Concerned... Hoping I'm just over analyzing.

[ashley7988]

Draco has been acting fine all day today, he has been eating his greens on and off all day and I fed him crickets today (he ate about 50) well I noticed a very small worm in his tank while I was feeding him crickets so I assume it came from where I got the crickets (I bought them today at the pet store) I'm pretty concerned about that cuz I don't want my beardie to get any parasites... any ways he was very alert and running all around his tank until about 2 hours before his lights went out. He was laying down at the bottom of his tank and wasn't really lifting his head up. I put my hand in there and tried to lift his head up and when I have my hand on him messing with him he typically runs away so for him to just lay there and deal with it is unusual. He climbed up halfway on his branch but kept his head laying down. He was also taking short fast breaths... I know what he typically breathes like so this was unnerving for me.

Now he's asleep and breathing normally again. I haven't changed anything in his enclosure. I'm really hoping I'm over-analyzing things but I'm just really nervous.

Also, he pooped today and it looked normal.

 

[gilliesexotics]

Hi, Did the worm looks like this? Worm

Most parasites that can harm your lizard wont be crawling around. They are typically found within a host or feces.

 

[ashley7988]

That makes me feel a lot better. Thats what I thought but I'm paranoid thinking a cricket had a parasite and thats what I saw lol it didn't look like that though. It was pretty small and white... It was moving like an inchworm.

 

[ashley7988]

Okay so as far as Draco being blah that day I guess maybe he was just having an off day cuz he's back to normal now.

BUT with the worm thing... I was going to get crickets out of the container I keep them in and I saw something moving in the gutload food... THERE were the worms! I had thought the one I saw the other day was it but nope. They were in the cricket food an apparently have multiplied so I just let the rest of the crickets go outside, there was no way I was going to feed them to Draco and I cleaned out the container really well and I'm going to go get more today.

However, they looked like little maggots to me, they were very small (Like 1/16 of an inch?) and white. So my MAJOR concern is how in the world were there maggots in there?! Its disgusting and I just want to know how or why they would be in there so it doesn't happen again.