I have a Bearded Dragon who is about 7 months old. We recently moved him and his buddy from seprate 10 gallon tanks into a divided 75 gallon. They are not able to see eachother or get to each other in any way. The formerly larger and more active one hasn't eaten for about a week now. We have been feeding 12-15 medium size crickets a day with nightly feedings of kale, collard greens or turnip greens. He used to go crazy and eat everything up right away. Could this all still be stress from the new set-up? He is looking rather skinny, so should I be worried? If I put a drop of water by his mouth he will lick it off, but that is all I can get into him. Thanks for any input!

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Alex Hitch Hitchens: "Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it's the moments that take your breath away."

We need more information, temps? Uvb? substrate? defecation? etc.

Also you should feed veggies in the morning to allow time for them to digest all day.
Have they been to a vet? Have you had fecal parasite tests done?

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Thanks for the reply! Each side of the tank has it's own UVB (I think UVA also) and a heat lamp ~ the basking spot is from 95-110, depending how well below zero we are outside. The cooler side gets around 70. He has not been defecating, as he has not been eating. The last time he did go was a good week ago, and it looked very normal, but small. I have to do the veggies at night on the days that I work or they would have to have their day lamps turned on at 4am. If I just leave the veggies laying in there they won't eat them ~ they prefer them to be moving. I don't have a herp vet in the area, that I know of. There is one vet at our local place who has owned bearded dragons, but I wasn't 100% sure if that makes her able to actually care for them, kwim? Finally, how would I get a fecal test done on an animal that isn't producing feces? I will call the vet that we do have today, if that is what you think I need to do. I didn't know if there was a chance that they brumate, like the geckos. Or how long I should wait before I would worry too much. THanks again! Oh, and the substrate is linoleum. That fancy new soft spongy stuff that doesn't need an underlayment. It is easy to cut and lays nice and flat while providing a bit of grip. They also get a bath once a week, have a bi-level terrain and tolerate being held pretty well. Let me know if there is more info you need.

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Alex Hitch Hitchens: "Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it's the moments that take your breath away."

if they were eating well before and started this when you moved them, i would chaulk it up to stress. Since he licks up water dropped on his nose, there is always the slurry recipe (put everything into a food processor and drop onto nose) to get them to eat if they are looking skinny.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

That is a great idea shlegelbagel! I was trying to gently rub the veggies along his mouth, to coax him to open so I could sneak it in but he wouldn't budge. At least that would get something into him and hopefully perk him up. Thanks, I will give that a try!

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Alex Hitch Hitchens: "Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it's the moments that take your breath away."

I would say its stress as well. Going from such a small enclosure to a very large one is a big change. Even though they like the veggies to move, I would suggest leaving the veggies for the AM and feeding the crickets in the PM. If they dont eat the veggies, skip the crickets for one nights feeding. They should be hungry enough in the AM to eat their veggies. You can bump the temps to 115 to see if that helps increase the appetite.

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MARSHA
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how far is the uvb from them and what does it have to go through? (do you have a screen top or anything?)

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Well, the Bearded Dragon in question has nothing for it to go through. It is in a clamp type of lamp that is clamped to the divider in the middle of the cage. When he is sitting on the top level, and on his half log he is only about 5-6 inches from it. Could that be too close? I have moved him up there in the past few days as he hasn't been getting up there on his own. I am at work right this moment, but when I get home (if I get home tonight) I will try to get a picture of the set-up and post it. I put a fresh batch of crickets in tonight hoping the activity would perk him up. He did bop his head up and look around, but didn't try to go after any of them. I am starting to get a bit more worried. Maybe the pictures will give someone an idea? Oh, I also forgot to mention that I dust the crickets with repti-cal each feeding, and about every 3-4 days I use herptivite (sp?).

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Alex Hitch Hitchens: "Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it's the moments that take your breath away."

you don't need to add the vitamins quite so often, every other feeding is good.

__________________
My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

Those coil lamps don't put out enough UVB for a Bearded Dragon. You should look into a megaray from Welcome To ReptileUV - Mega-Ray® UVB lamps for reptile lighting worldwide

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“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

~Lacey~

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