Extremely Skinny Dragon not eating

[Kratos'Mom]

I adopted my beardie 3 months ago and she was very thing. I put some weight on her but in the last few days she has refused to eat and has drastically lost weight. I have a vet appointment on Saturday but that is the soonest that I could get it. I've been syringe feeding her wet dog food but I don't know what else to do in the meantime. Any advice is welcomed and would help greatly. Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cori]

Personally, I wouldn't use dog food. They need a lot more veggies than dogs. I started my skinny girl on repti boost and that helped her a lot. Not a complete diet, but it started her eating again. Now I do weekly slurries of bee pollen, alfalfa powder, dandelion powder and probiotcs. You can even crush up roaches and syringe feed those

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

 

[Kratos'Mom]

Personally, I wouldn't use dog food. They need a lot more veggies than dogs. I started my skinny girl on repti boost and that helped her a lot. Not a complete diet, but it started her eating again. Now I do weekly slurries of bee pollen, alfalfa powder, dandelion powder and probiotcs. You can even crush up roaches and syringe feed those

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

Thank you so much!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mxw0rld]

I adopted my beardie 3 months ago and she was very thing. I put some weight on her but in the last few days she has refused to eat and has drastically lost weight. I have a vet appointment on Saturday but that is the soonest that I could get it. I've been syringe feeding her wet dog food but I don't know what else to do in the meantime. Any advice is welcomed and would help greatly. Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do not use dog food!! It is not good for bearded dragons and will upset their tummy. The correct slurry is:

Organic baby food butternut acorn squash, bee pollen, probiotics, vitamins, calcium, and Pedialyte. I got the generic Walmart Pedialyte as it is expensive. Then I would put the rest in the bath water since it loses its effectiveness after 2 days.

Sounds like she needed to be on a good probiotic from the start. They have probiotics you can dust the feeders with and then there's the probiotics you use when they are sick.

You can put Alfa, dandelion, egg whites, electrolytes, prebiotics if you want to, those are just a few supplements you can use. And if you can stomach mushing up the dubia's or BSFL's I would add those only after she's been on the correct slurry for a few days. I can't remember the exact number of days since it's been months since I had to do slurries. But I had to wait a few days before I could add protein to the slurry mix.

Have you heard about brumation?? She could be going into that regardless of how sick she is. It's a natural thing that they do every year. I personally hate it. Going months without my babies. [emoji27]

Good luck, get her off the dog food and please keep us posted.

 

[Kratos'Mom]

Do not use dog food!! It is not good for bearded dragons and will upset their tummy. The correct slurry is:

Organic baby food butternut acorn squash, bee pollen, probiotics, vitamins, calcium, and Pedialyte. I got the generic Walmart Pedialyte as it is expensive. Then I would put the rest in the bath water since it loses its effectiveness after 2 days.

Sounds like she needed to be on a good probiotic from the start. They have probiotics you can dust the feeders with and then there's the probiotics you use when they are sick.

You can put Alfa, dandelion, egg whites, electrolytes, prebiotics if you want to, those are just a few supplements you can use. And if you can stomach mushing up the dubia's or BSFL's I would add those only after she's been on the correct slurry for a few days. I can't remember the exact number of days since it's been months since I had to do slurries. But I had to wait a few days before I could add protein to the slurry mix.

Have you heard about brumation?? She could be going into that regardless of how sick she is. It's a natural thing that they do every year. I personally hate it. Going months without my babies. [emoji27]

Good luck, get her off the dog food and please keep us posted.

Thank you! I got her off the dog food and my vet told me to put her on flunker's reptaboost until my appointment on Saturday. Where do you get the bee pollen? Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mxw0rld]

Thank you! I got her off the dog food and my vet told me to put her on flunker's reptaboost until my appointment on Saturday. Where do you get the bee pollen? Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You can get it at your local organic store or you can order it on eBay, Amazon, or any of the bearded dragon websites. If you don't get the powder, I accidentally got the chunky kind first. We used a mortel and pestle to grind it into a powder. I would try to get the powder if you are putting it into a slurry. I now used the crunchy kind on their salads and the powder (ended up getting one of those too) on their feeders.

It's actually called Flukers repti boost and it is also on eBay, Amazon and the bearded dragon websites.

You might be able to find a seller that has both and you can save on shipping? Just a thought.

