Smalls (rescue dragon) won't eat

[Kiersa]

Me again... So we have named (what we believe to be a girl) Smalls, one because she is small and two because we love the move Sandlot.

On to more serious issues, I had smalls out to stretch her crippled little legs and to offer her food. I know she is hungry because she tried to go for the cockroach, but she just couldn't catch it and then it seemed like she just gave up. I put veggies in her bowl and threw a worm in there, but she doesn't even seem interested. I'm afraid I'm too inexperienced for this endeavor

 

[Canicke]

Patience. Try hand feeding her. Hold that worm in front of her until she takes it. Du bias will be harder - use tweezers. Veggies - ditto. Sit with her in your lap and take the time it takes. Give her eye droppers of water - drip it on her nose. Or try broth. Breathe. Exude love. You may make a mistake - we all do. Carry on. It's a good thing

 

[Kiersa]

Well... She can run, even with her little club foot. She won't open her mouth for water so when she does open her mouth to bask or make herself look tough I can sneak in a couple drops of water. I just pray I can get her to eat soon. I know it's only been one day, but I don't want to fail her and I know she is in desperate need of calcium.

Is it OK to give her a little bit of baby food and mix some pediyalite in her water dropper? Some nutrients is better than nothing..

 

[Canicke]

Both are great ideas – go for it!

 

[jarich]

You can take a fine misting water bottle and spray her face with it. It will form droplets that will run down into her mouth. Most dragons will start to lick their faces as a result and take in more water that way.

Is this a new dragon to you? It may be that handling is causing it more stress, so you might want to try to limit that as much as possible. Glad you were able to take this on though and best of luck with getting her/him up to health again!

 

[Kiersa]

She is a new dragon to us, her previous owners had no idea... No uvb lights no calcium and just lettuce for a year. So she is a little disabled.

Today I held her and she drank quite a bit of water from a kitten feeding bottle. I enticed her to get a little nutrients with a couple dabs of butternut squash organic baby food and she even had a butter worm! I don't know if she has teeth... Or if they just never gave her insects to eat. She has the instinct to eat them though.

She is surprisingly calm when held, but doesn't like going back in the tank. I covered part of her trank tonight and she calmed down right away and went to sleep Our older beardie Pedro bobs his head and is all puffed up and black.. He has gone from a very fast head Bob to a slow one.
Positive thoughts. We love her already <3

 

[PatsyB]

Sounds like you are making progress! Glad Pedro is calming down some.

 

[Kiersa]

Is there a gentle way to open Smalls' mouth to see if she even has teeth?

 

[PatsyB]

Not sure. With Luci he will open his mouth for me if I rub the sides of his mouth. With Dexter I can't open her mouth for nothing!

 

[Kiersa]

I will try that tonight. She wool beer getting a 50/50 bath tonight with water and pedyalite. She still won't eat her veggies

 

[PatsyB]

Does she drink from the bath? I've never understood Pedyalite baths for bearded dragons since they don't absorb water through their skin the only way they would benefit from the Pedyalite would be to drink it. Now I have given the Pedyalite baths to my frogs, along with honey baths, but that's because they absorb everything through their skin.

Give her time, she will eventually eat her veggies.

 

[Kiersa]

I mix pedyalite in with the water I feed her from the bottle. I read that beardies soak up water through their genatils. Lol, don't know if it's true or not but mine as well try

 

[PatsyB]

I heard that too when I was first starting out and then found out it wasn't true! But I do still kinda hope that a little something does get absorbed into the vent.

 

[Kiersa]

Vent... Lol that is the word I was looking for

 

[Kiersa]

smalls is making progress by leaps and bounds. Today I thought I would try something a little different and I decided to put her in the kitchen sink to see if she would hunt for - or catch food. She wasn't too thrilled to be put in the sink... Until I dropped in a small cockroach, she gobbled it right up!

I was so excited to see her eat with such enthusiasm that I kept giving her more. My husband cut me off, worried that she would get sick. So, she ate about 4 small cockroaches and 2 or 3 butter worms, everything was coated in calcium powder and I gut loaded them over night with escarole and kale.
Is there a limit as to how many bugs I should give a juvenile?

Pedro, my adult, is still a head bobbing fool. He bobs when he is out free roaming the house, in his tank, in the tub and outdoors. He is about 6 and he has NEVER done this.

 

[PatsyB]

The general rule is to feed them bugs 3x a day if possible, whatever they can eat in 15 minutes. I know with mine they always stopped eating when they didn't want anymore. They would eat about 20 small crickets a meal. Dexter always wanted to eat 3x a day and Luci would always eat breakfast and lunch and never wanted to eat after 4pm. Which is funny because this week Luci has started to only eat his worms around 5pm!

Pedro is so funny! I wonder what's gotten into him. I wonder if he can sense there is a female in the house. Luci did it once or twice when he saw Dexter out of the tank and he charged her. Now I take them both out and I guard her very carefully, he sees her but doesn't get upset or bob he just goes on about his business.

 

[Kiersa]

Well I'm not completely sure Smalls is female... I'm not even sure Pedro is a male I guess I will get a definitive answer tomorrow, I'm taking them both into the vet.

Pedro has been black since Saturday.