I would suggest getting one from a good breeder, just ask around this site, and many here can suggest a few great breeders.

 

[CamoLover]

I agree with William488.

Petsmart/petco trully set you up to fail. There goal is to sell sell sell no matter what. I got my first one through petsmart and he died as well. I believe they buy the baby's to young so most of them end up getting sick and dieing. So please don't beat yourself up. You did all you could.for your little guy and I'm sure he knows it.

 

[kankri]

Yeah, Petsmart/Petco usually takes horrid care of their babies. You did nothing wrong, and I'm sorry you tried so hard all in vain.

If you ever do feel like getting another one, I suggest finding a breeder (and doing plenty of research on them first).

 

[zandi202]

I am so sorry for your loss. I bought the starter kit as well, but found this site almost immediately after that and got everything changed. Spent close to $600 getting everything right. I personally was a full believer that the starter kit would have the essentials to starting out with a beardie.... It's disappointing and really needs to be taken off the market and replaced with starter kits for the correct stuff.

 

[Esther19]

I am so sorry for your loss. There are so many people here who lost beardies due to misinformation.

 

[bunnyrut]

Mr Dargon was brought home with a sister from Petsmart.

We initially bought a lot of stuff that was unnecessary and returned a lot of it.

through their advise and 'expertise' she ended up dying from impaction. a lot of money in vet bills to watch her suffer. it was horrible.

it took my hubby a while to warm up to Dargon, he was a bit resentful for a while. it took over a year to get another bearded dragon. and we are so happy with Tasty Treat. she can never replace our little Road Runner, they all have such different personalities.

 

[jacody]

1st of all... Happy Memorial Day!! Also, you did nothing wrong.. you took him to the vet and changed out the lights.. your baby was prob. sick form the start, possibly already sick before even hatching.. I'd read up on all you're maybe not sure about and try again.. possibly from a breeder??.. sorry for your loss, I've been through it too..

 

[beardie parents]

I agree with what was stated, your babies death wasn't your fault. It's possible it was sick from the start. Several breeders believe it's o.k. to inbreed (I talked to one who breeds dogs that thinks the same) and a lot of people have noticed that tends to weaken the young and when it's done repeatedly, it gets worse. Not all breeders inbreed. There is one that's on here from time to time, his name is Tom and he doesn't inbreed. He did have a problem with a clutch earlier but it wasn't his fault, it was an accident that wasn't anyone's fault. When you go for another beardie, get one that's active. That can tell you they are healthy. Baby beardies tend to run fast, so fast you want to name them 'Speedy' or 'Zoom'. They slow down some as they grow, tho.

 

[txnurseIVAJOY]

I am very sorry for your loss. I agree with others that the big chain pet stores are all about the $ and most likely not having their dragons properly checked before selling them. I got my 6 month old from Petsmart and am greatful I haven't had any issues. A lot of the information from the employees , even their "care sheet" contained inaccurate information that could have potentially harmed my baby. The day I brought him home I just happened to start browsing the internet for more information on beardies, and I am so glad that I did. I am new to bearded dragons too But it sounds to me like you were a great owner to him and caregiver for the time that he was here. You did all you could. I wish you all the best.

 

[kankri]

Several breeders believe it's o.k. to inbreed (I talked to one who breeds dogs that thinks the same) and a lot of people have noticed that tends to weaken the young and when it's done repeatedly, it gets worse.

Inbreeding doesn't naturally "weaken" the young. If you have a pair of strong, healthy parents with good genetics they'll continue having the same good genetics. The problem is that there's no new blood, so if there's any issues or otherwise unnoticeable recessive traits, they'll begin to crop up more and more. Or if there's a disease a dragon in the bloodline would be susceptible to, they all would be. A lot of the problems that come from line/inbreeding come from the fact that a lot of breeders don't actually care or notice the health of the animal, especially since in most case it would take awhile for issues to show (such as, let's say all of this particular line develops cancer when they're elderly, the breeder probably isn't gonna wait around to see if their animals live to a ripe old age healthily or do tests before breeding). They just continue to breed for color, or conformation, or whatever else.

Some lab animals (rats, mice, maybe more?) are bred this way. Some of them are extremely healthy. Some other ones are resistant to cancer, or guaranteed to get cancer. They are all highly inbred, and have nearly the same genetics from animal to animal.

It's okay if you're personally against inbreeding, but please don't spread misinformation and consider the actual facts.

 

[Feline]

I would suggest adopting an adult Beardie online who needs to be rehomed. The rehoming fee usually includes the set up but not always. This way, you can rescue a Beardie instead of buying a baby from a pet store or a breeder. Adult Beardies are usually very hardy and have excellent personalities and are more mellow than babies.

 

[Bailey91990]

I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry for your loss . Even though it wasnt me losing a beardy as I read I felt your pain in my heart and chest & felt tears coming upon me.....
You did everything fine! If you did everything like you explained then you have nothing to worry about, you took care of him like a loving owner does! You even gave him love, which is more then enough to keep him fighting!

But as lots of others said, Petco set you up to fail... Lots of the workers there do care about beardys and lots of them own there own. But because thats there job to look good and get you to buy everything, they WILL & DO mislead people. The worms most likely came from the feeders Petco used. If you look in there tanks there, there is sooooo much feces all over the place, there fighting, the bugs even look dirty if that makes sense... When you buy them from Petco its a 50/50 shot your Beardy will live or not.

My first Beardy I got named Princess, got her a few months ago from Petco almost died the first few weeks we had her. Like you they told me to buy one of the tank sets they had, although they didnt have the Bearded Dragon one, they told me I can buy one of the other sets sense its very similar(cant remember which one). They told me it has EVERYTHING I need in there except for live feeders, and buying it will save me money in the longrun. So 170$ later were walking out as happy as we can be with our new little angel. But they next few weeks were HELL for me and Princess. No lie, in 15days, she ate ONLY 5feeders, and that was all!!! I did everything I can, I lost sleep, I passed up going on Vacation, spent so much money, all because I could not give up on this animal and did not want it to die! To find out, the tank set I bought, didnt come with "everything" I needed like they said. It didnt come with a UVB bulb. I new they needed one, but the Black Light the set came with, I thought that was the UVB because thats what I was told. After going back to Petco and causing a hugeeee scene, I got the UVB light, went home & then over the next 3days, Princess ate 50crickets!! I was sooo happy, and now, Im looking at her as Im typing this as shes basking .

You did nothing wrong, Petco makes sooo many mistakes misleads many of people, I have a very close friend who works there and the only reason I go there still is because of him, & he even said to never listen to people that work there unless you know them. Im sorry again, and IM sorry for the long post, but I can assure you that you did a SPECTACULAR job with it & you are NOT to be blamed!

You can buy another Beardy and it be healthy, but like I said its a 50 50 shot. If you dont want to spend like over 70$, there are breeders who sell dragons regular beardys for like 40$ or can even get a nice morph for like 80$. Its up to you, but I think you would be a great parent to a Beardy and you buying you might just be saving its life

Adam Bailey