If you don't know how to open their mouth to get the syringe in, don't force it. You can gently pull down on their beard with your finger, I used my thumb, very gently and their lips will part on the side which will enable you to get the syringe in.

Good luck!

 

[Cori]

Petco sells repti boost too so you can get it right away

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

 

[PatsyB]

What are the temperatures in her tank and what kind of UVB are you using? If the temps aren't right it could make them not want to eat. Slurry's are a good idea. The healthiest ones are made with things that your bearded dragon is supposed to eat in the first place. I would blend up collards, mustards, dandelion, squash in a blender with some plain coconut water and add your supplements, bee pollen, calcium, probiotic. I would through some bugs in it too and blend it all together.

 

[Kratos'Mom]

What are the temperatures in her tank and what kind of UVB are you using? If the temps aren't right it could make them not want to eat. Slurry's are a good idea. The healthiest ones are made with things that your bearded dragon is supposed to eat in the first place. I would blend up collards, mustards, dandelion, squash in a blender with some plain coconut water and add your supplements, bee pollen, calcium, probiotic. I would through some bugs in it too and blend it all together.

Her temps are about 105 basking and 83 on the cooler side. I have a uvb bulb that came in a setup cage. It's brand new.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mxw0rld]

Her temps are about 105 basking and 83 on the cooler side. I have a uvb bulb that came in a setup cage. It's brand new.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You said she is an adult dragon, correct?
If so, then her temps are way too high. You need to drop that down to 90-95F. You do know that having the wrong temps can cause them to not want to eat as well.

Do you have a way to lift the bulb up? Or get a smaller watt bulb? You need to do that ASAP! Unless she's is a baby. 18 months or younger.

What about at night? Do you let her cool down at night or do you keep a light on her?

Wally my 5 month old won't go near temps over 100F but he's had problems from day 1 with parasites and now has a sensitive stomach and gets sick REAL easy. Of course I would get the one dragon in the world that has to have a tum with dinner! Lol [emoji38]
(I've got 2 out of 5 rescue cats that are like that and throw up EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!) That's what I get for rescuing animals! Lol

 

[Kratos'Mom]

You said she is an adult dragon, correct?
If so, then her temps are way too high. You need to drop that down to 90-95F. You do know that having the wrong temps can cause them to not want to eat as well.

Do you have a way to lift the bulb up? Or get a smaller watt bulb? You need to do that ASAP! Unless she's is a baby. 18 months or younger.

What about at night? Do you let her cool down at night or do you keep a light on her?

Wally my 5 month old won't go near temps over 100F but he's had problems from day 1 with parasites and now has a sensitive stomach and gets sick REAL easy. Of course I would get the one dragon in the world that has to have a tum with dinner! Lol [emoji38]
(I've got 2 out of 5 rescue cats that are like that and throw up EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!) That's what I get for rescuing animals! Lol

She is an adult dragon but my vet told me to try upping her temps and if she still wants to bask in it, then she's fine. (Maybe that's bad information?) I have all lights off at night time.
Sorry about you dragon and cats[emoji23] I know how that feels, I have a Ball that is afraid of his food! Lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mxw0rld]

She is an adult dragon but my vet told me to try upping her temps and if she still wants to bask in it, then she's fine. (Maybe that's bad information?) I have all lights off at night time.
Sorry about you dragon and cats[emoji23] I know how that feels, I have a Ball that is afraid of his food! Lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Awwww thank you. So then you know what I go through on a daily basis! I don't mind buying the better more expensive food. It's the wet, hot vomit that I have to pick up that I can't stomach!

Okay so this is how I remember the temps should be:

Baby 107-100F - this is my baby Lacey
Juvie 95-107F - that's Wally
Adults 90-95F - this is your girl.

I have the warm and cool zone temps as well if you would like those too.

 

[PatsyB]

The age chart is good, remember that they turn adults at around 18 months old.

My guess is that you need to get a new UVB bulb. If it it's the bulb that came with the setup then it's most likely a coil bulb. Coil bulbs are not really good, over time they can hurt their eyes and they don't disperse the UVB over a wide range of the tank. Ideally you want at least 2/3'rds of your tank covered by the UVB light. Most of us use a ReptiSun 10.0 tube style bulb.

Drastic weight loss and loss of appetite sounds like a parasite issue. Hopefully you can get a poop sample for the vet or maybe the vet can do a colonic flush to get one. I would call the vet and see if they have some sort of wait list, if someone cancels maybe they can get you in sooner.