Softserve stopped eating again, what do we do!?

[Itio]

The day before yesterday, I sat down to attempt feeding live to my 8month old beardie. To my surprise, he actually ate, eagerly. I had gotten him to eat a couple hornworms and dubia the past week or so, but he took them almost reluctantly. He had been mostly off insects for over two weeks because of a blockage. I was so excited.

Yesterday morning, he puked everything he ate the day before. He's black bearding again and doesn't really want to move. He is still holding himself up and fighting being held as usual though. I started syringe feeding him again as per vet instruction.

I was told that silkworms and butterworms were great for getting beardies both eating and back up to weight. I can't find those anywhere locally and it costs as much in shipping as it does for the actually product...

I have access to hornworms, dubia, mealworms, superworms, waxworms, and BSFL. Any suggestions to help him keep real food down? He takes the syringe just fine and I am okay with syringe feeding him as long as I need to, but I just want him to feel better, you know?

I also recently found out how old he is (8 months) and he is about half the size he should be... the vet said its likely due to his food issues since he was little. So we really want him eating and getting bigger quickly.

 

[JumpinJellyfish]

Are you able to see a vet again to look into why he's throwing up?

 

[Itio]

Vet said to watch him for a couple days and see if he will eat again before bringing him back.

 

[JumpinJellyfish]

Crossing fingers for you!!

 

[Itio]

A part of me wonders if he's not eating so he can get syringe fed like a lazy dragon LOL
Still no interest in live food other than watching the dubia run all over the tank (i take them out after a few minutes). He takes the syringe filled with apple/blueberry babyfood, grubpie, and reptiboost like its the best thing he has ever had LOL

 

[Itio]

I ventured out to a petstore I don't usually go to so I can get a CHE cheap and found Fluker's Juvenile bearded dragon diet. Its a moist pellet diet. I'm hoping he will eat these... he denied dubias yesterday, but I will try feeding him live again before giving him this new prepared food.
I have heard a lot of good things about Fluker's' beardie food so here's to hoping.

 

[Smawg]

my beardie is picky & also a syringe eater. she has not eaten greens,veggies or fruits since she was a couple months old & she is 4 yrs old now. She will eat dubias,crickets,hornworms, wax worms, bsfl. I`ll even wait on a few hornworms let them pupa & let her eat the moth. i do not feed her superworms or mealworms. I will guttload the bugs with greens,veggies & fruits that my beardie will not eat, this way when she eats the bugs, she is getting at least a little bit of the stuff. I will also guttload the bugs with the bearded dragon food the red pellet things. Everything must be alive for her to eat. she LOVES to be syringe fed. it`s like the greatest thing to her I think. I`ll do certain baby foods,ill even smash up the red pellets into almost a powder & soak it in warm water & fill up the syringe & feed it to her that way. cause she will not eat the pellets either. I will spray water slowly and soft on top of her mouth and she will keep licking & Ill spray a few times as she has her mouth open, then I will wait for her to do her swallowing thing, then I will give her more, she will turn her head or walk away when she is done. the same with the baby food or what ever else she gets from the syringe. you have to make sure you do not force more then what he/she wants. i bath her once a week sometimes ill wait a little longer. she is pretty lazy in her tank. she really doesnt stay basking,she likes the cooler side, the thing is its not to hot on the hot side. I do not get it. she has been doing this for 3 years. she will go bask once in a while every other couple days, she has a 75 gal. tank, she has room and its not to hot. she is just a weird lizard I think. but anyways, you can look on ebay for feeder insects & worms with free shipping. I do it all the time. what state are you in? do you have a digital kitchen scale? if not they are pretty cheap, you can weigh your beardie every week or two & see if he is gaining weight I think I might have gotten the runt out of the bunch lol but I love her! What size dubias do you feed your beardie? where do you get your bugs from? maybe they are making her sick? & she knows that & that is why she isn't eating them. just a thought. what do you feed the dubias

 

[Itio]

Im glad your beardie has you, Smawg! All of my bugs are from Timerberline. My mealworms are bred by me and are fed to all of my reptiles and they are all doing fine otherwise.

I just got back from the vet with him because he suddenly got lethargic again. Turns out he has Giardia. The vet said it's probably because he is immunocompromised (which is something I knew). He doubts it came from anything and it's something he has had in his system for a while that just suddenly got out of control.

So... he is on Metro for three weeks and syringe fed until he eats on his own again. The goal is to get as much weight on him as quickly as possible and get his guts working properly again.

Thanks for the info on what you put in your syringe food. What pellets do you use in particular?

 

[Smawg]

They are the plain red longer type ones,not the round ball type. the brand is either Zilla, All living things or Flukkers. What state are you in? Maybe I will take a stool sample & have one done for Smawg. She hasn't been to a vet in a few years. it`s about 45 min to a hour drive to a reptile specialist. Good luck with your beardie. Do you have a scale? maybe try to feed him other kinds of baby foods too, cause if he eats to much of one thing that isn't good either. Thanks for sharing the info on the poop sample test. I never trusted the super worm/mealworms thing on them biting the beardies belly after eating them. I chopped the head off of one and it kept chomping away lol. from that I said nope, these I am not feeding smawg. I hope something I said can help you in some way.

 

[Itio]

I will have to pick up some of the pellets and see if it'll work out for him.
I live in central Oklahoma. I'm lucky to have a herp vet so close to me. He's fifteen from my house.

The Metro is making Softserve lethargic (a normal side effect) so I want to get anything I can into him.

 

[Smawg]

Yeah, good idea to get more things into his diet. poor little thing, I wish you luck with him

 

[Itio]

I come bearing bad news.
Yesterday, Softserve's health took a nose dive. He was so lethargic I thought he had died.
He made it to the evening, but sadly, he didn't make it.

Thank you for all your help and support.

 

[JumpinJellyfish]

Oh, so sorry!

 

[mamaof2dragons]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[Itio]

He had a zoomed 150w heat bulb
And a reptisun 10.0 T8. We had it tested for UVB output and it came back perfect (it was only three months old)