Not Eating

[BeardieLovet]

Hello! My beardie has not eaten a cricket/worm protein source in about 2 weeks. I should mention I have moved her into a larger enclosure. She’s been in about a week so this issue started before the move.I have already checked lighting and temps and that is all good. She’s super active and has lost about an ounce. She’s not shedding. The only thing I notice now that I didn’t before is that the tip of her tongue is white. It’s possible it was like that before but now I’m super paranoid so I’m just looking for anything. How long can they go without eating??

 

[averyhanna_]

hello how old is your dragon? how long have you had her for?

 

[BeardieLovet]

She’s about 5. I’ve had her for a few months. Got her from a friend. They didn’t even know she was a girl! But I’ve asked them if this has ever happened an they said they never noticed. She’s about 18” long and she’s 17oz. She was 18oz when I got her and she was 18oz until yesterday.

 

[Silver dragons]

She’s about 5. I’ve had her for a few months. Got her from a friend. They didn’t even know she was a girl! But I’ve asked them if this has ever happened an they said they never noticed. She’s about 18” long and she’s 17oz. She was 18oz when I got her and she was 18oz until yesterday.

Could you post a picture of her? What UVB are you using? Is she still eating her vegetables and lettuce?

 

[BeardieLovet]

I have her in a 4x2x2 enclosure. I’m using a reptisun 10.0. The fixture is 36” long. No she really isn’t eating the salad. She takes a few bites everyday but she doesn’t eat it like she used to. She is still passing what she eats so I know she’s not impacted. Hopefully I attached the pics right.

 

[Joesmom]

So we had same issue with ours but it seemed more directly related to the move to a bigger tank. Took to vet and the only thing they found was some dehydration. For several weeks we syringe fed liquids (Pedialyte mixed with some water). Also got some hornworms to get her interested in food again and also help hydrate (very high water content). Lastly bought some bee pollen powder to sprinkle on food off and on. She was totally off greens but took to yellow squash cut up small so we’ve been feeding her a few every morning with the bee pollen sprinkled on and I do think the pollen has helped. Hasn’t Wanted greens again since so not sure what to do about that though. Gave her extra attention in case it was the tank and also did more frequent baths (she doesn’t love so really just a couple a week). It took a couple of months but she is now acting normal - so going from staying in cave or under rock all day and having to be taken out to bask (forced - and she would only stay sometimes for like 10 minutes before going back to hide) to now where she is coming out of cave in morning on her own and getting in hammock!! Also much more interested in food and is glass surfing again to be taken out. Still giving her liquids a couple of times a week because she’s not a drinker and I think will keep doing it. Not sure if it’s that or the bee pollen or changing up food some (have also tried a couple different worms because she tended to only eat crickets before) that have helped. Good luck and hope you can find something that works - nothing worse than seeing them being lethargic or not eating!!

 

[Joesmom]

Oh - and her tongue is lighter colored on end/tip - think that’s normal.

 

[BeardieLovet]

Oh thank you this makes me feel a bit more positive! This sounds exactly like our issue. She hasn’t eaten hardly anything the last 24-48hrs. At least before she would take a few bites here and there. So I am taking her to the vet tomorrow morning and hopefully some fluids and extra attention is all she will need as well.

 

[Joesmom]

From what i can gather beardies are somewhat sensitive to change (understatement), so I think ours pouted from the new tank, then didn’t want to eat because she was pouting, then got dehydrated from not eating, then got lethargic from dehydration, then didn’t feel like eating because she was depressed/dehydrated/lethargic. Hopefully yours will drink in the bath so you can just do extra baths, or maybe she’ll lick it off her nose when dropped there, but ours would do neither, so we had to carefully pry open her mouth on the side and move syringe around to front of mouth when she opened and then try to slowly give some fluid (there are videos showing how). Took 10 full minutes sometimes because wanted to make sure she would swallow it and not aspirate...which was tiring. Vet said to do it like 3 times a day but honestly we only got one good one in and then of course it Probably took longer but eventually did the trick. The hornworms help a lot but they’re not cheap. And then once she started eating a little squash I think things kind of snowballed and now we’re trying to keep her from wanting out all the time. It was rough though for a while just watching her lay there and forcing her to bask. Hope things turn out okay and remember to be patient but consistent if they say that’s the problem. Like I said it took quite a while.

 

[BeardieLovet]

Hi! Just wanted to let you know that I took Mango to the vet yesterday. She was dehydrated but her main is sure is that she’s going to lay her first batch of eggs! He took an x-ray and we counted at least 3-5 but possibly more. He said I possibly influenced her to lay the eggs by moving her into a larger enclosure, but he can’t be sure. At any rate, she’s basically stopped eating and drinking because she’s getting ready to lay these eggs. He gave her fluids and a shot to stimulate her appetite. He is also running some blood tests to check her calcium levels to make sure she’s okay in that area. Today she looks quite good and did eat a small cricket meal, I had to shove the first one in but after that she took them on her own. So he said it looks like I have about 3 weeks left of this and I just need to keep up with the fluids and meals. I just wanted to let you know since you were so kind to respond to me. What you had written made feel a bit more comfortable at the time so thank you!

 

[Joesmom]

So glad to hear it’s nothing serious! If you have any more questions I’ll try to help - we’re relatively new to all this but have read a lot so if we don’t know the answer I might be able to point you in the right direction!