Young Dragon, New Owner. Help!!!

[jbc13rds]

Me and my family are Beardie newbies. We bought our little Loki last Saturday (02/22). From what we can tell he/she is very young, measuring only maybe 4 inches nose to tip of tail. It was a spur of the moment purchase (I know, bad idea) and we did not do the proper research ahead of time. The pet store we bought him from did not inform us very well how to keep him and we did not know the questions to ask so we were sent home with what we have now discovered was not a great setup. We were given a 10gal tank, a coiled uvb bulb, a red "heat" bulb, a half log and some aspen shavings. We were told to leave the coil bulb on 10-12 hours and leave the red bulb on all the time. That night and the next day he was not very active. We started to wonder/worry so I started doing more intense research (finding this site in the process) and discovered that we did not have a very ideal setup. Wednesday night I went and bought better lights, 18inch Reptisun 10.0 uvb that I put in a Reptisun 20inch hood, and a 75watt repitsun basking bulb. I also bought a digital thermometer and measured his temps. In the basking spot it is about 100-104f degrees and about 80-85f degrees in the cool side. The pet store we bought Loki from also didn't have crickets and told us that greens would be fine, but Loki did not eat very much, if at all and had not pooped either. Wed night I bought small crickets and Repti-cal calcium and multivitamin. We gave him a bath and I dusted some crickets with calcium and fed them to Loki. Loki perked up and started hunting immediately and ate about 6 before he sort of slowed down and quit. We left some greens in there, waited a couple of hours for digestion, then turned the lights out for bed. Waking up Thursday morning, we fed Loki some spaghetti squash, a little kale, and a little carrots and gave him some cricket (not dusted). Loki ate about 8 crickets then and a little veggie. When we left the house for work we was sitting with his tail in his water dish in the cool side of his tank. When we got home Thursday evening from work, he was still sitting in the dish with his eyes closed. He is breathing, but didn't seem "right". We thought maybe he is just tired but maybe a bath and some crickets would perk him up. We decided to give him crickets first so that maybe the bath after would get him to poop (best as we can tell he has pooped once). Loki did not eat 1 cricket at all and never moved. After 15 minutes or so, we thought that didn't seem good, so we took him to his bath. He barely moved in his bath. After cleaning the crickets from his tank we put him back in to let him sleep. We know so far we have been "bad parents", but we are really trying to inform ourselves and get Loki to a happy Beardie that the whole family can enjoy. I know that this time of year can be a brumation time for some Beardies, but I don't know if Loki is old enough for that. We just need help trying to get Loki happy and healthy as we love him so much.

 

[AHBD]

Hi there....no, you're not bad beardie owners, you made the corrections as soon as you found out. One thing here is critical....the size of the crickets. A 4-5" baby can only eat tiny crix, no longer than the space between his eyes. If they are any bigger than that he may have eaten them and become impacted, unable to digest them. The same can be said for any tough piece of veggie, a baby can't digest. Use only small, soft leafy vegs such as turnip, mustard and dandelion greens. For now, try to get some baby food prunes , applesauce and a drop of olive/veg. oil in to him. Then give another warm bath [ stay right with him ] and do this daily. Hopefully he will pass something if he is impacted. He is not on calcium sand, is he ? That's my guess as to what's wrong, [ impaction from slightly large crix ] since his temps are fine + he was eating for you. Oh, and no, babies don't brumate at all.

 

[destiny1998]

Hi. Sorry he's having issues. Did you take the aspen substrate out? If not get rid of it and you can use paper towels, newspapers for now. Take out the water dish as beardies don't recognize standing water and it raises the humidity. Also get him a bigger tank as a 10gallon is really hard to get good temps. You can start him in a 20gallon long, but adults need a 40 gallon breeder tank minimum. He's way to young to brumate. You need to mount the uvb in the tank with no plastic or screen between him and the bulb. He needs calcium 5x a week one feeding a day and vitamins 2x a week. Feed him 2x to 3x a day for as much as he'll eat in 15min. He probably does have some relocation stress and that can last a couple of weeks. There are good articles to the right Newbies Guide to lighting and Newbies guide What to buy I would read those as they can answer your questions about habitat and lights. Would love to see pictures

 

[jbc13rds]

Hi there....no, you're not bad beardie owners, you made the corrections as soon as you found out. One thing here is critical....the size of the crickets. A 4-5" baby can only eat tiny crix, no longer than the space between his eyes. If they are any bigger than that he may have eaten them and become impacted, unable to digest them. The same can be said for any tough piece of veggie, a baby can't digest. Use only small, soft leafy vegs such as turnip, mustard and dandelion greens. For now, try to get some baby food prunes , applesauce and a drop of olive/veg. oil in to him. Then give another warm bath [ stay right with him ] and do this daily. Hopefully he will pass something if he is impacted. He is not on calcium sand, is he ? That's my guess as to what's wrong, [ impaction from slightly large crix ] since his temps are fine + he was eating for you. Oh, and no, babies don't brumate at all.

The crickets we bought we the smallest ones they had. They are pretty small but it could be a possiblity he got a bigger one. We have been trying to live by the no bigger than the space between his eyes rule. What is the best way to get him to eat baby food. He honestly has not moved from one place in over 12 hours. Also, no he is not on calcium sand. We removed the aspen shavings and put him on a reptile carpet the day after we got him.

