Need advice - my beardie seems suddenly stressed

[Peggy Jammer]

Hi all - I have bearded dragon that is about a year old, I adopted her about 6 months ago and have her in a 75 gallon tank with a mercury vapor bulb. For the most part she has always seemed pretty content, and my biggest issue was trying to get her to eat her crickets—she loves super worms and protests without them.

A few weeks ago her basking lamp went out and I just relied on the mercury vapor for a week or two before getting another basking light. In the meantime, her basking area went down to 90-95 degrees. Then she suddenly stopped eating altogether—even her superworms that she had just been going crazy for a few days earlier. I have since replaced the basking light and increased the temp of her basking area, but she still isn’t eating.

Now, on top of not eating, the last several days she has been acting very odd and seems to desperately want out of her tank. She digs at the reptile carpet, scratches at the glass sides of the tank, and just seems unhappy. We’ve tried taking her out and letting her run around the house, but when we put her back in the tank she’s soon back to looking for a way out.

Not sure what to do... any thoughts?

 

[Janelle]

Are you sure it’s a female? Does her abdomen seem larger than normal, like she could have eggs?

 

[Peggy Jammer]

As I was researching, I was starting to wonder the same thing. No, I’m not sure she’s a she.... I will try to get a better look this evening and use the flashlight method. To be honest, until today I didn’t even know a female bearded dragon could lay infertile eggs... I didn’t think her abdomen was looking larger than normal though.

 

[Janelle]

You could always put together a lay box and put it in there and see if she does anything in it. If it is eggs, it's an urgent need, as things can go badly quickly if she needs to lay and doesn't. If you place all four of her feet flat on a table and gently pull her tail toward her head and get some decent pictures of the base of her tail, several here can possibly sex her for you.

 

[Peggy Jammer]

Boy or girl? I can’t tell.....

 

[Peggy Jammer]

Boy or girl? I can’t tell.....

 

[Janelle]

That first one here definitely looks boy to me! But I’m not one of the more experienced ones...

 

[BeardedHippy]

so hard to tell from those pics, but looks like a boy to me. The loss of appetite could be seasonal(brumation/semi-brumation), the drop in temp could have triggered it. Its not something to worry about unless he starts to lose weight rapidly

 

[Peggy Jammer]

Thanks for the feedback. We also recently acquired a female veiled chameleon... any chance there are some reptile pheromones in the air that are making him want to get out so badly?

 

[BeardedHippy]

I dont think pheromones can cross species. I doubt it's sexual in nature, in fact most beardies go through a stage of glass surfing a lot. Some people say its due to boredom, however I dont think we can equate those 'human' feelings to beardies. Its just something they do, for whatever reason.

 

[Hdrydr31]

Looking boy to me as I am not seeing the middle "bump" saying female, and in a couple of the pictures I can kinda see oval lumps on the sides of the base of the tail.. Does he/she blackbeard? what do the femoral pores look like along the back legs?

 

[PatsyB]

I'm seeing boy too. An MVB bulb is an all in one bulb that people get so they don' have to have two bulbs. You shouldn't need to have an other basking bulb next to the MVB bulb. My guess is the loss of appetite was caused from the drop in temps and it's just going to need a little bit of time to get settled again once the temps are back up.

 

[Peggy Jammer]

Okay, so he’s back to normal for the most part now (aside from laying in his water dish several times??) and is eating super worms and greens. That said, he won’t even acknowledge crickets. He used to love them, but apparently I spoiled him with worms, and he stopped eating them a couple of months ago. I know too many worms will make him obese, so.... any advice on getting him back to eating crickets?

 

[Janelle]

A couple weeks ago, I ran out of BSFL—during the holiday. So I had to wait extra days before I could get more. During those few days, Jayne was spoiled on roaches and hornworms. When I first gave her BSFL again, she totally turned her nose up at them and went on an insect-free hunger strike for a day or two. Then she got hungry enough to start eating them again. So I would try offering crickets as your only insect for a few days.

 

[Peggy Jammer]

We actually tried that as well for a couple of weeks.... he wasn’t phased. It was like the crickets were invisible to him.

 

[Janelle]

I don’t know, then! Stinkin’ lizards.

 

[Hdrydr31]

What other feeders have you offered him? It is very possible that a cricket bit him making him not want to eat them..That's a big reason I don't like crickets. Have you tried Dubia roaches, silkworms, BSFL