worried about my baby :(

[Vitosmom]

Hi. I got my first bearded dragon in January. I named him Vito because it was my grandfathers middle name and my husband let me get him on the day of my grandfathers funeral to cheer me up, since I've wanted one for a long time. Needless to say I love him more than anything and just want to make sure I take care of him as good as I can. I'm worried because I've been reading these boards for awhile now and I'm really scared about MBD. I have a 40 gallon breeder and a reptisun 10.0 tube that I changed after six months. I dust his food with calcium with D3 at least three times a week and try to take him out in the sun whenever I can. He's about eight months old and he's only 15 1/2 inches...is that too small? I'm worried because he seems to have a slight underbite that he didn't have until recently. I'm really scared I'm doing something wrong and I want my baby to be as healthy as possible. I'm also worried about his tail because it's looked weird for awhile, I'm hoping it's just because it's going to shed soon? So if someone can give me any information on how he looks I'd really really appreciate it.

Here is his tail...normally it doesn't have that weird kink in it. It's nice and straight, I'm just worried about the odd coloring..

 

[yankswin13]

looks like it might be a shedding thing. mine moves his tail weirdly when he is even close to shedding. size i don't know might be a little small but all beardies are different. looks like a healthy guy!

 

[kcarello]

Dragons up to 1 year old should get calcium 5 x week, and vitamins, 2 x week, one feeding per day. What are you feeding Vito? Greens, veggies, insects? What are you temps and what are you measuring them with? Do you bath Vito?

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, Vito does look healthy and 15 .5 inches is fine. Only one angle shows just the slightest underbite, but not anything that is out of the ordinary. And his tail is going into shed, as was mentioned. It looks a little crooked in that pic, but you said it was just laying funny. So you have a good UVB bulb, as long as he can get within 8" of it, that's good. You have to have high enough temps. for calcium to be absorbed, too, at least 100 -105 at the basking area. My only suggestion is that he could be just a little plumper, and more hydrated. Is he a good eater ? What size and how many insects does he eat ? I know some owners are afraid to transition to larger prey items and the continue feeding smaller than necessary insects. Does he get regular lukewarm, shallow baths ? And you can offer water via eyedropper, syringe or spray bottle [ gentle, direct stream directed gently on the snout] But there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him.

 

[NEROtheMONSTER]

I think 15 1/2 inches is fine at 8 months.My beardie is 16 inches at 8 months and eats about 100 crickets every day and is a perfect weight .He also gets daily 20 min baths and daily salad.

 

[Vitosmom]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I was giving him calcium powder every time I fed him but then I got scared I was going to give him too much, so I started dusting his food less. I’ll give him five times a week once a day from now on. His crickets food has a lot of vitamins in it so I wasn’t sure if he needed any extra but I have Flukers liquid vitamins that I give him a few drops of every so often and he just licks it off his nose, and doesn’t seem to mind it. Should I be giving him that twice a week?

I can’t get him to eat any veggies and I’ve tried quite a few. There’s still some I haven’t gotten for him so I’ll try those and see if I can find something he’ll eat. I even tried baby food and he just licks it once, and looks at me all confused. I tried putting it on his nose and he just wipes it off on his carpet and looks at me like I offended him. I even tried freeze dried ones that you add water to but he has no interest in those either. He’ll eat a few pieces and then lose interest. So I’ve been giving him Zoomed canned crickets in the morning, because I leave for work before his light goes on. I give him half a can of the small ones because I tried the big ones but he eats more than one at a time. He ended up not pooping for a week. I read that letting them swim in warm water might make him go, so I tried it and it worked like a charm. I’m thinking that since he eats more than one at a time he could have gotten blocked up, So now I’m scared to give him the large canned ones so I went back to small and I just give him more. I usually dust those with powder. When I feed him later in the day I feed him live crickets. I just switched to the large ones recently because he was eating so many smaller ones and I got sick of ordering 1000 at a time every week. I usually just feed him them until he stops eating them. (Which is usually after eating 50-60.) I also just started giving him medium superworms. I only give him two or three because I’m worried about him being big enough for them. I also just fed him 50 phoenix worms last night.

His temps on his cool side are between 78 and 82 usually and the warmer side varies between 85 and 95. I use digital thermometers that stick on the glass. He has a tree so he can adjust how far from the basking light he gets. (It’s a 100 watt basking bulb) He’s usually toward the middle of the tree and sometimes has his mouth open. I’m not sure what kind of thermometer I should get so I can get an accurate reading of his basking spot.

I give him baths at least three times a week for 15 to 20 minutes, and he’s recently decided that he likes to poop during bath time, so I’m wondering if I should give him one every day.
I’m open to any suggestions on how I can be a better mommy to him so please let me know what I’m doing wrong, and how I can correct it. Thanks!

 

[kcarello]

Yes, give the vitamins 2 x week. I don't know anything about freeze dried or canned crickets so I cant help you out there. If you want a clean viv, give him a bath everyday and he won't go in it.
The dial thermometers are the ones that stick on the glass and they can be off up to 40 degrees.
You need a digital thermometer with a probe or a temp. gun to get accurite readings.

 

[Vitosmom]

Thank you for the info about the thermometers. I'll go get probe thermometers this weekend.