GrowingaBeard
Member
Hi all...haven't posted here in a while, as all's been good till now, but now we're worried. Blaze is my son's beardie, we're new beardie owners and have only had him since April. We got him from Petco, so weren't sure of exact age but when we got him he was about 9-10 inches so we guessed his age to be about 5 months or so (?), so that would make him about 9 months now. He's now 18 inches long and about 12.5 ounces and losing weight over the past few weeks. I don't know what weight loss is alarming but he's gone from 12.4 oz a week ago to 11.8 oz today. Not a huge amount but when he's so young/small this doesn't seem right.
Some history...from first bringing him home, all seemed great. He was active, though he spent most of his time in his basking spot, not much on the cooler side of his tank except to eat and poop and occasionally window-dance.
We have always fed him crickets...for the first few months he was eating crickets like a maniac, running all over his tank chasing them...easily 40+ per day (med crickets, about 5/8 inch, give or take). I started buying crickets in bulk (500 at a time) because he was eating so many. He didn't eat a lot of greens at first but eventually started eating more. Some days he wouldn't touch them and some days he'd nearly clean the salad bowl. He has never drank water that we've seen - we've tried dripping on his nose, offering an eye dropper, a water bowl in his viv, he wants no part of it. He *rarely* will take a sip from his bath, but not lately.
Baths - we've started doing them more often, I think we weren't doing them often enough, esp given that he doesn't drink. Over the past two weeks we've been bathing every other day. He has always been somewhat wrinkly-skinned, so when he started acting weird lately, I thought dehydration was getting to him, but he hasn't seemed to improve with the increased bathing. Should we bathe him daily? He's not a big fan of baths...
A couple weeks ago, his appetite dropped off the map, seemed kind of abrupt. One day he ate 40 crickets, then the next maybe 20, then quickly dropped after that to now, where the crickets I put in the tank are basking on his log right next to him and he couldn't care less. He used to poop daily, but now its every few days and much less (makes sense, he's hardly eating). Poop looks/smells pretty normal, I think (still new at this). I can coax him to eat a few bites of salad by sprinking calcium powder on it while he's standing by it (that entices him, somehow!). But really, he eats just a few bites. He hasn't eaten a cricket in at least 2-3 days that I can tell. He still basks a lot, but we almost daily come home in the afternoon to find him in his hide trying to sleep (he NEVER has slept during the day before!), and he's been heading down to his sleeping spot for the night much earlier in the evening than usual.
Worried about him! He's never been to a vet so no fecal check but my instinct says that's not the problem - he seems to digest what little he eats, isn't impacted, poop looks normal. He doesn't hiss, bite, doesn't mind being handled, we've never seen him black-beard. Any thoughts? I'm glad to provide his tank specs, lights, etc. if that would help. Thank you!
Yikes!
Some history...from first bringing him home, all seemed great. He was active, though he spent most of his time in his basking spot, not much on the cooler side of his tank except to eat and poop and occasionally window-dance.
We have always fed him crickets...for the first few months he was eating crickets like a maniac, running all over his tank chasing them...easily 40+ per day (med crickets, about 5/8 inch, give or take). I started buying crickets in bulk (500 at a time) because he was eating so many. He didn't eat a lot of greens at first but eventually started eating more. Some days he wouldn't touch them and some days he'd nearly clean the salad bowl. He has never drank water that we've seen - we've tried dripping on his nose, offering an eye dropper, a water bowl in his viv, he wants no part of it. He *rarely* will take a sip from his bath, but not lately. Baths - we've started doing them more often, I think we weren't doing them often enough, esp given that he doesn't drink. Over the past two weeks we've been bathing every other day. He has always been somewhat wrinkly-skinned, so when he started acting weird lately, I thought dehydration was getting to him, but he hasn't seemed to improve with the increased bathing. Should we bathe him daily? He's not a big fan of baths...
A couple weeks ago, his appetite dropped off the map, seemed kind of abrupt. One day he ate 40 crickets, then the next maybe 20, then quickly dropped after that to now, where the crickets I put in the tank are basking on his log right next to him and he couldn't care less. He used to poop daily, but now its every few days and much less (makes sense, he's hardly eating). Poop looks/smells pretty normal, I think (still new at this). I can coax him to eat a few bites of salad by sprinking calcium powder on it while he's standing by it (that entices him, somehow!). But really, he eats just a few bites. He hasn't eaten a cricket in at least 2-3 days that I can tell. He still basks a lot, but we almost daily come home in the afternoon to find him in his hide trying to sleep (he NEVER has slept during the day before!), and he's been heading down to his sleeping spot for the night much earlier in the evening than usual.
Worried about him! He's never been to a vet so no fecal check but my instinct says that's not the problem - he seems to digest what little he eats, isn't impacted, poop looks normal. He doesn't hiss, bite, doesn't mind being handled, we've never seen him black-beard. Any thoughts? I'm glad to provide his tank specs, lights, etc. if that would help. Thank you!
Yikes!
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