razerblaze2011 asked: OK, he is around 6-8 months old and has never been truly “Healthy”.
This is because of lack of research on my part and i feel TERRIBLE about it…. Here are the conditions he was in prior to this past weekend.
Lighting- 2 75 watt r zilla bulbs (Realized he was getting sick so we started gut-loading crickets with extra calcium and fed him more greens) this was about 2 months after i got him. Oh and he was around 2 months when i got him
Temperatures- low 75 high 90
Substrate - walnut shell
Diet - a few crickets each day and some lettuce/zucchini/broccoli
After i while he got to where he was twitching and shaking. I looked this up and realized it was do to lack of calcium. (Didn’t realize that D3 was needed to digest calcium) so i started to dust crickets more and feed more calcium rich foods. He got better and i took him outside every day. Winter came so i stopped taking him outside because i felt it was too cold for him… he got better and ate more than normal. One day when i woke up he was dragging him self around with all of his legs.. (back included) but didn’t lift himself up.. This deeply disturbed me and i immediatly looked it up online. Then i realize my mistake and quickly changed his cage to as follows:
Lighting- 1 r-zilla 8.0 UVB/A 24″ light 1 150 watt r-zilla night heating light, and 1 r-zilla 100 watt daytime heating light. (I have 2 Reptisun 10.0’s on order as i read they are the best. I’m not sure how good the other 2 lights are but my heat in cage dramaticaly improved
Temperature- basking area 105-110 low 82-85 Night temps low 74 high 83. ( around 14 hours of UVB and bright lights on, then just night heater on)
Substrate- Newspaper (Much easier to clean and i read small dragons eat loose substrate such as wallnut shell-which i hear is the WORST)
Diet- 4-6 Crickets a day and a bowl of collard greens, Turnip greens, and zucchini-which i mist before giving.
At first, there was a Dramatic improvement. More active, alert, hungry, and he seemed to be happier as well! But, last night and today he has been down… worse than before! Last night he didn’t eat AT ALL or drink (that i am aware of) i mist and bath him daily to help him go. I forced water through a syringe last night and today because he appeared dehydrated. Now that his basking temps are higher he loves to sit on the log and bask although he cant get up there himself because he can hardly move… but when i set him up there he perks up and acctually lifts his head in the air! which is way better than laying flat and not moving much at all…. anyways i tried to get him to eat greens as well but he wouldn’t. Now today a new problem appeared.. now he doesn’t seem to want to keep his eyes open. He can because if i poke him or move him he opens them and looks straight at me, but after a few seconds he puts his head back down and closes his eyes. When i bathed him today he filled his whole body with air and got stiff.. which he never did before.. I’m not sure what this means.. i thought they could only puff necks.. Anyways i am trying to find the money to take him to the vet.. I hope he will recover and have a good life because i truly care for him.. ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRICIATED!!! PLEASE email me for pics or my phone number if you need to talk to me! i am willing to do ANYTHING!!! ALL HELP WILL BE GREAT!!!
I would like if you problems specifically could be addressed, as i feel his cage, diet, temps, lighting are now ok. I am worried about these things tho
Please answer all of these seperatly so all will be addressed! thanks.
Laziness -
Not wanting to open eyes -
Dragging self around/ not lifting up body-
Mouth WIDE open when basking, not slightly like i see in pictures or described in books/forums.
Please email for pics or my phone number i will gladly do all i can. Thanks.
Could a dragon of his age be undergoing brumation? even if chance is low i am curious…
Also i am worried about why he wont open eyes for more than 4 secs at a time.. this is a reletively new symptom… please help.
I have also heard that uvb lights can damage the eye of many reptiles including bearded dragons. I am using a r-zilla 8.0 24″ tube bulb that is about 10″ away… i have 2 lights over his basking area 1 is a r-zilla incandesent 100 watt bulb that is slightly frosted and the other is a 250 watt bulb that is a deep purple so it produces hardly any light.. all are about… 9″-10″ away… the 2 bulbs are above the screen directly over the basking area, the uvb tube is below the screen back away from the basking area. but is still 10″ away… (its below the screen because i heard uvb waves are greatly reduced when passed through glass and screens)
Thanks, and continue with your answers!
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