Worried about my beardie

[uberelena]

I've had my beardie for almost 2 months (she's almost 7 months old now) and she just doesn't seem to be adjusting to living here or to being with me. Sometimes she is fine with being handled for a short amount of time, but then starts jumping out of my hands. I'm worried that she'll hurt herself from falling one of these days. Last night I had her out and was going to put her back in the viv but she bit me, which she has never done before. How long does it usually take for a dragon to adjust to their new parents? She will never take food from my hands when I try to hand feed her, she will only eat from a dish. Then last night after she bit me and I got her back in the tank, she went over to the cool side of the tank (which goes down to about 75F at night) and slept under a log, which she has also never done before. This morning she is still there and is dark brown-ish grey instead of her usual bright orange. I put food in her dish, and she is usually very enthusiastic about eating but hasn't touched anything yet. Am I being concerned about nothing? Is she just a bratty teenager and will come around eventually? Or is there something wrong with her? Or with what I'm doing? Please help. Thanks.

 

[zizzee]

I'm just bumping up this thread, cause I'm clueless as well :/

 

[uberelena]

Thanks zizzee. Just as an update, she's come out from under the log and ate a few meal worms, but there's still food left in her dish and she's still not acting like herself.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Hello could you tell us about your setup just to make sure the husbandry is good first? Also I would stop feeding the meal worms as it is hard for our poopers to digest. Are you feeding greens? Here is a great chart, http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

How old is your dragon?
How long have you had your dragon?
How long is your dragon?
What is the sex of your dragon?
What size enclosure do you have your dragon in?
What type substrate do you have on the bottom of your tank?
Do you use UVB lights?
If so, Is it a coil, compact, fluorescent tube, or Mercury Vapor bulb?
What is the brand name and number of your bulb? Wattage (if MVB)?
How old is your UVB bulb?
How close can your dragon get to the UVB?
Do you use a separate basking bulb? What kind and what is the wattage?
What are the basking temps?
What is the cool side temp?
Do you take the temps with a stick on thermometer, a digital thermometer with a wire and a probe end or a temp gun?
Where exactly are you taking your basking temps?
Do you use a heat rock or heat pad?
What do you feed your dragon? Please be specific.
How often do you feed and what time do you feed (morning, afternoon, night)?
Do you gutload (feed) your crickets, worms, etc?
Do you use vitamin or calcium supplements? What brand(s)? How many days a week do you use each of them?
Is your dragon having regular bowel movements (poops)?
Do you bath your dragon? How often?
Do you mist your dragon or offer water other than in the bath?
Does your dragon share an enclosure with another dragon?

 

[uberelena]

To answer your questions:

The dragon is almost 7 months old
I've had her almost 2 months
She is about 10-11 inches long from nose to tail tip
Sex is not known for sure, but I was told by the breeder I got her from that they were fairly sure it's a girl
She is in a 70-gallon tank
The substrate is a calcium-enriched sand which was reccomended by the breeder
One side of the tank has a 10.0 UVB Repti-Glo light
The other side of the tank has a 75w infrared light and a 150w UVA basking light, both also made by Repti-Glo
Hot side temperature is around 100F during the day, dropping to 85-90 at night
Cool side temperature is around 80F during the day, dropping to 70 at night
There is a digital thermometer on each side of the tank, and the overall temperature is monitored with a probe.
There is a small heating pad underneath the substrate on the warm side.
She never takes much interest in her salad, but she has been offered:
bok choi, dandelion greens, beet greens, collard greens, swiss chard, bell peppers, red grapes, mango, peas, and grapefruit (all cut to appropriate size, obviously). The only bits she has eaten from those are the bell peppers. She gets crickets every day, meal worms occasionally and small superworms every couple of days (those are her favourite). Every morning I give her some specially formulated moist pellets for juvenile beardies. She likes those.
She eats 3 times a day
Yes, I gutload all feeder insects
I use Flukers calcium dust every time i give her any insects, as well as Zilla reptile vitamin spray at least 4 times a week
My dragon poops regularly every day like clockwork. Her poops are enormous
I bath my dragon in warm water once a week
She gets misted twice a week and has a shallow dish of clean water in her tank every day
She is the only dragon in the viv.

Hope that helps!

 

[zizzee]

Personally, I would get a smaller tank just now and change your UVB from ReptiGlo to ReptiSun as they can be bad for beardies. http://www.petmountain.com/product/...bs/504983/zoo-med-reptisun-10.0-uvb-bulb.html

S'all I can help out with.

 

[uberelena]

Ok, I'll look into that.
Also, I forgot to metion that she can get within 6 inches of all the lights. Also every time she poops they are solid and totally normal.

 

[kcsearle]

there is a few things you should change

1. get rid of the sand. go with a solid substrate like (tile, papertowels, newspaper)
2. get a repti-sun instead of the repti-glo
3. they dont need a under pad heater (those dont sense heat from their bellies)
4. no red bulb it can hurt there eyes..all they need is a bright white light and the UV

that is all i can think of right now

 

[uberelena]

Just to update everyone, by the end of that night she was totally back to normal. I put one of my t-shirts I had worn into the viv and it's been working wonders! She now takes superworms out of my hand and doesn't freak out so much when I go to pet her. She was totally willing to let me pick her up today, so that was nice. But now she's shedding again as she's growing like mad so I'll hold off on handling her for a couple days. And I was wrong about how big she is. Measured her today and she's 12 inches from nose to tip of the tail. Sooo much bigger from when I got her, it's amazing! Hard to believe she's even the same dragon.