Varanoidea
Well-Known Member
Hi,
I've had my new 4/5 month old beardie for a week now and yesterday and today he has been off his food and sleeping seemingly 24/7. Sometimes if I disturb him he goes into a sporadic state of looking around really fast (sometimes tripping himself over) and being generally agitated. He was eating well all last week with crickets dusted with JurassiCAL once a day and with a multivitamin once a week, and I am fairly confident that the crickets weren't too big and have made him impacted (I am also using ceramic tile as a substrate, so no impaction there unless he is Mary Poppins and can fit a tile down his throat) as I gave him a warm bath yesterday when he started acting lethargic and he had a bowl movement, and he also did one today. As far as I can tell his faeces didn't look off in any way, it was solid and brown. He hasn't touched his yellow squash, rocket, alfalfa sprout, watercress salad mix as of yet. I also try to mist him once/twice a day since I've had him.
As for my setup:
I'm using a Reptile One 100W basking light and a ReptiGLO 10.0 UVB tube which he can get within 30cms of. They turn on at 5.30am and turn off at 9.00pm to accommodate my school times. For a few days I had a thermostat however I don't trust it so I removed it and ordered a Habistat dimming thermostat which has not arrived yet. A dual thermometer is also in there but I don't trust that either, it seems to give a very varied range of temperatures no matter the weather outside. It does claim that the temperature on his basking spot is 42c+ and it certainly feels hot enough, I've just trusted the beardie to move out of it if he is too hot until I can get a new thermostat. Today the untrustworthy thermostat reads 33.5c.
As for his specific behaviour, two days ago he started closing his eyes all the time, raising one foot in the air and holding there when basking (not waving it), acting very startled and jerky like someone has blown a horn in his face, basking with his head vertical and not being interested in his food despite smashing crickets days earlier. He also seems to open and close his mouth slightly sometimes like something is stuck on his lips? His eyes are clear with no mucus, same with his nose, his rectum is clear and there are no bumps along his spine. The only problems I could think of are he is trying to brumate or is dehydrated, or is impacted despite having regular bowl movements.
That's all the information I can think of right now, if someone has any questions they would like to ask feel free and I will try my best to answer. All advice will be taken seriously and listened to. I was so careful to be thorough in my research before getting him as I absolutely adore reptiles (used to have an olive python) and I wish to work with them as a career, it would absolutely ruin me if he passed away due to something I overlooked, I would feel like a murderer.
Thanks in advance, hopefully I'm just stressing over nothing.:?
I've had my new 4/5 month old beardie for a week now and yesterday and today he has been off his food and sleeping seemingly 24/7. Sometimes if I disturb him he goes into a sporadic state of looking around really fast (sometimes tripping himself over) and being generally agitated. He was eating well all last week with crickets dusted with JurassiCAL once a day and with a multivitamin once a week, and I am fairly confident that the crickets weren't too big and have made him impacted (I am also using ceramic tile as a substrate, so no impaction there unless he is Mary Poppins and can fit a tile down his throat) as I gave him a warm bath yesterday when he started acting lethargic and he had a bowl movement, and he also did one today. As far as I can tell his faeces didn't look off in any way, it was solid and brown. He hasn't touched his yellow squash, rocket, alfalfa sprout, watercress salad mix as of yet. I also try to mist him once/twice a day since I've had him.
As for my setup:
I'm using a Reptile One 100W basking light and a ReptiGLO 10.0 UVB tube which he can get within 30cms of. They turn on at 5.30am and turn off at 9.00pm to accommodate my school times. For a few days I had a thermostat however I don't trust it so I removed it and ordered a Habistat dimming thermostat which has not arrived yet. A dual thermometer is also in there but I don't trust that either, it seems to give a very varied range of temperatures no matter the weather outside. It does claim that the temperature on his basking spot is 42c+ and it certainly feels hot enough, I've just trusted the beardie to move out of it if he is too hot until I can get a new thermostat. Today the untrustworthy thermostat reads 33.5c.
As for his specific behaviour, two days ago he started closing his eyes all the time, raising one foot in the air and holding there when basking (not waving it), acting very startled and jerky like someone has blown a horn in his face, basking with his head vertical and not being interested in his food despite smashing crickets days earlier. He also seems to open and close his mouth slightly sometimes like something is stuck on his lips? His eyes are clear with no mucus, same with his nose, his rectum is clear and there are no bumps along his spine. The only problems I could think of are he is trying to brumate or is dehydrated, or is impacted despite having regular bowl movements.
That's all the information I can think of right now, if someone has any questions they would like to ask feel free and I will try my best to answer. All advice will be taken seriously and listened to. I was so careful to be thorough in my research before getting him as I absolutely adore reptiles (used to have an olive python) and I wish to work with them as a career, it would absolutely ruin me if he passed away due to something I overlooked, I would feel like a murderer.
Thanks in advance, hopefully I'm just stressing over nothing.:?
