Young Beardie seems ok but eats and poops less

[Ancline]

I just got a beardie for Christmas, I have a large (4ft×2ft) home-made vivarium I put her in, she didn't eat much the first 3 days I had her but then her apetite picked up and was eating 10-20 large-ish roaches for her size or 10-15 large crickets a day, as many as I could feed her. After 3 weeks she grew 2 whole inches, she's now slightly over 9in long, looks kinda like a lanky teenager that just had a growth spurt. But a week ago she really slowed eating roaches, crickets, and superworms in the last week all she's eaten has been 2.5 superworms (ate off the back end of one and left the other half to die slowly), 30 roaches, 2 small peices of kale, and zucchini. The only thing I can get her to eat an abundance of is zucchini which I only gave to her today out of desperation to get her to eat. Her daily poops also seem to be similarly sized to what she eats, little in, little out. I got lab results back and they say there's no parasites, she seems active and alert, just not eating what I know she should. She's not sleeping a whole ton, pretty much only at night when the lights go out. Basking spot is proper 100-103 F measured with both a probe and an infared temp gun, cool side is 82 F, humidity is 45%, she's kept on tile, no sand, the basking light is a 100w megaray with UVB. I give her a bath every day and she'll drink water. I sprinkle finely ground eggshell dust on her food for calcium, she also enjoys licking up the dust too, which I only let her do 1 time a week, a tiny pinch. I don't even know if I should be worrying because if I didn't know she wasn't eating that well I wouldn't be able to tell by the way she acts or looks, other than maybe being a little bit on the thin side. She was shedding a little bit earlier this week could that be the issue? Maybe she's just uncomfortable from the shed and doesn't feel like eating? I just don't want this to snowball and my beardie end up starving to death. How long should I wait before taking her to the vet again if she continues eating very little? The vet I took her to said my beardie looked very healthy but that was a week ago just before she lost her apetite. I feel so mad I spent $80 on a vet appointmet, everything checked out and now THIS happens! I don't have unlimited funds to take my pet to the vet every week! I mean I never had this problem with my red eared slider she ate like a horse! I don't understand having to goad an animal into eating, it should be like their #1 instinct.

In summary I guess my question is: What can I do to make her want to eat more bugs and what could be wrong?

 

[CooperDragon]

It's likely shed related. Their appetite and mood can go off during sheds sometimes. They also go through cycles when they eat less. Is she alert and active? If so she is probably OK. I'd check her weight on a kitchen scale and keep track to ensure that's remaining stable or increasing. How far above the basking spot is your MegaRay? The optimal UVB output from the 100w is about 10-12'' without a screen interfering.

 

[Ancline]

Thank you for your reaponse CooperDragon,
Megaray suggested 12" was the minimum for the bulb I got and at that distance the temperature was at a scortching 125F so I lowered the basking spot to 15" and the basking spot is reading 102F right now. If I measure the dragon herself I get a temp gun reading of 105F. My beardie as I type is sitting up on her front legs, with her back legs stretched out behind her, with her mouth gaping on and off, which I'm told is a good sign of correct basking temperatures. And oh yeah, she's pretty active. I watched her today as she was basking this morning and she would move a little bit arround her basking spot every few minutes, fan out her sides to catch more light and then run down to the glass to look at me typing on my phone curiously, then run back up to her basking spot. I came back from class about an hour ago and found she ate the butt end of a super worm while Iwas gone I guess she doesn't like the front end *shrugs*. I hope it's just her shed and she'll get her apetite back soon, she has a lot of growing to do.

 

[Ancline]

Oh, yeah. You reminded me I need a kitchen scale, I'll have one by Monday and start checking her weight. I've been meaning to buy a kitchen scale since last week but my husband had the Amazon cart cluttered with stuff for his aluminum smelting hobby I wasn't sure what he wanted me to do with and kept forgetting to ask about. But I got it ordered now.

 

[CooperDragon]

That's the rub with the MVBs. You can't control heat and UVB independently. Measuring output from my MegaRay shows UVI 1.0 at 15'' which is a little low. I like a minimum of UVI 3 in the basking area with closer to 5 or 6 as optimal. My bulb has about a year of burn in time though so it may be less powerful than yours at this point (their output degrades over time). It sounds like she's basking properly and is content so I'd just keep an eye on her weight for now.