Young dragon not eating.

[McLoki]

We have had our bearded dragon for a couple of weeks now. (our second bearded dragon, but we purchased the last one as an adult, so our first young one) We were feeding small crickets, and while he was eating them at first, he just stopped. (had not eaten anything for 4 days.) We asked at the pet store what else to try and they suggested meal worms (as the only other thing they had other than crickets and superworms).

He is eating the meal worms fine, (had 4 last night and another 4 this morning) but still no interest in crickets.

I have read you should not feed a young beardie meal worms, but how long can they go without any food? (We do have greens\fruit available in the cage for him as well, but he does not seem overly interested in it yet)

I was thinking of purchasing dubia's, but you have to order 500 of them (where I was going to get them) and based on my success with crickets, I didn't want to end up with 500 roaches in the house that he was not interested in.

Does anyone have any thoughts? I don't want him to die of stavation and that seems to be what he is willing to do rather than eat crickets.

Thanks,

Michael

 

[McLoki]

Additional notes I forgot to include....

I am guessing the beardie at 3-4 months old. (pretty small)

It is in a 40 breeder tank. (36" x18" x18") with a ceramic tile floor.

100 watt basking bulb. (temp 106-107 in basking location - 76 in far end of tank)

UV bulb is a 10.0 reptiglo flourecent. (36" long)

 

[McLoki]

Just ordered 500 1/4" dubias.... Hope he likes them (else the wife will not be happy with me at all).

Should be here Friday. I'll let you know how it goes. In the mean time - any concerns with eating nothing but meal worms until then? Anyone have any issues getting thier beardie to eat Dubias?

Thanks everyone,

Michael

 

[Boss12]

First of all lose the reptile immediately. Not all uvb bulbs are created equally and reptiglo isn't appropriate for beardies, they need reprtisun.

Shop around for Dubias. 500 is a lot and each female in the colony will produce 30 babies per month. You can buy Dubias as few as 10 at a time.

I would bump up the cool side to about 80. 76 is a bit low.

Beardies love Dubias and they are way more nutritious than crickets, but you need to get that reptiglo bulb out of there. How is your night time humidity?

 

[McLoki]

First of all lose the reptile immediately. Not all uvb bulbs are created equally and reptiglo isn't appropriate for beardies, they need reprtisun.

Shop around for Dubias. 500 is a lot and each female in the colony will produce 30 babies per month. You can buy Dubias as few as 10 at a time.

I would bump up the cool side to about 80. 76 is a bit low.

Beardies love Dubias and they are way more nutritious than crickets, but you need to get that reptiglo bulb out of there. How is your night time humidity?

Sorry - was running off of memory - it is the repti-sun 10.0 that we have. (not repti-glo)

I will have to check the nightime temp\humidity - I think I remember 71degrees and 64% (basking spot is about 106-107 and 12% with light on). as I said, I was paying attention to temp and not humidity, but I i will check again tonight and verify. (the numbers are next to each other, but I was not looking for\at humidity at the time)

 

[Boss12]

Definitely see if its 64%. Mine was spiking to 70 and if left like that for long enough it can lead to upper respiratory infections. At the very least it makes them more sluggish because the air is way too moist. I installed a ceramic heat emitter and put it on the cool side of the tank. It's on 24/7 which keeps teams at night about 75 and keeps humidity at bey around 30%. Ceramic heat emitter cost me $35 and screws right into any lighting assembly

 

[McLoki]

well, got the roaches in and apparently Ember thinks they are pretty awesome. (wife was less than thrilled with inviting roaches in the house) Ember ate about 10 of them (all smalls) chasing them around the cage like crazy. Looks like the feeding issue may be taken care of. (for now anyway)

on the bad side, I am sorry to say I was correct initially with the type of light. (it IS a 10.0 repti-glo) Should I just purchase a repti-sun and junk the repti-glo?

 

[Boss12]

Yup it doesn't give off the right wavelength for beardies