New Bearded dragon troubles

[sarah Boyer]

Only had Nova for a month and im having so much trouble. I took him to a animal hospital and they have him on a liquid food diet since he refuses to eat. A medicine for his runny poop. And liquid calcium. He was fine when we first got him ..active, eating every day, chasing crickets, very nice cute dragon. He started becoming lazy and someone kept telling me brumation. So this went on for 2 weeks then he stopped eating and only wanted to sleep and when he started shaking i immediately took to vet. He hates the medicine for runny poop still havent convinced him to eat it. (Vet etc happened yesterday). Im worried. What if theres something else wrong thats not being addressed? I bought him from a glen burnie petco. I dont think its my fault hes like this but i could be wrong. Any advice is welcome and appreciated. I noticed my beardie doesnt like it when his hot spot is over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. He moves away from it if it is. Otherwise its where he now spends his entire day and night =( im doing my best but i fear its not enough. i dont see how hes declined so fast. When we first got him he only would eat spinach and kale as his veggies btw. After a week and a half he didn't want them anymore. He has not eaten any veggies since. He isnt impacted he pooped everyday. I think hes going on 4 months old but not sure. Hes not afraid of people , he willingly goes into your hand and always liked curling up to us. Weve never forced him to do anything until his meds now so its been tough. I did spot a little bug in his cage today i couldnt catch it and lost track of it. Should i quarentine him from that cage? We have a empty 10 gallon. =\
My bf was sleeping and Nova crawled up on him and decieded he was gonna nap too lol i love that pic we love our beardie. Someone plz give us advice. Thank you

 

[sarah Boyer]

Todays photos. We made the cave ourselves out of sand and clay and water with an excavator kit. He use to go in it and sleep up until a week ago. He doesnt touch his food the crickets eat it. He drinks water if i set him in it or eyedropper it to him otherwise i have never seen him drink. I bath him for 5 minutes with warm water every day. The doctor at animal hospital said increase it to 20 minute to 30 minute soaks. He doesnt seem to mind it. I moved his lamp to left side and he immediatly goes there. His cool side is 78degrees f. The middle area where slate is comes to about 87degrees. Hottest spot is 110 which he doesnt go to. I noticed he tends to sit in spots where its in the 90's. Also to note the cocohusk on the left has some mealworms living in it. Lol i mist this side with warm water sometimes, pretty sure theyre keeping the left half of his cage clean. I plan on greatly reducing the sand side as the doctor advised just to be safe.

Solar glo 125w all in 1 bulb and the other bulb is an 80 watt basking bulb. Most of our stuff is exo terra and zoomed. Slate from home depot. Decorations all pet store bought. Sand too. Other stones are free samples we got from home depots tile section. Hope i have covered everything. Oh yeah Nova weighs 28grams the doctor said.

 

[Fumi]

Hey Sarah so sorry you are going through all of this. It's so heartbreaking when our beardies are having a hard time. I'm new to BD world but from everything I have read SAND is NOT GOOD especially for little guys. The Forum has a lot of info on why we need to stay away from SAND for infants. Please research this. Otherwise your tank is lovely. You put a lot of love into this I can tell. Hope your guy feels much better!

 

[sarah Boyer]

Hey Sarah so sorry you are going through all of this. It's so heartbreaking when our beardies are having a hard time. I'm new to BD world but from everything I have read SAND is NOT GOOD especially for little guys. The Forum has a lot of info on why we need to stay away from SAND for infants. Please research this. Otherwise your tank is lovely. You put a lot of love into this I can tell. Hope your guy feels much better!

Thank you, we adore him ❤ im just so worried about him. Any substrate recommendations to replace it?

 

[Fumi]

How is your guy doing? Any better. I have some slate in my beardie's tank. I'm actually considering a bioactive substrate soon though. But I need to read up on it a bit more....

 

[sarah Boyer]

Update: hes in quarentine after i spotted bugs 3 different times. He isn't shaking nearly as much as he used to that atleast seems to have improved immensely. Hes still so thin not eating regular foods. Still try to get him to eat liquid diet 3 times a day. Sometimes he just wont. But i atleast make sure he does once a day. He spends all his day under the heat lamp. Idk why. My house isnt cold. Its always 73-75. Fahrenheit. And his cool side is 85. Im gonna google search see what i can find. Overall: some improvement but im still worried. Note:: the bugs are super super tiny light in color and quick. Dont seem to jump. Anyone have any ideas on what they are?

 

[sarah Boyer]

How is your guy doing? Any better. I have some slate in my beardie's tank. I'm actually considering a bioactive substrate soon though. But I need to read up on it a bit more....

