Worried about 2 year old male

[AprilMayJune]

I'm starting to get worried about one of my dragons.

He is just over 2 years old and I have had him for only 1 year. I'm quite certain he went into brumation in November/December time where he went down and slept for almost 2 months. He would come out occasionally and bask for a few minutes at a time and then would go hide in his cool-side hide until he felt the need to bask again. I took him out every week to a week and a half to give him a soak in the tub so as to help him keep hydrated. He refused to eat anything at this time which is a good thing because I didn't want the food rotting in his tummy while sleeping.

About 3 weeks ago he decided to come out of brumation, or so I think. He basks quite a bit but also hides under the warm-side hide quite a bit and also the cool side hide. He doesn't eat. I have offered him fresh greens daily and I am able to hand feed one or two pieces of his greens but then he won't eat anymore. I offer him dubia every day and he looks at them then looks at me and actually snubs his nose at them and walks away to hide again. Since one of my other dragons is a special needs fella and can only eat babyfood I have offered it to this guy as well. It's a combination of chicken broth and sweet potatoes or squash or peas. There is always twice as much vegetable as there is chicken in the mix and calcium and vitamins are added according to which is needed. Calcium is 3-4 times a week and vitamins are 2 times a week. He goes crazy and loves when I syringe feed him the baby food and gobbles down as much as 10cc's of food that way. I also attempt to sneak in some greens while syringe feeding him.

He has gone poo a few times and it looks as normal as normal is when being fed babyfood. His stool is watery as he is bathed one to three times a week so there is no dehydration issues with him.

His colouring his darker than normal. He is usually a brilliant yellow with amazing purple side bars but lately when he isn't up and basking he is dark and doesn't look happy at all. I just checked on him and if beardies could talk he'd probably say leave me alone woman!

My question is, do you think he still might be brumating but decided he wants food on occasion and should I stop trying to feed him and let him come out of brumation completely before trying to feed him some more? Is there maybe something else wrong with him?

I'm going to say what everyone else says "his set-up is perfect" and to me it is. He has a 100watt MegaRay bulb that isn't one of the defective ones that may be out there. His temps are 105 in the basking area where he likes them and the cool side temp is 78. He has a hide in both his hot area and his cool area and has lots of climbing he can do. His viv is a home-made custom enclosure which is 4x2x2. The lights are on a timer and he gets 11 hours of daylight now. Since it has become lighter outside we raised it to the 11 hours as where it was 9.5 hours before. It's continuing to stay daylight longer even now and we would like to put it back to 12-14 hours but we don't want to shock our beardies. They are all tired and go to sleep about half hour before lights turn off.

 

[dragonlady04]

Hi,

It's very possible that he is still in brumation. Studies have shown that their hormone levels start declining in Nov and Dec and don't usually spike for several mos. When they do, it's usually like day and night. I had a female that i thought was out of brumation about 3 weeks ago. She ate a few days, not much, basked, looked fine. 3 days later i find her in her cool hide sound asleep again. So i put some papertowels over her head, to help keep the light out, and she's been asleep ever since.

They can also get very spoiled. I just got a beautiful girl in that refuses to eat unless she is hand fed. Now i don't mind doing this, but she won't even go after it if it falls out of her mouth. She just looks at me as if to say, you go chase it. So i would not feed him with a syringe for a few days and see what happens. Before he went into brumation, did you ever have a fecal done? Has he lost any weight in the last 3 weeks? If he has, then you might have a bigger issue than brumation. I always weigh mine at the beginning of every month. Just as a precaution. I keep a chart on the front of the enclosure with the date and any other info i deem important. It can alert you right away if something is going wrong.

 

[AprilMayJune]

No weight loss and the fecal was clear in October. A healthy dragon that doesn't want to eat. He's becomming more and more active and still shuns his greens and dubia. I think maybe this weekend I may go out and buy him a special treat of silk worms and see if he eats those. If he doesn't want those I'll feed them to my fat princess since she eats anything you put in front of her.

I've avoided syringe feeding him for 2 days even though it is very difficult to deny him especially since he can hear me prepping Lance's food in his syringe. He pops out of the hide to watch me get it ready and waits and waits for his. When he hasn't gotten any he usually returns to his hide or his basking spot.

I certainly hope I haven't spoiled him too much and he's just still brumating in a different way than he was last month. Beardies are sweet creatures but complicated. Go figure! And is it too much to ask for them to brumate in one way? May look like it is for this guy. He's going to stress dear old mom out (like I need more stress in my life) and make her complety crazy.