 

[jbc13rds]

Hi. Sorry he's having issues. Did you take the aspen substrate out? If not get rid of it and you can use paper towels, newspapers for now. Take out the water dish as beardies don't recognize standing water and it raises the humidity. Also get him a bigger tank as a 10gallon is really hard to get good temps. You can start him in a 20gallon long, but adults need a 40 gallon breeder tank minimum. He's way to young to brumate. You need to mount the uvb in the tank with no plastic or screen between him and the bulb. He needs calcium 5x a week one feeding a day and vitamins 2x a week. Feed him 2x to 3x a day for as much as he'll eat in 15min. He probably does have some relocation stress and that can last a couple of weeks. There are good articles to the right Newbies Guide to lighting and Newbies guide What to buy I would read those as they can answer your questions about habitat and lights. Would love to see pictures

We got rid of the aspen shavings pretty much as soon as we got him home. We plan on getting him a bigger tank in the next couple of weeks (we are mainly just waiting on some more money, we have already spent a pretty good penny between getting him and all the wrong stuff and then buying all the right stuff). I read the newbie guides, they are what clued me in that we had a bad lighting setup. I just don't want him to get sick or die. Me and my kids are already pretty attached to the little guy. I will post some pictures soon.

 

[jbc13rds]

Here are some pics of our little guy. This one is when he decided to try and eat a little greens.

Here he is getting a little light from his basking lamp.

Here he is this morning. He has been laying like this since last night and doesn't appear to have moved at all.

 

[AHBD]

Aw, poor little cutie ! Sorry I missed the part about aspen shavings, Destiny caught it. He does need a larger set up, and a baby can go through relocation stress, but there is def. more going on....when they lay in one spot, not moving even when put in the water, etc. it's more than relocation stress. Hopefully he can pass whatever is causing his distress....it may be that he actually ingested a few pieces of aspen, it may be the carrots which are never good for a tiny baby, [ best to remove them ] they are much too hard even in small pieces, and the pet store " small " sized crix are often too large for tiny babies. Try dripping a mixture of baby food + water on his snout, even just plain water as well. Hopefully he'll drink some , and if he's impacted he can pass it. Watch every day like a hawk to see if he poos, and post a pic of it. Hopefully he will soon....I think that's the main problem.

 

[Jcdaniels2]

you might have to syringe feed him baby food and some olive oil to get him to pass whats got him impacted
Hope he gets better soon

 

[jbc13rds]

Aw, poor little cutie ! Sorry I missed the part about aspen shavings, Destiny caught it. He does need a larger set up, and a baby can go through relocation stress, but there is def. more going on....when they lay in one spot, not moving even when put in the water, etc. it's more than relocation stress. Hopefully he can pass whatever is causing his distress....it may be that he actually ingested a few pieces of aspen, it may be the carrots which are never good for a tiny baby, [ best to remove them ] they are much too hard even in small pieces, and the pet store " small " sized crix are often too large for tiny babies. Try dripping a mixture of baby food + water on his snout, even just plain water as well. Hopefully he'll drink some , and if he's impacted he can pass it. Watch every day like a hawk to see if he poos, and post a pic of it. Hopefully he will soon....I think that's the main problem.

We think he pooped on Thursday morning, but when we got home that night we couldn't find it. To be honest, we are not sure we know what his poop looks like so we very well could not have seen poop, but we will try the baby food and will be watching him like a hawk all this weekend to see what we can do. Should we hold off on greens and crickets right now until he poops?

you might have to syringe feed him baby food and some olive oil to get him to pass whats got him impacted
Hope he gets better soon

We have some syringes for our 1 year old son, so I will use one of those to see if I can get some in him. Any ideas of amounts?

 

[destiny1998]

There poop looks like bird poop. He's so tiny poor guy! It needs to be stage one baby food. You can get turkey, chicken, squash and sweet potatoes. I would mix the meat ones with the squash or sweet potatoes put a little water in it with some calcium. Just keep feeding until he quits. Probably won't eat to much , but hopefully it'll boost his appetite.

 

[jbc13rds]

There poop looks like bird poop. He's so tiny poor guy! It needs to be stage one baby food. You can get turkey, chicken, squash and sweet potatoes. I would mix the meat ones with the squash or sweet potatoes put a little water in it with some calcium. Just keep feeding until he quits. Probably won't eat to much , but hopefully it'll boost his appetite.

So I don't need to get the prunes like suggested above? And I'm assuming you are talking about the calcium powder for his crickets? Sorry for all the newbie questions, we are just really worried about him.

 

[AHBD]

Yes, the baby food prunes are recommended if he is impacted, which he almost certainly is. Destiny is mentioning food items that might be offered to a dragon that is simply not eating for one reason or another. Those things are fine, but if he's impacted it's important to get the baby prunes and unsweetened applesauce in that I mentioned to help him to poo. Those are natural laxatives....a tiny bit of watered down honey can work, too. And dripping it on his snout is the way to go, let him lick it. It's very tricky to try + get a baby's mouth open to syringe it in....he can choke to death if he's not swallowing.

 

[jbc13rds]

Yes, the baby food prunes are recommended if he is impacted, which he almost certainly is. Destiny is mentioning food items that might be offered to a dragon that is simply not eating for one reason or another. Those things are fine, but if he's impacted it's important to get the baby prunes and unsweetened applesauce in that I mentioned to help him to poo. Those are natural laxatives....a tiny bit of watered down honey can work, too. And dripping it on his snout is the way to go, let him lick it. It's very tricky to try + get a baby's mouth open to syringe it in....he can choke to death if he's not swallowing.

Ahhh, cool. Ok. I got it. Thanks.