I recommend the bioactove dude. I also have a savannah monitor whos enclosure is completely bioactive. We basically never have to clean it. We had it looking really nice but he tore it up lol but it was to be expected. I call him little satan with reason. Lol my boyfriend actually wants to sell him, we had him for about a year now and his attitude is still rotten lol hes cute and chunky tho. Chubbier than the below pic now haha

 

[sarah Boyer]

 

[sarah Boyer]

so cute ❤❤

 

[Jacob melanistic]

i hope he is all right...

 

[Fumi]

Hey Sarah - thanks for all the new photos. I love the one of Nova looking out the window. I think she has a really long tail. wow. I do hope she feels better day by day. I have no idea what the bug is you are talking about.... Hey don't sell little satan savanah monitor! He will miss you guys! Yes I know bio dude and when I decide to go forward with the bioactive substrate I will get the set up from him. How long did it take for the bugs to start eating the poop? I would think it takes a few months before that happens right?

 

[averic]

i hope all is well. the sand may have impacted her bowels. Love for more updates!

 

[Jacob melanistic]

try a repti mat. it works well.

 

[Dereks awesome beardie]

Hi sorry to hear about your troubles the first thing I would do is get the sand out if it's calci sand it can cause calcium poisoning because the little guys LICK everything also kale and spinach are no good try any of the greens dandelion, mustard or collared those are excellent romaine is ok but young dragons should be eating mostly insects like dubia roaches, super or meal worms small crickets dubias are best i think petco call them tropical spotted roaches sorry to throw so much at you at once but i hope some of it is usefull to you also some youngsters just dont thrive natures cruel

 

[Jacob melanistic]

they also like bannana and lettuce. try the repti mat i mentioned eirleir

 

[Jacob melanistic]

also, try dusting things with calci powder not the sand. they still need a bit of calcium just like us.

 

[sarah Boyer]

Update time. Thank you everyone for the support. He still won't eat anything so today im gonna goto the store ans try some of your suggestions. Yesterday i noticed his poop is green now. Is that ok? He is eating his liquid diet i was thinking it maybe is the cause. He is a little more active now since i moved him into a temporary tank by his favorite window. He climbs up on a box and just looks out the window lol i still soak him once a day for 30 minutes. In his old enclousre theres weird things going on. All the mealworms have been coming to the surface, alot drowned themselves im the water bowl. Im contemplating starting the whole thing over from scratch . I put alot of work in it but id rather do it over and get it right if necessary. So hes in a temporary tank on paper towels where i can monitor him closely. No sign of the little bugs i had spotted in his other enclosure. To me his eyes look kinda sunken. Any one else think so?

 

[sarah Boyer]

Hi sorry to hear about your troubles the first thing I would do is get the sand out if it's calci sand it can cause calcium poisoning because the little guys LICK everything also kale and spinach are no good try any of the greens dandelion, mustard or collared those are excellent romaine is ok but young dragons should be eating mostly insects like dubia roaches, super or meal worms small crickets dubias are best i think petco call them tropical spotted roaches sorry to throw so much at you at once but i hope some of it is usefull to you also some youngsters just dont thrive natures cruel

He used to eat a little of everything spinach kale brussel sprout crickets but just stopped. I havent tried banana ill give that a shot. He lets crickets walk all over him now literally. He sometimew kicks them away but refuses to eat them. =\ im contemplating taking him to another vet for a 2nd opinion. The 1st one gave me liquid calcium food and something for runny poop.

 

[sarah Boyer]

Hey Sarah - thanks for all the new photos. I love the one of Nova looking out the window. I think she has a really long tail. wow. I do hope she feels better day by day. I have no idea what the bug is you are talking about.... Hey don't sell little satan savanah monitor! He will miss you guys! Yes I know bio dude and when I decide to go forward with the bioactive substrate I will get the set up from him. How long did it take for the bugs to start eating the poop? I would think it takes a few months before that happens right?

Im pretty sure little satan plots my demise. Lol oddly enough i dont really see the bugs eating his poop but i know they do cuz i sure didnt clean it up lol theres mealworm beetles in there too them and the crickets do most surface cleaning while the mealworms take care of substrate. He collapsed his moss canaopy i made (took me days) and dug up his plant. Terrorozed the bugs till they squirted him in the face with stink lol he doesnt bother the beetles anymore the only thing i cant seem to keep clean is his water source. We live in a apartmemt and i rlly think he needs a bigger enclosure. I dont think we can handle this tbh. If anyone wants a little chunky lizard with an attitude lmk hes free. Lol

 

[sarah Boyer]

found this image on my boyfriends phone.
Me: explain. Why is your hellion near my little angel?!
He says they got along at first but then blue spooked Nova when he approached him and Nova got all puffy and opened his mouth.
Me: never again!
Lol
But seriously. What if my angel got hurt. You and your monster woulda got the boot.
I love my beardie to death. Maybe i over react but id like to call it protective. Lol

That image was 3 weeks ago mind you. Also dont know why an image of the snakes attached. Lol