Wednesday 14 November 2007

"My Bearded Dragon isn't eating"

What do you do when your bearded dragon isn't eating? That was the concern we have had for the last 2 days.

It tunrs out that we have been a bit lax on the whole feeding thing. Not that we haven't fed them. Rather that we have chuked 15 or so crickets in each day knowing that they hadn't eaten all of them from the day before. They'll pick 'em off in the end, we thought.

The result instead was teh our beaded dragons weren't eating ANY of them?! Weird!

We took a bit of expert advice, and they said: "get all the crickets out of the vivarium and leave them for 24 hours". It was at that point we realised that we had messed up a fair bit, cos we must have cleared out about 20 or so crickets, hidden here, there and everywhere!! We spent lots of time finding them and we still missed one that appeared the next day!!

Here's the theory:


Lizards identify food by movement primarily. If there is movement all the time, they block it out as normal movement, and familiarity causes them to not recognise it as food. This is particulary so if they have over eaten before. By depriving them of the movement and the food, their system gets "reset", and everyone is happy again!!

So that is what we did. Last night we carefully introduced 2 crickets at a time. Dash ate 4 in the end, Rapethal ate none still. 2 got away that we removed from the Viv. Today we were pretty worried. Why was Rapethal not eating? Was he afraid of the crickets? Was he afraid of Dash.

Today both Beardies have been desparately exploring hte viv for food - a good sign!

Our plan tonight wasd to remove Dash and then introduce the crickets to give Rapa and chance. However Dash was more jumpy than normal, presumably cos he was hungry! So we went for it anyway. 4 crickets at a time. And Rapa was the first to eat - hurray!! It was a relief. I think they had somewhere around 8 each and they all went. We decided not to overdo it today and keep them keen for tomorrow!

No one said it would be eay i suppose!

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Good morning (i'm in south africa).

Two days ago i bought a beardie from a friend. Who couldn't care for him anymore. Its 36cm long from head to tail. So i don't know how old it is. It has some orange patterns on its face but thats about it. Its not been eating. Nor been drinking water. I have tried feeding it crickets and roaches. As well as apple. But nothing as of yet. I have one uv globe in its tank. And one 13w reptile globe for the day time. I have noticed that its active in the mornings. But later on it just sleeps and sleeps. So i'm worried. Its very tame. And if i take it out of its tank and put it on my lap. First thing it does is crawls in between my arm and my hip for heat. . Its winter here now. So i think heat is a problem for it not eating. Can this be a reason? The tank feels way to cold if i put my hand in. Even with both globes on. If you have any information. Please please email me on shane.Munacra.Addinall (@gmail dot com)

its very urgent

kind regards.

Shane

Anonymous said...

u need at least a 75 watt light bulb to produce heat th hot spot should be anywhere from 100 to 110 degress F cold spot should be about 85 try mistin the cage about once or twice a day but not to much cuz this will cause humidity or soak them once every two days cuz most beardies wont drink out of a bowl

Oregon Street Candle Co. said...

I think you all should go to Exclusive Dragons website and read their care sheet. Hugh information on beardies.

Dragon Lizard said...

It took mine several days to get used to the new home. I think it went almost two weeks until it started eating.

Anonymous said...

I think they had somewhere around 8 each and they all went. We decided not to overdo it today and keep them keen for tomorrow!

Anonymous said...

I think they had somewhere around 8 each and they all went. We decided not to overdo it today and keep them keen for tomorrow!
http://www.beardeddragoncaredr.com

Anonymous said...

Mine has stopped eating but shes a fatty so im not that worried

bearded dragon behavior said...

A description of all the essentials and conditions that is required to prepare the bearded dragons to breed. The information and the steps to follow in how to breed bearded dragons.

mariea said...

Hi guys I live in Ireland and I have 2 bearded dragons which was given to me free, the first 1 is a male and the 2nd is a female. They have been getting on great for about 9 months now. This past few weeks the male has come I to heat and this has caused a lot of stress for the female, I have separated them, but today I have noticed she appears to have lost weight, she has been office her greens but still eats some crickets not as many as before, she also refuses mealworms, any advice please email me at mariea_harte@hotmail.com would be grateful for any help. She used to be very healthy and lively but lately not much, I also thought she may be shedding. She has orangish markings.