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João Pontes

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
6
Hi my name is João and I am portuguese[emoji1201]. I own an adult male bearded dragon called Alberto (pictures below)
I joined this forum because my beardie has kind of a problem which I'll explain: two years ago I was in Italy in vacations and I got a call from my house cleaner ( I don't know the name in English but basically she was the one who was feeding him when I was away) saying that he wasn't eating and didn't come out of his cave... I told her, joking, that he was probably just missing me and she didnt have to worry about it. But several days passed and that strange behavior continued and so she took him to the vet. The vet said he didn't know what it was but he was dehydrated and so he stayed 2 days in the vet. When he came back home he still didnt wanted to eat, even though he was already basking bellow his light like usual. Then I came back from vacations and the vet told me to force feed him because he had to eat or he would become very sick. And so I started opening his mouth and giving him by hand his food. Well, this new thing of not eating and force feeding became a daily routine for me for the last two years because since then he lost his appetite and refuses to eat food. In this two years I've tried everything that crossed my mind to make him eat again and noting worked... I even stopped giving food to him for two hole weeks but still he wasn't t hungry and never touched his food dish...
And so the big problem is this - my house cleaner got fired and so now I have nobody who can feed him when I'm out (it's kind of difficult and most of people are scared of him) and also I would really like to see him eat again...
So... Is there anyone who can help me? I would really appreciate some new ideas because I don't know what else to do...
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BeardedHippy

Bearded Dragon Veteran
Messages
672
Location
Scarborough UK
Hi, welcome to the forum. He looks pretty healthy to me in the pics, has he lost a lot of weight? What are the temperatures like in your enclosure?
 

João Pontes

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
6
Hi, welcome to the forum. He looks pretty healthy to me in the pics, has he lost a lot of weight? What are the temperatures like in your enclosure?
Tank you! Not really... actually my vet says he is a really healthy lizard with good fat reserves
The temperatures are about 24 at night and 32 in the day (Celsius)

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João Pontes

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
6
also, what type of lighting are you using and how old are the bulbs?
I am using an uvb light from exo Terra (repti glo 2.0 25W 30'')with about a month , a basking spot lamp from Trixie (100W) with about a month too and a ceramic heat emitter from exo Terra (100 W) with more than an year

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PatsyB

Super Moderator
Staff member
1,000+ Post Club
Beardie Club
Messages
9,390
Location
Chicago
What a sweet face! He does look healthy but I know it's a pain in the butt to have to feed them by hand. Your basking temperatures are WAY too low for him and that is most likely why he doesn't want to eat. An adult dragon should be 38-39 celsius during the day. My adults actually like it on the higher side. The night temp could actually be a bit lower. Since he is healthy looking, bump up the temps and see what happens. I bet he starts eating on his own :)
 

PatsyB

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The UVB bulb isn't putting out enough UVB for him. A 2.0 bulb is more for tropical species. Dragons need a stronger bulb. A 10.0 bulb is needed or an Arcadia 12%. The other issue is size of bulb and bulb placement. If you are using a T8 size bulb, you must mount it inside your tank because the mesh top of the tank blocks out 35% of the UVB rays. If you are using a T5 size bulb, it is okay to mount it on top of the mesh.
 

João Pontes

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
6
What a sweet face! He does look healthy but I know it's a pain in the butt to have to feed them by hand. Your basking temperatures are WAY too low for him and that is most likely why he doesn't want to eat. An adult dragon should be 38-39 celsius during the day. My adults actually like it on the higher side. The night temp could actually be a bit lower. Since he is healthy looking, bump up the temps and see what happens. I bet he starts eating on his own :)
Tank you so much hahaha [emoji1][emoji1]. Well in the summer the temperatures go up to something like 37-38 but yes I never tryed another type of lamps because these were the ones that the pet store seller said were right for bearded dragons... Could you tell me a good lamp or just the brand so I can go on buying those ones?

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João Pontes

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
6
The UVB bulb isn't putting out enough UVB for him. A 2.0 bulb is more for tropical species. Dragons need a stronger bulb. A 10.0 bulb is needed or an Arcadia 12%. The other issue is size of bulb and bulb placement. If you are using a T8 size bulb, you must mount it inside your tank because the mesh top of the tank blocks out 35% of the UVB rays. If you are using a T5 size bulb, it is okay to mount it on top of the mesh.
OK so also a stronger uvb bulb... Got it! But actually the bulb is inside of the tank I ll attach a picture.
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PatsyB

Super Moderator
Staff member
1,000+ Post Club
Beardie Club
Messages
9,390
Location
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I don't know what brand of bulbs you can get where you are. Here in the states we use Reptisun 10.0 bulbs. They come in both T8 and T5 sizes, yours looks like a T8. Arcadia bulbs are great a 12% bulb would be perfect. I just don't know if they make a T8 size bulb. T8 bulbs are bigger than T5 in size so they don't fit in the same fixtures.

Also, make sure he has basking spots but also has floor space to comfortably walk around.
 

João Pontes

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
6
I don't know what brand of bulbs you can get where you are. Here in the states we use Reptisun 10.0 bulbs. They come in both T8 and T5 sizes, yours looks like a T8. Arcadia bulbs are great a 12% bulb would be perfect. I just don't know if they make a T8 size bulb. T8 bulbs are bigger than T5 in size so they don't fit in the same fixtures.

Also, make sure he has basking spots but also has floor space to comfortably walk around.
OK so I'll talk to the guy in the pet store and he will see what's the best they have because they have many different types of bulbs! About the basking spots, the tank is kind of small and it usually doesn't have the water and food dishes in there but yes he hasn't got a lot of space to walk around but I normally take him out when it's hot here at home and normally spends the afternoon going around in my bedroom

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