Need some advice on Draco..

[bcshepard]

hey guys.. The last 2 months my male Beardy (Draco) hasnt been eating too much. It started about 2 weeks before I got my female (unnamed) and he's starting to get into the fat reserves. He has shown no interest in greens. I've tried different types of greens and even romain I've put them all in separate piles etc.. no go. And he does not care much for crickets. He'll pig down on meal worms if I feed them thats the most success I've had.. this weekend he ate lots of them and I was sure to dust them when I did it. His attitude has even went pretty poor and he'll open his mouth at me defensively he did this before I got the female too. They are both homed together and dont seem to be much of a problem to eachother. I did take in poop samples (he pooped on my desk last weekend so I knew it was his) and that came back clean so I know its not a parasite issue. I did put a bit of nutribac on a mealy this weekend that he ate down so I wonder if that'll help him if he's not feeling well in his stomach. If he was a green iggy I'd force feed him at this stage. I've never force fed a beardy and want advice before I even think about taking that into consideration.

So should I give him an unrestricted mealworm diet? I'm paranoid about doing that as they are hard to digest... Or should I give him enough to maintain his body volume and hold out until he starts eating other items?

[Steven]

First off, I would definitely suggest seperating them. A male and a female should never be kept together (other than for breeding for short periods of time), even if they are doing fine at the moment because a male can turn on a female and mate with her at any moment. He is probably stressed with have the female in the enclosure and the female actually could be dominating the cage and won't let him eat.
If he is not eating, I would not feed him mealworms, because that could just make things worse. Try superworms or silkworms. He may also be just coming out of brumating and being lazy, some dragons do that when it is cold which brings me to my next question. Are there temps correct? 105-115 in the basking spot?
Also, about the greens, I would just keep offering them to him even if hes not eating them right now, some dragons take longer to get to eating them.
So at the moment, I would try splitting those 2 up because that could possibly be a big part of him not eating.

Good luck=)

[zachbaker]

I would have to agree with Steven. I wouldnt feed mealworms to your beardies but try superworms and silk worms. They are coming out of brumation right now so they may still be a bit lazy like Steven said. They may not eat alot but at least they would take a little. To get them to eat their greens you should try dusting some superworms and then adding them to the fresh greens on their dish. This would bring the greens to their attention. If they are going after the SWorms chances are they will take in some kind of greens in the process. At least thats what I did when I had a little problem with mine not eating greens. Now they cant stop eating them.

[bcshepard]

I didnt mean to say I fed mealworms I meant superworms. I've tried putting the superworms in the greens they dont interest him too much. I miss-ordered food this week and I now have 3,000 crickets and 1,000 superworms I have to get eaten up! Maybe I'll cover some with chocolate since I have so many! Going to try to see if I can lure him into eating a few. Every few days he'll dive right in on the supers so at least he's eating some. Just not enough and I dont want my boy to be sick!

He was getting a bit "too lazy" for comfort to the point that he's loosing a bit too much weight. He HAS been burying himself in sand and sleeping in the sand with his head poking out thats been my first indicator he's in brumation so I suspect thats the case. The female (larger than him) is a really nice girl and hasnt been aggressive but I did remove her anyways. I set her up in a new home this morning. She was housed the last 6 months of her life with other beardies and hadnt had any problems of course she was in a group with other females too. I'm going to increase his thermostat from 80F current (plus I keep two substrate heating pads to keep the sand warm) to 85F up to 95 over the course of the next 2 weeks and see if that gets him going.. Those temps are not including his higher-temp basking zone temps which get up over 100 under the megaray 160W SB bulb (which he loves btw).

I was thinking.. I have a small syringe with a small end on it... I was thinking seeing if I can get him to drink down a LITTLE bit of bananna flavored centrum plus just to keep him hydrated.

When it comes to iguanas and water dragons.. I do just fine. I can manage fine with these beardies too but there's of course a lot of species-specific differences just trying to do everything right. I'm hoping my male and female will give me a colony of little beardies.. I do have another male beardy (I have 2 males and 1 female) but I've kept him homed in a 40 gallon aquarium in my bedroom the two have never met contact.

[bcshepard]

here's a link you can see the two. They are bigger than they look in the picture that camera angle makes everything look small... Draco is the one up on the log the one pigging out is the new girl.

www.frontiernet.net/~rhinodigger/small100_0530100_0553.JPG

Steve you breed Beardies right? Do you know anyone up here in NY that breeds good high-colored dragons? I want one thats nice and RED also looking for pure yellows and pure whites.

[zachbaker]

They are coming out of brumation right now so they may still be a bit lazy like Steven said.
Dont get to carried away with force feeding them unless they have lost significant amount of weight. You should probably soak them in some water to keep them hydrated. Keep trying the superworms and crickets. also dont over feed the superworms they are high in fat. I would feed more greens. carrots and a mix of different veggies. Sometimes they are attracted to brighter colors.

[ChamZilla]

bc, I asked you to talk to Steven when you got your beardies. I told you that they shouldn't be housed together and you said you knew what you were doing.

Have you seperated them yet? Is Draco better? Hope to hear something soon

Good luck

[bcshepard]

Draco I did put in his old cage (40 gallon tank) and he's been burying himself in sand all week but eating a bit. I couldnt find him the other day and moved his log and there was his head poking out of the sand it was fairly amusing. My female just laid eggs btw! 13 of em!

[zachbaker]

cool you got eggs are you gonna try and sell them?

[bcshepard]

All my little egglings are in the incubation tank. I breed water dragons so these guys arnt much different to breed actually the temps are just about the same too.

[bcshepard]

Well. I have two leucistic FEMALES. I got Draco in November then 2 mos ago I got my female leucistic.. first week of this month I got another (I thought it was a male as did the breeder) i was re-examining the beardy it was fat cells or something.. Its a girl. This one is GRAVID TOO so I've got MORE EGGS COMMING soon. I've put Draco in his own little home and put the two girls together - they are doing GREAT together. I'm going to keep these 13 in the incubator when this female lays hers.. I'll probably freeze them. I suspect they are sisters they came out of the same group @ the store/breeders location.

Draco's eating is picking up slowly but surely give him a couple more weeks he'll be FAT.

[Marie]

Good luck with the egging.

[Steven]

Hey, I'm so sorry I haven't been around much at all, I have been so busy with things. I'm glad Draco is starting to eat again and best of luck with the eggs!

I do not know of any breeders in NY, but you dont have to look for a breeder in the area you live in. Most people get their dragons they purchased, shipped to their house. You can also check with reptile shows in your area at kingsnake.com, then go to events. I wont have any nice orange/red dragons for a few months=/