What do I do if my Baby Dragon doesn't eat?

[Ryan Lawson]

I got my beardy yesterday and the first day i just fed her veggies.. she ate that fine. To day i got her small crickets and she at 5-6 and stopped( this was in the morning) i then waited till the night time and she wont eat a single cricket, or even a wax worm.

Is she nervous? is she full?

PLEASE HELP!
thanks so much

Ryan

 

[PatsyB]

It's normal for a beardie, especially a baby beardie to go through relocation stress. Try to leave her alone and not touch her much when you do touch her reach under her front body and kinda scoop her into your hand. If you have a glass tank, cover 3 sides of the tank so that she feels safer. Just give her some time and she will be eating like a machine!

 

[Hdrydr31]

I got my beardy yesterday and the first day i just fed her veggies.. she ate that fine. To day i got her small crickets and she at 5-6 and stopped( this was in the morning) i then waited till the night time and she wont eat a single cricket, or even a wax worm.

Is she nervous? is she full?

PLEASE HELP!
thanks so much

Ryan

Like PatsyB said they sometimes need time to adjust to their new homes... If you got a baby they need to be fed 3x a day with the last feeding at least 2 hours before their lights go out for the night so they can bask to digest. Also if a baby they really need the protein from the bugs for growth and development.
Make sure your temps are correct for the age of the dragon if it's not right that might be why she didn't want to eat.

 

[Ryan Lawson]

It's normal for a beardie, especially a baby beardie to go through relocation stress. Try to leave her alone and not touch her much when you do touch her reach under her front body and kinda scoop her into your hand. If you have a glass tank, cover 3 sides of the tank so that she feels safer. Just give her some time and she will be eating like a machine!

do you think it can be the heat? i use a day ble light that gets up to 110 an a night black light that goes down to 75

 

[Elders]

I'd recommend against colored night lights....if the temps dip below 65 get a Ceramic Heat Emitter; it pushes heat w/o light.

Lights are no good at night as it will keep them up; and causes stress.

105-110 for a baby is fine.

75 is fine for night too...it's good to let it fluctuate for them day/night.

What UVB light are you using?

 

[Ryan Lawson]

i have zilla lights.
the black light puts out barely any light so she can sleep at night.
how much are babys supposed to eat? ive seen videos where they eat 50 crickets at one time. and mine eats 6..
she is shedding and i heard if theyre sheedding they dont like to eat. is that true?

 

[Elders]

Any light can cause shadowing; which they can sense with the "third eye" organ atop their heads.

It really depends on the animal; babies can be voracious eating 20-30+ insects at a time; sometimes they are stressed or something is wrong with them. Parasites; etc....These can cause them to not eat so much.

I am not sure as to the shedding portion; my dragon has always eaten well; even during shed.

Lighting for these animals is everything. Especially their UVB. please check out the links under Hdrydr's post; they have a lot of great information in there.

 

[Hdrydr31]

Yep any light at all will disturb their sleep keeping them partially awake to stay safe from predators. They need that drop in temps as it simulates nature. Some don't eat as much when they are shedding but that's more with adults babies are constantly shedding as they are growing soo quickly. Both of mine eat normally while shedding. And yes lighting and temps are huge

 

[PatsyB]

They see all sorts of light spectrums that we can't see. So even though the black light to us doesn't look like much, it's a whole other thing to them.