1yr old Bearded Dragon Weight Issue

[Hanna Melchor]

Hello,

So I will attempt to give as much detail about the problem as I possibly can. My beardie is just over 1yr old now. She has always been a heavy eater and gladly accepted her salads, store diet, and crickets/ occasional mealworm. However, recently she has began to eat less and less. She may eat every other day or she may even skip 2 days before eating only a handful of crickets/ salad. I always keep fresh food in her tank so that she may eat throughout the day at will but she rarely seems to touch it. I am starting to get concerned as she has began to visibly lose weight over the past month or so. When she was younger she had an issue with coccidia and I was wondering if that might be representing itself due to her lose of appetite. She is still alert and is active as usual. Aside from the obvious weight loss as indicated by her tail, you can see indentions on either side of the base and feel the hipbones, I have noticed her skin seems more wrinkled than usual. Is this just due to weight loss or could she possibly be dehydrated? Her tank temp is usually 80-90 on the warm side. I hear around that it needs to be higher? I know this is quite a lot to take in but I am trying to list everything I can think of that may be resulting in her weight loss. I do not know if this is something any of you could provide help with or if a vet visit is in order. I appreciate any help!

 

[Hdrydr31]

Welcome to the forum!
They can and some do slow down in their eating habits as they become adults.. However you shouldn't be seeing visible weight loss like that.. It isn't uncommon for them to skip days. What I would be worried about is the weight loss, what is her poop/urates like? If she has had issues with coccidia before you may want to take her to be checked out by a reptile vet. Yea you can raise the temp up into the 100's. Which leads me to my next question. What type of lights do you have for UVB? what is her enclosure like ie substrate, size...Mealworms are not the best as they contain chitlin which is super hard to digest. Superworms would be better. I guess give some more details about her food, bug, lights, temps, enclosure, vit's & supplements
Pictures are welcomed and encouraged we might see something you are not aware of

 

[Hanna Melchor]

For food:
Typical salad consists of kale or mustard greens, carrots, and occasionally some green beens. Every once in a wile she will get some kiwi or watermelon as a treat.
For live food she has always eaten pinhead crickets gut loaded with store bought feeder (I have heard loading them with actual greens would be better?)

For Lighting:
The UVB bulb is a zoomed 10.0 Reptisun
The basking light 50 watt (supposed to be 100 but picked up the wrong one by mistake and havent gotten a new one yet)
Current temp is about 80
Seems to be having an issue with to much humidity right now, how can I fix this? Also, recomendations for temp and humidity gauges? I only have the glass moun one and it is centered approximately halfway between the warm and cool side

For Enclosure:
She used to have repticarpet but due to how difficult it was to clean and maintain I siwtched her to groun wlanut shell bedding (if there is a recomended option for bedding I would love to learn about it) All I know is she loves to dig in the substrate

Vit's and Supplements:
Not a whole lot to put here, she typically would get 12 calcium dusted cricekts every week but of course due to lack of appetite she has not been getting as much (are there vital supplements I should look into getting for her?)

Will post pictures of her and the terrarium shortly!

 

[Hanna Melchor]

 

[Hdrydr31]

For food:
Typical salad consists of kale or mustard greens, carrots, and occasionally some green beens. Every once in a wile she will get some kiwi or watermelon as a treat.
For live food she has always eaten pinhead crickets gut loaded with store bought feeder (I have heard loading them with actual greens would be better?)

For Lighting:
The UVB bulb is a zoomed 10.0 Reptisun
The basking light 50 watt (supposed to be 100 but picked up the wrong one by mistake and havent gotten a new one yet)
Current temp is about 80
Seems to be having an issue with to much humidity right now, how can I fix this? Also, recomendations for temp and humidity gauges? I only have the glass moun one and it is centered approximately halfway between the warm and cool side

For Enclosure:
She used to have repticarpet but due to how difficult it was to clean and maintain I siwtched her to groun wlanut shell bedding (if there is a recomended option for bedding I would love to learn about it) All I know is she loves to dig in the substrate

Vit's and Supplements:
Not a whole lot to put here, she typically would get 12 calcium dusted cricekts every week but of course due to lack of appetite she has not been getting as much (are there vital supplements I should look into getting for her?)

Will post pictures of her and the terrarium shortly!

