Made some changes for the better you all will be pleased

[DragonLover1]

HI everyone i made some changes for the best for Safira my bearded dragon. This is how her enclosure looked

For the past 4 days i've noticed Safira biting and eating the sand even tho she had veggies in her enclosure and wouldn't eat anymore crickets. So today i removed all the sand from her enclosure gave it a good wash along with her log,rock and fake rock. I then put down tiles so she can't eat them so she has no choice if shes hungry its either the veggies or nothing. This is her enclosure now

She was eatting small crickets but they were too small for her, They were like only half a cm long. She is now eatting 2cm medium crickets cause there bigger she is only eatting 10-16 of them a day. Today she has only eaten 8 cause of the changes of her enclosure today. Shes 8 inches long snot to tail and weighs 39grams so hopefully now i'll have her on track with the growing and gaining weight, She still has some catching up to do but shes taking it her pace she will grow when shes ready. I've owned Safira for 8 weeks now when i first got her she was 6inches from snot to tail and only weighed 11grams. She is 5 months old now too here are some pictures.

I think Safira is going to shed again as you can see in some pictures her head is a milky grey colour.

 

[zebraflavencs]

Niiiiiice
Janie

 

[renich]

Glad you decided to make the changes. Safira and you will be very happy.

 

[DragonLover1]

Is it normal for Safira to advoid the tiles she won't walk on them? could it be that she has to get use to them? she also isn't eating very much which i dare say is due to the changes. I can tell shes hungry but she will not eat much this morning she only took 4 medium crickets normally she eats around 6-7 medium crickets and some veggies. I put her on the tiles and she like stands there for 5 seconds then dashes off to her log or fake rock. If i don't put her on the tiles she jumps from her log on the hot side to the fake rock on the cool side. Will she end up eventually walking on the tiles. There not real rough and not slippery either there inbetween.

 

[zebraflavencs]

Get some rough grade sand paper and make it more textured. The tile might be too smooth for her to trust walking on.
Janie.

 

[DragonLover1]

So rub the rough texture sandpaper over the tiles to rough them up a bit? by doing this it won't destroy the colour of the tiles?

 

[zebraflavencs]

Naaaah, not unless you go rather deep. Did you by chance cut any for a fit ? Take a look at the scraps ( if you kept them) you'll see you can go around 2-5 mm before you hit the plain clay.
Janie.

 

[DragonLover1]

ok cool so will any sandpaper work or it has to be the real rough kind?

 

[renich]

How is Safira liking her new viv? Did you get your sandpaper questions straightened out?

 

[DragonLover1]

Well she hated it refused to walk on it,wouldn't move,she wouldn't eat much only 4 crickets,she started to get bloated cause she wouldn't poo. So i had to give back her sand and now she has gone back to normal. This sand hard packs down like rock and the loose stuff that there is is very fine grains. She is now eatting around 10 2cm crickets and about 30 or more roaches a day. She also has been eatting her veggies now, I only feed insects twice a day cause of doing this Safira is now eatting her veggies during the day. She poos twice a day, is very active and alert.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Very nice!!!!

 

[Harley D]

Well she hated it refused to walk on it,wouldn't move,she wouldn't eat much only 4 crickets,she started to get bloated cause she wouldn't poo. So i had to give back her sand and now she has gone back to normal. This sand hard packs down like rock and the loose stuff that there is is very fine grains. She is now eatting around 10 2cm crickets and about 30 or more roaches a day. She also has been eatting her veggies now, I only feed insects twice a day cause of doing this Safira is now eatting her veggies during the day. She poos twice a day, is very active and alert.

I had the same issue with Harley, she now has 1/2 tile and the other 1/2 is sand...so far it is working great !!

 

[renich]

Picky dragons! Glad to hear she is doing better. Sorry that the tile didn't work for you. That is a first for me. When we switched Bernie, it was not an issue at all.