Concerned about new dragon

[mathemagician]

Hello,

Concerned parent of a new bearded dragon. Our little guy hasn’t eaten more than maybe 3-4 crickets in two days. He seems to almost be scared of some of the bugs and won’t touch greens. He still explores his enclosure and interacts with us, just doesn’t have any interest in food and we noticed tonight his chin is like extra black. Should we be concerned? He actually belongs to our son and we don’t want anything to happen to him so should I be concerned or contact a vet?

Thanks!

 

[Sadie]

Hello,

Concerned parent of a new bearded dragon. Our little guy hasn’t eaten more than maybe 3-4 crickets in two days. He seems to almost be scared of some of the bugs and won’t touch greens. He still explores his enclosure and interacts with us, just doesn’t have any interest in food and we noticed tonight his chin is like extra black. Should we be concerned? He actually belongs to our son and we don’t want anything to happen to him so should I be concerned or contact a vet?

Thanks!

View attachment 37726

Welcome to beardie world --- how old is your son? First hes got stress marks which is normal for them when you first get them -hes going thru relocation stress and will start eating more and the stress marks will go away as he acclimates to his tank and surroundings but we need to make sure his tank is in par -- so tell me how your getting your surface basking temps? You want two digital probe thermometers one for the hot side of the tank probe placed on the spot where he basks 105-110 you dont need to leave the probe there stick it on the inside of the tank and it will also give you ambient temps on that side around 100 -- the other one place on the cool side of the tank temps 80ish -- no colored bulbs please they will hurt the dragons eye sight - UVB this is critical NO coils - you want a long tube fixture not all UV's are of good quality I can post links for them if you need them - its good hes eating something you dont want him eating nothing he wont last if he stops eating hes too young to do that - how big are the crickets hes eating? Also are you feeding him 2 times per day for the protein? And are you offering salads - once the tank is on par and he starts to acclimate to the tank his appetite will pick up - he should be eating 20-25 appropriately size crickets per feeding and they should be dusted ONCE per feeding lightly coated w/ calcium D3 - how is he getting water? Once we get this all established we can move on to other things for him

 

[mathemagician]

Welcome to beardie world --- how old is your son? First hes got stress marks which is normal for them when you first get them -hes going thru relocation stress and will start eating more and the stress marks will go away as he acclimates to his tank and surroundings but we need to make sure his tank is in par -- so tell me how your getting your surface basking temps? You want two digital probe thermometers one for the hot side of the tank probe placed on the spot where he basks 105-110 you dont need to leave the probe there stick it on the inside of the tank and it will also give you ambient temps on that side around 100 -- the other one place on the cool side of the tank temps 80ish -- no colored bulbs please they will hurt the dragons eye sight - UVB this is critical NO coils - you want a long tube fixture not all UV's are of good quality I can post links for them if you need them - its good hes eating something you dont want him eating nothing he wont last if he stops eating hes too young to do that - how big are the crickets hes eating? Also are you feeding him 2 times per day for the protein? And are you offering salads - once the tank is on par and he starts to acclimate to the tank his appetite will pick up - he should be eating 20-25 appropriately size crickets per feeding and they should be dusted ONCE per feeding lightly coated w/ calcium D3 - how is he getting water? Once we get this all established we can move on to other things for him

Welcome to beardie world --- how old is your son? First hes got stress marks which is normal for them when you first get them -hes going thru relocation stress and will start eating more and the stress marks will go away as he acclimates to his tank and surroundings but we need to make sure his tank is in par -- so tell me how your getting your surface basking temps? You want two digital probe thermometers one for the hot side of the tank probe placed on the spot where he basks 105-110 you dont need to leave the probe there stick it on the inside of the tank and it will also give you ambient temps on that side around 100 -- the other one place on the cool side of the tank temps 80ish -- no colored bulbs please they will hurt the dragons eye sight - UVB this is critical NO coils - you want a long tube fixture not all UV's are of good quality I can post links for them if you need them - its good hes eating something you dont want him eating nothing he wont last if he stops eating hes too young to do that - how big are the crickets hes eating? Also are you feeding him 2 times per day for the protein? And are you offering salads - once the tank is on par and he starts to acclimate to the tank his appetite will pick up - he should be eating 20-25 appropriately size crickets per feeding and they should be dusted ONCE per feeding lightly coated w/ calcium D3 - how is he getting water? Once we get this all established we can move on to other things for him

Hello, thank you for your reply!