Salad: Be careful of carrots as a regular item as they are high in Vit A due to their inability to absorb alot it can lead to toxicity which is deadly. Here are some good sources for foods in case you don't have them .. I know many of use go off these for suggestions so we can vary their diet so they get all the vits and nutrients needed..
http://greathousefarm.com/Greathouse-Reptile-Nutrition-List.pdf
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

If your only feeding her pinhead crickets that is not enough for her, she can easily eat med sized. Good rule of thumb is they can eat things that are the size that is between their eyes.. Feeding your feeders a good food including greens etc is good as they go into your dragon. Here are some other live foods she can be eating: Crickets, dubia roaches, superworms, butterworms, waxworms, silkworms, hornworms are all good, some are treats as they are high in fats...

Enclosure: Crushed walnut shells, any kind of soil, bark, mulch, sand really are not suitable for dragons as they cause impaction, skin irritations, respiratory infections. the best options are paper towels, repti carpet, contact paper, tile.
Do you have a water bowl in her set up? As long as you bathe her and she is eating well bugs and salads she will get enough water so you don't need that in there. you can also put a fan to circulate and pull the moisture out better.

Getting digital probes that measure right where she basks, infrared temp guns are great, the stick on gauges only measure the glass making them not very accurate.

Calcium without D3 2-3 times a week dusted, multi vit 1 time a week.
So there could be several things going on with her.. Impaction, vit deficiency, dehydrated... Temps low...

 

[Hanna Melchor]

Hmm, so looks like I have some work to do on ruling things out. Is this something that I should work to figure out or should she be taken in to the vet to help out? This is my first beardie and I have been learning as I go. I try to keep her healthy but looks like I've still got a lot to learn. I assume this is a serious problem but how worried should I be at this moment?

 

[Hdrydr31]

Hmm, so looks like I have some work to do on ruling things out. Is this something that I should work to figure out or should she be taken in to the vet to help out? This is my first beardie and I have been learning as I go. I try to keep her healthy but looks like I've still got a lot to learn. I assume this is a serious problem but how worried should I be at this moment?

If this was my dragon I would have her checked just to make sure that all is ok, if all good then I would know she just needs some groceries and some environmental changes/tweaking

 

[Hdrydr31]

I'm still learning too and I do alot of research from many different resources as sometimes things vary from source to source..I've learned the best is to hear from folks that have them. Hence being here on the forums..

 

[Hdrydr31]

And you should add a hide on the cool side of her tank as they sleep in the cooler area of their homes to avoid the light and a safe protected spot as they sleep hard.

 

[Hdrydr31]

Salad: Be careful of carrots as a regular item as they are high in Vit A due to their inability to absorb alot it can lead to toxicity which is deadly. Here are some good sources for foods in case you don't have them .. I know many of use go off these for suggestions so we can vary their diet so they get all the vits and nutrients needed..
http://greathousefarm.com/Greathouse-Reptile-Nutrition-List.pdf
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

If your only feeding her pinhead crickets that is not enough for her, she can easily eat med sized. Good rule of thumb is they can eat things that are the size that is between their eyes.. Feeding your feeders a good food including greens etc is good as they go into your dragon. Here are some other live foods she can be eating: Crickets, dubia roaches, superworms, butterworms, waxworms, silkworms, hornworms are all good, some are treats as they are high in fats...

Enclosure: Crushed walnut shells, any kind of soil, bark, mulch, sand really are not suitable for dragons as they cause impaction, skin irritations, respiratory infections. the best options are paper towels, repti carpet, contact paper, tile.
Do you have a water bowl in her set up? As long as you bathe her and she is eating well bugs and salads she will get enough water so you don't need that in there. you can also put a fan to circulate and pull the moisture out better.

Getting digital probes that measure right where she basks, infrared temp guns are great, the stick on gauges only measure the glass making them not very accurate.

Calcium without D3 2-3 times a week dusted, multi vit 1 time a week.
So there could be several things going on with her.. Impaction, vit deficiency, dehydrated... Temps low...

opps meant to type Calcium dusted every day not 2-3 times a week..

 

[PatsyB]

I would have her checked again by the vet just to rule out any parasites. Looks like her fat stores are being depleted. She has fat pads on top of her head by her arms (beardie boobies) and at the tail. Could be because she hasn't eaten but looks like she hasn't eat for awhile. Also, make sure she is hydrated, give a bath and either swirl your hands around the tub to get her to drink on her own or drip water on the top of her nose and get her to lick it off. Try giving her something else to eat besides crickets, it is possible that she's bored with them. Super worms are good, and dubia, hornworms and wax worms will help plump her up a bit.


Also get her off the crushed walnut shells and either use tile, repti carpet or paper towel. I use repti carpet and I know it's a pain to clean so I keep two, while I take one out to clean I put the other one in the tank. I vacuum up all the loose bits of salad and then spray with vinegar and water and scrub the messes with a toothbrush, rinse with hot water and then roll in a towel to get the water out, then air dry.