Angle headed dragon help

[Gretel]

Can anyone help me out, I bought 2 Angle Headed Dragons July last year, while I was in hospital this week 1 off them died, now it wasn't eating real well, didn't show much interest in taking food but when her mouth opened and I put a cricket in she would eat it but seemed like she wasn't swallowing it real quick like my other 1 does, she was pooping fine no issues that end,
Anyway I picked up this larger male today from where I bought the other 2 from, it is last years clutched same as mine, yet as you can see from pic there is a huge difference in size, this is the encloser I put together last year, I did noticed they had stop climbing the branches so I changed to these bigger ones as the other were thinner in diameter
I have done a lot of reading up on them and how they can sook if you disturb them, which I did do earlier this year moving their encloser,
I feed them crickets, meal worms, woodies, I have occasionally prickled with calcium, while also putting gut load in with crickets,
Please am I doing something wrong, for them to be so slow growing and back off the little one being the shape it is,
I have only just put a second uv globe in the encloser and swapped the 14 month old globe for a new one.

 

[crudbucket]

Uv won’t benefit them if you don’t have infrared.

 

[Gretel]

Uv won’t benefit them if you don’t have infrared.

From everything I have read Southern Angle headed dragons do jot need infra-red light only uv

 

[Sdaji]

Difficult to say with pretty much no information to go on. You haven't even given a single mention of the most important aspect of reptile husbandry (temperature).

I probably wouldn't use mealworms other than maybe very occasionally. I would definitely use calcium and multivitamin powder a lot more than occasionally. If I had to guess I'd say your problem is a mixture of lack of nutrients (the nutrient dusting really seems very important for lizards kept on a diet of commercial insects) and likely low temperature or excessive temperature fluctuations (just a guess; if you understand the importance of temperature it will be the first thing you think about and discuss, and low temperatures certainly will lower the metabolic rate and growth etc, and cause some individuals not to eat). These dragons do need lower temperatures than most other dragons, but they still need to be warmer than the average temperature of Shepparton and don't do well with large temperature fluctuations as are normal in Shepparton. They live in temperate rainforest with quite stable temperatures, warm but not hot.

These lizards are very sensitive to incorrect temperatures. Some households are kept climate controlled and simulate their natural environment quite well, and some people thus say this species "doesn't need heat". This makes no sense, no reptile can live in a freezer, they all need the correct temperature and not all houses have the same temperature cycles, and many people only look at temperature as a single number! If your house's temperature cycle doesn't happen to match what they want, you won't get away with following that rule.

One other piece of advice is that this species naturally primarily uses vertical climbing branches (trunks of tall, narrow trees) and generally prefers to have multiple vertical climbing branches. Having multiples is especially important if you keep more than one lizard in the same enclosure. You should always have more vertical branches than the number of lizards in the enclosure including if there is only one lizard. If you ever get the chance to walk through their natural habitat you'll learn a lot about their needs even if you aren't lucky enough to see one. Most reptiles do better in quite an unnatural environment, but lizards like these live at ambient temperature in a stable environment, they don't shuttle around so much adjusting their temperature to optimise it. This means they are not particularly good at utilising temperature gradients (they will still do it, just not as well) and really need conditions to be exactly right.

 

[Gretel]

T

Difficult to say with pretty much no information to go on. You haven't even given a single mention of the most important aspect of reptile husbandry (temperature).

I probably wouldn't use mealworms other than maybe very occasionally. I would definitely use calcium and multivitamin powder a lot more than occasionally. If I had to guess I'd say your problem is a mixture of lack of nutrients (the nutrient dusting really seems very important for lizards kept on a diet of commercial insects) and likely low temperature or excessive temperature fluctuations (just a guess; if you understand the importance of temperature it will be the first thing you think about and discuss, and low temperatures certainly will lower the metabolic rate and growth etc, and cause some individuals not to eat). These dragons do need lower temperatures than most other dragons, but they still need to be warmer than the average temperature of Shepparton and don't do well with large temperature fluctuations as are normal in Shepparton. They live in temperate rainforest with quite stable temperatures, warm but not hot.

These lizards are very sensitive to incorrect temperatures. Some households are kept climate controlled and simulate their natural environment quite well, and some people thus say this species "doesn't need heat". This makes no sense, no reptile can live in a freezer, they all need the correct temperature and not all houses have the same temperature cycles, and many people only look at temperature as a single number! If your house's temperature cycle doesn't happen to match what they want, you won't get away with following that rule.

