Why does every Beardie I bring home get "sick" : (

[Malibubare07]

This is our second attemp at this creature. The first one from Petsmart was active alert day one then flat out refused to eat for a week finally when he wouldnt stop sleeping all day we brought him back. They gave us a new one who was half an inch bigger, fatter and overall seemed healthier. This new ones first day ate 4 crickets, day two he ate 12 crickets and 4 tiny wax worms, day 3 ate nothing, day 4 ate nothing, day 5 I forcefed him 7 crickets and a tiny waxworm and 1 bite of veg. , day 6 had to force feed him 10 crickets. Today is day 7,last night he threw up, I watched him spit out a puddle of white clear mucas along with some fragents of undugested mushed up crickets and this morning he wants to sleep all day and had a very smally poop, not really diareah though just not his normal poo.

He is in a small tank to start as he is only 5 inches. Two sides are covered up and so is the back.
We use paper towels for subtrate.
One side has a baskign bulb (NOT a coil) and is at 110
Other side is at 80
The UVB is the Repti 10 tube and goes from one end of tank to the other inside the tank.
Humdity is at 30.

His lights are both on from 7:00am to 8:00pm which is 13 hours and so they are OFF for about 10/11 hours

He has a branch to climb up so he can get nice and toasty if he wants, he has a log to hide in (which I have never seen him go into) and has two feeder dishes one I keep with Tiny wax worms, and the other with dices fresh fruit and vegetables, which I have also never seen him in. Every morning After he has had an hour or two to warm up I offer him 5 crickets smaller than the size between his eyes. Also tried a seperate feeding tank.

He has gone pee and poo every day one time the same time every day since we brought him home. Day 6 his pee was yellow, day seven pee was white but poo was stinky stinky stinky and I would say his pee poo size was smaller than had been maybe.

At Petsmart they said they only feed them 3 crickets per lizard so one lizard averages maybe 1 cricket a day if another one eats them all first. One day they get 3 crickets, one day they get 3 worms, and one day they only get commercial pellets and vegetables, no live food. Then they rotate this routine.

I was thinking they needed time to learn they can actually eat lots more at their new home and thinking for a while they would probably stay on their routine they knew from the store.

With both beardies after the 3rd day or so they just want to sleep all day seem unhappy, overall just dont look like they did day 1. Then it goes downhill form there, I have to start forcefeeding to keep them alive until one day they just wont wake up at all and I start to feel horrible and want to return it again in hopes going back to the store would keep him alive.

I have been doing daily baths of 95 degree water to keep hydrated, I also mist him 3 times a day.

Please note that the one I have now, our second attept he started shedding his second day home with us : ( by the end of his second day with us he shed his whole tail and started shedding his lower back

I know that a shedding and a new home bring extreme stress but something just isnt right here. This is our last attmept as I do not want to be a beardie killer, I want to know what I am doing wrong. Our sons best friend has a beardie that is now fill grown, our son was SO excited to get one of his own but we just can not keep them healthy, I just can not figure what is wrong.

When we bought this new one I set up a vet apt for Sept. 17th in the evening. I think today we will run in a stool sample just so we know if parasites, but they can not give medicine until they see him on Monday.

NOTE: He is sleepy today and deffinitly not acting right however he is still nice and fat and still going pee and poo every day. No idea. I am about to give up and take him back.

 

[munchkins9802]

i do have one additional question for you, did you disinfect the cage before putting the new lizard in it ? Just a thought> and from my experience Petsmart lizards are typically ill and babies should NEVER only eat 3 crickets a day.
More questiosn to come later

 

[Malibubare07]

Yes I did a lite bleach solution and baked everything else.

oh my I know that baby bearides can eat normally around at least 30 a day. When I phoned the store our first go around I was like "he is only eating one to three a day and that is all" I said" he should be eating about 30 or so and I am worried why is isnt eating enough" she FREAKED OUT at me and said oh no no no a bearded dragon should only eat no more than 3 a day!!! She was almost mad at me for offering him more than 3 crickets. I couldnt believe it, I just kept my mouth shut. It is crazy how uneducated they are.

But when they come home they are nice in color, active, crazy hyper alsmost, then day three they are pale, sleepy, refuse food, then just slowly start to die. If it was the store wouldnt they be sick day 1 too? I am really thinkin it is parasites but again his first 2 - 3 dys his poo and everything eas perfectly normal.

 

[munchkins9802]

They often have parasites such as pinworms or coccidia. My experience says pet store lizards come with them and can be healthy but the parasites aren't always easy to tell when they have them.

 

[Malibubare07]

Today he wont wake up, he is breathing and looks fat and healthy but in his eyes I can tell he is "checked out" and not ok. I decided to not force feed him at all today, I just dont want to stress it out more, but I also just dont think there is anythign I an do to make him better, once they hit the point where they wont wake up or be responsive its just downhill from there. This morning and last night he had yucky poo, not diareah but had a slimy coating on it and smelly. I am misting him every hour or so but think I should just leave him alone today and tonight we may bring him back to Petsmart. They claim that they will bring ill animals to their vet when brought back.....so hopefully they really do. I noticed that our Petco has some for sale that are 8 inches in length nd we may try one last time from their. The last two from petsmart were under 5 inches in length which is so small, and both did the same thing where 3rd day in just shut down.

