I'm having a problem with one of my dragons. He was a fairly healthy eater, but nothing like his tank mate. One of them is about 2 months old and the other is about 2 1/2 months old. I got them after the death of my bearded dragon, Falcore.
Anyway, Snafu is the younger of the 2. We got him about 3 weeks ago, and 2 days later we got Lepirsi. Snafu was only slightly smaller than Lepirsi, but over the course of the past 3 weeks, Lepirsi seems to have at least doubled in size, while Snafu doesn't really seem to have grown much at all.
When they are fed, I stay at the cage to make sure they both have plenty of food, as Lepirsi tries to dominate Snafu.
Snafu was eating about 3 or 4 crix, 1 meal worm, and small amt. of veggies 3 times a day. On Tuesday he wouldn't eat at all. On Wednesday I got him to eat 1 meal worm. On Thursday when he wouldn't eat breakfast, so I took him to the vet.
The vet said he looked fine. He was very alert. I had no stool sample to take in, as he hadn't been eating. I asked her if this could be a parasite problem. She said yes. I asked her if de-worming him would be harmful if he didn't have them. She said no, so I asked her to do it.
I picked up Snafu the same evening. When he got home, I got him to eat 2 meal worms...but he hasn't eaten since then.
I called the vet back yesterday to tell her. She didn't have much to say.
My husbandry is excellent, having had a Bearded Dragon before.
I have 2 set ups. One is a 55 gal and the other a 40 gal. UVA/UVB, basking, gradient temp throughout both... I thought maybe Lepirsi was intimidating Snafu into not eating somehow, so I put Lepirsi in the other cage (I didn't want to move Snafu, for fear of causing him stress), but he still wouldn't eat. Moving Lepirsi only seemed to upset him, as the two of them pawed at the glass trying to get in each other's cage. I put a partition between the cages so they couldn't see each other, but it didn't help, so I put them back in the same cage, and they both seemed content, although Snafu is not as alert as he was or should be.
The only thing I can think of is possibly an impaction.
I have read about giving Bearded Dragon’s enemas, but would never attempt it. That is something for the vet.
Has anyone else ever had this kind of problem?

Aww, I have a Bearded Dragon named Falcor...Welcomed to HCn.

Can you tell us about your setup, substrate, temps?


If you think impaction, then you just need to soak him in some warm water. Mealies should not be fed to babie Bearded Dragons, they need lots of greens and crickets or silkies, with waxworms as a treat. Mealies have harder exoskeleton which makes it harder for Bearded Dragons to digest. Once they are juvies and adults, you can feed mealies as a treat as well.


Do you feed the crickets inside or outside of the tank, do you feed Bearded Dragon seperate.

It maybe stressed due to the other being bigger and probably more dominant.

More info would be helpful.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

Just an update...all at once Snafu snapped out of it! He began running around the cage, being his usual hyper self. When I fed them, he was the first one to the crix, eating 7 of the 10 I put in the cage. He was also the first one to the veggies, and Snafu really does not like his veggies!
Silkies, huh...I've never had a problem with the meal worms. I will check out where to get the silkies though...I certainly don't want to run into this again!
And a warm water soak for impaction. This is also new to me, as none of my Bearded Dragons have ever had one, thank God, but very useful info to know...I read everything I come across about dragons, and have yet to see that one...I obviously have much to learn. Thank you very much for the information.

I am going to have to agree with marsha(venus) on this one. I also have Bearded Dragons I Have 2 of them-Haydees and Nyobi. Give us a little more info and we maybe able to help. Also welcome the HCN!----That's good to hear, but it doesn't mean he is completely better he may just not be as stressed to today,i would make sure you keep a very close eye on them, and I would more then likely recommend that you house them seperately if this happens to continue!

Actually soaking your Bearded Dragon several times a week is beneficial to the dragons,,,it helps hydrate it and sometimes they like to swim, lol.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

In our case usually one or all the Bearded Dragons will poop when they are being soaked. This makes less of a mess to clean up in the enclosure. I currently have 3 females living in the same large enclosure. Every few weeks I will switch around the decoration in the enclosure, this seem to help with the dominates problems. When I do this the area which each individual Bearded Dragon calls her own changes. The growth rate of Bearded Dragons can be different depending on the genetic behind the Bearded Dragons. One of my males, I was concerned about as he was soo small maybe 9" at about 9-10 months of age and all of a sudden he had a growth spurt and he is now about 16" at a year.

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Colleen