My son is 10, it’s his first real pet he’s able to help take care of. Right now we only have one thermometer in the center of the tank that reads around 100 during the day and we turn the UVB off during the night to sort of simulate day and night. We do keep the heat on because I was worrying it would get too cold but maybe I shouldn’t? We have a two bulb setup above his rock that has one UVB light bulb and one heat emitter to keep his main rock warm

We give him food twice a day but he doesn’t seem to eat much, he ignores the food. He won’t touch greens and rarely wants crickets. We got some dubia roaches and mealworms and he’ll eat a few of those but the last two days it’s like he'll grab a cricket or two and then goes back to his rock. We get the small size crickets, they’re about the size to easily fit into his mouth it seems. We have a gravity water thing. We have seen him get a lick of water a couple times but that’s just what we’ve witnessed.

We actually have a second bearded dragon in another tank next to him and neither of them eat 20-25 bugs. The older one will eat way more per feeding but stops eating around 10-15 crickets/roaches.

We aren’t concerned about the older one, she’s doing fine it seems but she’s my wife’s. The boy is my sons and we’re worried that he’s going to not eat enough and get sick or die on him and wasn’t sure what else to do for him.

Here’s a picture of the enclosure he’s in. We got him plenty of stuff to climb on and hide under and had to put up stuff on the walls so he didn’t see his reflection and try to fight it. The UVB and heat are on the left side

Thanks again for your reply!

 

[Sadie]

Hello, thank you for your reply!

My son is 10, it’s his first real pet he’s able to help take care of. Right now we only have one thermometer in the center of the tank that reads around 100 during the day and we turn the UVB off during the night to sort of simulate day and night. We do keep the heat on because I was worrying it would get too cold but maybe I shouldn’t? We have a two bulb setup above his rock that has one UVB light bulb and one heat emitter to keep his main rock warm

We give him food twice a day but he doesn’t seem to eat much, he ignores the food. He won’t touch greens and rarely wants crickets. We got some dubia roaches and mealworms and he’ll eat a few of those but the last two days it’s like he'll grab a cricket or two and then goes back to his rock. We get the small size crickets, they’re about the size to easily fit into his mouth it seems. We have a gravity water thing. We have seen him get a lick of water a couple times but that’s just what we’ve witnessed.

We actually have a second bearded dragon in another tank next to him and neither of them eat 20-25 bugs. The older one will eat way more per feeding but stops eating around 10-15 crickets/roaches.

We aren’t concerned about the older one, she’s doing fine it seems but she’s my wife’s. The boy is my sons and we’re worried that he’s going to not eat enough and get sick or die on him and wasn’t sure what else to do for him.

Here’s a picture of the enclosure he’s in. We got him plenty of stuff to climb on and hide under and had to put up stuff on the walls so he didn’t see his reflection and try to fight it. The UVB and heat are on the left side

Thanks again for your reply!

View attachment 37727

I need a pic of the uvb and the temp gauge is only giving ambient temps- dragons should not be able to see each other they will stress each other out- your 10 year old needs to help taking care of the dragon they are a complex animal and mom needs to be the main caretaker - uvb's need to have proper placement and distance- your screen will determine where it needs to go- this is crucial- temps in the tank at night should be 65-75 ambient- no lights on at night at all -

 

[mathemagician]

This is the two bulb thing we have. The white one is the UVB and the black one is emits heat only, no light

 

[Sadie]

View attachment 37728View attachment 37729View attachment 37730

This is the two bulb thing we have. The white one is the UVB and the black one is emits heat only, no light

What is the brand of the white bulb? Is it a mercury vapor bulb? That would be a all in one uvb/ basking-- either way you need a long tube fixture- I will post 3 links for 3 different ones- your dragon will not thrive w/ out this - do not run the che at night unless your tank is dropping below 65