Juvenile brumation or something else?

[Cookie20]

I got my charmander when he was roughly 5months old(end of Oct). For the first month he was a great eater and very active and pooping daily. Around the December I started noticing that he was pooping about every other day to every third day and not eating as many bugs. By the end of December he was pretty much sleeping in his cave all day and not eating. So I finally invested in a solar meter and found out my uvb set up was way wrong and so I put in and got a correct set up. I have had a vet look at him and go over my set up and she said my current set up is correct and didn’t find anything that really had her concerned. I was givin some special diet to syringe feed since he will only eat about 10-20 bugs a week. Before he would eat 20-40 a day(Dubai, bsfl and mealworms). I have had correct uvb set up for about 6weeks now and he still hiding most days and still a really poor appetite but it is slightly improved. My question is did I accidentally put him into brumation and if so am I just being impatient or is there something more I should be doing to get him back to normal? I have escape proof bowls so fresh salad and bugs are available all day and I have also put lights to be on 13hrs a day due to vets request.

 

[Sadie]

I got my charmander when he was roughly 5months old(end of Oct). For the first month he was a great eater and very active and pooping daily. Around the December I started noticing that he was pooping about every other day to every third day and not eating as many bugs. By the end of December he was pretty much sleeping in his cave all day and not eating. So I finally invested in a solar meter and found out my uvb set up was way wrong and so I put in and got a correct set up. I have had a vet look at him and go over my set up and she said my current set up is correct and didn’t find anything that really had her concerned. I was givin some special diet to syringe feed since he will only eat about 10-20 bugs a week. Before he would eat 20-40 a day(Dubai, bsfl and mealworms). I have had correct uvb set up for about 6weeks now and he still hiding most days and still a really poor appetite but it is slightly improved. My question is did I accidentally put him into brumation and if so am I just being impatient or is there something more I should be doing to get him back to normal? I have escape proof bowls so fresh salad and bugs are available all day and I have also put lights to be on 13hrs a day due to vets request.

Dragons slow down this time of year - as long as your husbandry is on par surface basking temps and uvb I wouldn't worry to much - has he lost weight? Follow his lead- if the dragon is eating on his own I would not be syringe feeding him

 

[Cookie20]

Dragons slow down this time of year - as long as your husbandry is on par surface basking temps and uvb I wouldn't worry to much - has he lost weight? Follow his lead- if the dragon is eating on his own I would not be syringe feeding him

I haven’t actually weighed him but the vet told me to watch the muscle mass in his tail and to make sure it doesn’t decrease. I also wondered if stress could be an issue because when I installed the new uvb I had to open the other half of the tank. He does get blackish when I pull him out for bath or clean his tank but doesn’t try to bite and calms down quite quickly and crawls up to my shoulder. Thank you for your input, this is my first dragon and I feel I screwed him up even though I tried to research everything beforehand.

 

[Sadie]

I haven’t actually weighed him but the vet told me to watch the muscle mass in his tail and to make sure it doesn’t decrease. I also wondered if stress could be an issue because when I installed the new uvb I had to open the other half of the tank. He does get blackish when I pull him out for bath or clean his tank but doesn’t try to bite and calms down quite quickly and crawls up to my shoulder. Thank you for your input, this is my first dragon and I feel I screwed him up even though I tried to research everything beforehand.

Get a weight on him please kitchen food scale weigh in grams-- keep track - the thickness of the tail is a good sign of them losing weight - you caught the UVB in good time so just make sure your changing that bulb out in about 10-11 months from install --- dragons really dont need baths unless they will only drink from a bath - you can always drop water on his nose and let him lick till he stops