Hi Nev,
I have had a similar problem with my vitticeps. They are about 6-7 months old and one of them appeared to be not eating. She is very small for her size (8.5 cm nose to vent) and not hugely active but she doesn?t look skinny. I had to separate them about 4 months ago but she hasn?t seemed to make a huge improvement. I spoke to a couple of friends who breed beardies and I was given the following advice:
- Make sure that they are separated and they can not see each other at all (I put up another barrier just to be on the safe side)
- It is winter, individual habits may differ over the cooler months, some may eat more than others
- Check the enclosure temps i.e. Is the basking temp right?
- It may be a gender thing, on average males tend to grow faster than females
- She may not eat while I am there
- To give her a kick start, mix the required calcium and vitamins with baby food (I use corn, carrot and pumpkin) and feed with a syringe. Just hold it to his mouth and he should start licking at it. Vitamins once a week and calcium every second day.
- Force feed her with small, dusted crickets. After doing this for about 3 days I noticed her catching them in her enclosure and taking them from my hand (she didn?t do this previously)
- Find her favourite food and give her heaps of it (I wasn?t sure about this because she didn?t eat much, I think its yellow squash)
- Cat food with gravy (casserole with NO fishy stuff), the gravy gives her moisture but she didn?t seem too impressed with this little stunt
I started this about 1-2 weeks ago and she has already made a marked improvement!! She is more active and eats at least 10 crickets a day (compared to 1-2 previously). Just incase it is impaction, you could try giving him a warm bath (around basking temp).
Good Luck and I hope I can be of help!!
Liana