Can anyone find anything in my set up that could be wrong?
We really wanted to start from young and have a 10 year companion. : (

The only thing I am wondering is how to handle things the first 3 days they are home. We give them half a day before even offering food, then really just give them food and leave them alone as much as possible, the tank is small to start 10 gallons, which the back and two sided covered for security and comfort. I look at him through the tank overy few hours since I stay at home with him all day, but would that be enough to stress them to death? Any ideas would be appreciated. I would like ot know what others did who successfully kept theirs alive when they firs brought baby home.

 

[Matticus]

I am sorry that you are having a tough run. It could be relocation stress. From what I have read and undertsand It can typically take 1-2 weeks for beardies to adjust to the new living situation. I would continue to offer him crickets and some veggies.

It may also be best to try and give him a luke warm bath. Not to be weird but is he having regular BMs? What kind of substrate are you using?

Not to scare you but I used to have leopard geckos that I purchased from Petco. I ended up having to take the first one back. The second one ended up living for about 5 years but was never 100%. I am not saying pet stores are bad but the pet stores I have been in recently do not take care of the reptiles (dirty water dishes, I actually even saw a dead baby bearded dragon at the one store and had to report it to the clerk)

Just be careful and if he is not looking any better in a couple of days I would maybe recommend taking him to a vet.

 

[mgodfriaux]

I was wondering if the uvb bile is a reptiglo or a reptisun and yes it does make a huge difference

 

[todd1984]

Hey there. I read about your unfortionate luck with berdies. but like the outher person sead it could be relocation stress, paricites, or the location of the tank its self. I got my baby from a local pet store he ate like 20 to 23 pinhead crickets every day for 3 days then he acted like yours did with out the vomiting part. I moved his tank away from my outher herps 1st he was a bit mor active then I went from the zilla 10.0 tube and a 90 watt light bulb to a zoo med power sun. which really cheered him up I guess. now the dude will eat what ever I put in front of him as long as it is not a veggie he stopped eating those long agao. buy you are in the right direction buy taking a poo sample for the doc. allso if they have a bit of weight on them and they refuse to eat not sure why but one day with out food wont hurt them too badly. I would recomend not messing with him no loud noise and offer food acordingly.

 

[InfantryMcLellen]

What size crickets are you feeding them at that size? The crickets should be no bigger than the space between their eyes or they will cause impaction. Also him vomitting could be cause from the crickets being too big.

 

[FatAlbert]

I have had the exact same thing with my attempt one and now my attempt two is doing it

 

[Malibubare07]

The smallest ones possible, pin heads and deffinitly or about 1/4 inch in size. They are dusted with calcium daily and vitamins 3 days a week was my goal. His tank has 3 sides covered ad is in our sons room which is empty from 7am to 3pm every day and when he comes home from school he doesnt bother him he leaves his room quiet and just sits and watchea his tv or plays with lego/does homework at his desk from 3 - 5 then his room is empty again as he eats and gets ready for bed until lights out at 8pm . He knows not to bother it at all. Im wondering if I should cover up the front and leave the two sides open, this way he can not see anything going on between 3 - 5 pm and can bask in peace. But I read that it is good to actaully allow them to see everything from the front so not sure.

 

[Malibubare07]

My husband said that our petco has beardies that are about 8 inches and just look bigger/older overall than those itty bitty tiny 4 - 5 inch ones from petsmart. So we were going to bring our second beardie back to the store tonight, and this morning we found him belly up with his tounge sticking out...dead : ( oh my I am a mess this morning. I did not want this to happen, I know for sure the store will blame it on us, when the fact is he had a poor immune system to start with due to them keeping temps at 90 with 6 beardies in a 10 gallon and only giving them 1 - 3 crickets a day. : ( If he was overly healthy from the start I know he would have a better change of handling the stress.

This 3rd attemp is our LAST. We will get one from a nother store this time, and get it a few inches bigger and flat out leave it alone for a whole week aside from feeding and one bath a week.

(should I try feeding from a seperate container right way, or the first few days should I feed by throwng crickets into his tank then scooping them all back out each feeding? thought having my hands in there would be stressful, but I guess so would going from his home to his feeder to his home to his feeder. REALLY want to do everything 100% right with this last one.

 

[snazzyglasses]

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear about your little guys
Have you thought about getting one from a breeder instead? Breeders tend to know what they're doing a lot more than petstores, so you'll get a healthier baby. Getting a bigger/older baby from the petstore also sounds like a good idea.
Another thought is for when you disinfect the cage & accessories & anything else the beardies might have touched, like their bathtubs. Try using an ammonia-based cleaner instead of bleach, since bleach doesn't kill coccidia (I was so surprised when I heard that! I thought bleach nailed everything). Coccidia is a nasty parasite that stressed-out beardies are especially susceptible to. A lot of us swear by this stuff: http://www.reptiza.net/beardeddragon.co/index.php?route=product/product&path=64&product_id=249
Brick and Lady and I wish you the best of luck with your new beardie! <3 <3

 

[Malibubare07]

Thank you. : ( Obviously it my last intention to kill or harm anything. I am so educated on this topic now a ddays and really think I am doing everything that I can right which is why I am so upset. I did a quick search for breeders yesturday, also looked at what was available for adoption on craigslist. Will look more into it today.

 

[pogvitt]

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but it is usually best not to force feed - they have a lot slower metabolisms than an equivalent size mammal, and so can go longer without food before they will start to lose condition. As well, when they are so small it is easy to stress of injure them doing this. I would just recommend offering him as many appropriate-sized insects as he can eat in a 10 minute period once or twice a day.