One other piece of advice is that this species naturally primarily uses vertical climbing branches (trunks of tall, narrow trees) and generally prefers to have multiple vertical climbing branches. Having multiples is especially important if you keep more than one lizard in the same enclosure. You should always have more vertical branches than the number of lizards in the enclosure including if there is only one lizard. If you ever get the chance to walk through their natural habitat you'll learn a lot about their needs even if you aren't lucky enough to see one. Most reptiles do better in quite an unnatural environment, but lizards like these live at ambient temperature in a stable environment, they don't shuttle around so much adjusting their temperature to optimise it. This means they are not particularly good at utilising temperature gradients (they will still do it, just not as well) and really need conditions to be exactly right.

Hank you so much for the info, my thermometer stopped working so I will definitely get a new asap, our home never gets too hot or cold, as I myself need the temperature at a stable temp, I do only give meal worms occasionally, I have calcium and a multi vitamin powders, I also add gut load in with my crickets, I do have multiple branches plus a built in water fall,
I will definitely get a nre thermometer tomorrow
Again thank you
I also have a blue tongue that iv had for about 6 years now with absolutely no hassles at all with him,

 

[Gretel]

Difficult to say with pretty much no information to go on. You haven't even given a single mention of the most important aspect of reptile husbandry (temperature).

I probably wouldn't use mealworms other than maybe very occasionally. I would definitely use calcium and multivitamin powder a lot more than occasionally. If I had to guess I'd say your problem is a mixture of lack of nutrients (the nutrient dusting really seems very important for lizards kept on a diet of commercial insects) and likely low temperature or excessive temperature fluctuations (just a guess; if you understand the importance of temperature it will be the first thing you think about and discuss, and low temperatures certainly will lower the metabolic rate and growth etc, and cause some individuals not to eat). These dragons do need lower temperatures than most other dragons, but they still need to be warmer than the average temperature of Shepparton and don't do well with large temperature fluctuations as are normal in Shepparton. They live in temperate rainforest with quite stable temperatures, warm but not hot.

These lizards are very sensitive to incorrect temperatures. Some households are kept climate controlled and simulate their natural environment quite well, and some people thus say this species "doesn't need heat". This makes no sense, no reptile can live in a freezer, they all need the correct temperature and not all houses have the same temperature cycles, and many people only look at temperature as a single number! If your house's temperature cycle doesn't happen to match what they want, you won't get away with following that rule.

One other piece of advice is that this species naturally primarily uses vertical climbing branches (trunks of tall, narrow trees) and generally prefers to have multiple vertical climbing branches. Having multiples is especially important if you keep more than one lizard in the same enclosure. You should always have more vertical branches than the number of lizards in the enclosure including if there is only one lizard. If you ever get the chance to walk through their natural habitat you'll learn a lot about their needs even if you aren't lucky enough to see one. Most reptiles do better in quite an unnatural environment, but lizards like these live at ambient temperature in a stable environment, they don't shuttle around so much adjusting their temperature to optimise it. This means they are not particularly good at utilising temperature gradients (they will still do it, just not as well) and really need conditions to be exactly right.

Hi I got a thermometer the enclosers temp is 22.8 deg

 

[Sdaji]

Hi I got a thermometer the enclosers temp is 22.8 deg

As I said, temperature is more than a single number. At any given time there will generally be a thermal gradient within the enclosure, so there are many different temperatures in the enclosure even at a single time, and at different times the temperatures of the enclosure will change.

A single thermometer reading from one place in the enclosure at one time is meaningless. You're talking about a chronic issue over the last year, not something which occurred instantly in one place in the enclosure. Reptile enclosures literally typically have temperatures which would be lethal for the reptile if the reptile sat at that temperature ongoingly, and almost always have optimal temperatures at least some of the time somewhere in the enclosure each day.

Anyway, if the temperature was a constant 22.8 degrees all over the enclosure, it would be on the cool side which would slow growth (for most reptiles especially dragons this would be outright lethal long term. These like/need it cooler, but there's a limit). You probably don't have much of a gradient in that enclosure (which unlike for most reptiles isn't a problem for these), but it's still very important to monitor the temperature and ensure the average temperature is appropriate, the temperature rarely gets outside significant comfort levels and of course never gets outside safe limits (which seems like it never does, but the average temperature might not be right and perhaps the temperature gets outside the nice range too often or for too long).

I know you said you do have the supplement powder, but as I said, I'd use it a lot more than occasionally.

I have no idea how your Blue-tongued Lizard is set up, whether or not it's at the same temperatures as the Angle-headed Dragons, or even what type of Blue-tongued Lizard it is.

I can only see one wooden perch in the picture and it isn't vertical. If you do have multiple vertical wooden perches, that's great

 

[Gretel]

Ok thank you, I really do appreciate the information, I did a lot off research before I bought them, but your information is so much more informal information I have bought a infared heat globe and have put into the encloser I will be taking and putting your information in to practice again thank you so much