Need help with my beardie

Hi, today my 7 month old started out not eating. She hasn't moved all day so I reached into stroke her back as I normally do, when I did this her mouth all the way, went stiff as a board and began shaking. She also is laboring to breath. I did call all the vets in my area only one does minimal checkups for reptiles and told me there is nothing he can do but sounds like she has MBD. Is this true and is there anything I can do for her? Every other day I give her Exoterra Calcium powder on about 5-8 crickets in the morning and then every other day I give her the same amount of crickets with Zilla vitamin supplement w/beta carotene spray. Daily she eats roughly 20-30 crickets and small amounts of vegies up until today. She is in a 35 gallon tank. I use a Repti Glo 10.0 uvb bulb and for heat I use a Zilla night red 75 watt bulb. Both bulbs are approximately 8" from her. The heated side of her tank is 90 degrees and the shaded is 78. She of course gets fresh water daily and a daily bath. The tank extensively cleaned once a week but wiped out daily. She did go to the bathroom today and has always gone daily What am I doing wrong for her? Thanks for your time.

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Originally Posted by beardiecactus

Hi, today my 7 month old started out not eating. She hasn't moved all day so I reached into stroke her back as I normally do, when I did this her mouth all the way, went stiff as a board and began shaking. She also is laboring to breath. I did call all the vets in my area only one does minimal checkups for reptiles and told me there is nothing he can do but sounds like she has MBD. Is this true and is there anything I can do for her? Every other day I give her Exoterra Calcium powder on about 5-8 crickets in the morning and then every other day I give her the same amount of crickets with Zilla vitamin supplement w/beta carotene spray. Daily she eats roughly 20-30 crickets and small amounts of vegies up until today. She is in a 35 gallon tank. I use a Repti Glo 10.0 uvb bulb and for heat I use a Zilla night red 75 watt bulb. Both bulbs are approximately 8" from her. The heated side of her tank is 90 degrees and the shaded is 78. She of course gets fresh water daily and a daily bath. The tank extensively cleaned once a week but wiped out daily. She did go to the bathroom today and has always gone daily What am I doing wrong for her? Thanks for your time.

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First of all, I'm sorry that your beardie isn't doing well! I would say that it sounds like it's possibly MBD, but I'm not a vet nor am I an expert on MBD. I can point out a few things that I would change in her husbandry. These suggestions are based on what I've learned from a bearded dragon forum, talking with breeders, my own experience, etc., but I can tell you that there is more than one way to raise a healthy beardie.

1. 20-30 crickets per day doesn't sound like a lot. When they're still growing, it's recommended that you feed them as much as they'll eat in 10-15 minutes once a day (or twice a day for younger juvies). This can be a lot more than 20-30 crickets per day. In fact, it's often upwards of 40-60 a day, and I had a juvie who was eating more than 100 every day. How big is your girl (length and weight if possible)?

2. You should dust an entire feeding every day with calcium dust 5 days a week, not just 5-8 crickets. So it sounds like she's not getting enough calcium. The other two days a week, you should give her a multivitamin supplement on all of her crickets at one feeding.

3. You didn't specify if you have a Repti-glo 10.0 tube or coil, but I've not heard really great things about the Repti-glo 10.0 tube bulb, and coil UVB bulbs should never be used for beardies. I personally use the Repti-SUN 10.0 tube, and it's worked great for all 4 of my beardies. So that may be another part of your beardie's problem. Also, you didn't mention this, but there should be nothing (so no screen, glass, etc.) between the UVB light and the beardie.

4. 90F is no where NEAR hot enough for a beardie to properly digest. They need a basking spot of at LEAST 95, but juvies tend to do better at 100-105F. It's also best to use a clear/bright white light for the basking bulb, as this will help keep them from staring at the UVB bulb (which can lead to eye issues). Also, I don't know what you're using to measure her temps, but digital thermometers and temp guns are MUCH more accurate than the dial stick-on kind.

Great job with the daily baths (that's more often than I give my beardies baths :)). Do you have a water dish in her tank with her? If so, you may want to check her humidity - they shouldn't have humidity over 40% (I try to aim for 30%, but it can be a challenge). It also sounds like you have a great cleaning schedule for her!

I'm not sure if this is any help to you, but this site provides a listing of herp vets by state: http://www.herpvetconnection.com/

From what I know about MBD, there's not much you can do to reverse it, but you can stop it from getting any worse (if that is what your beardie has). The best things to stop the MBD from getting worse are to provide adequate calcium and UVB lighting. If it is MBD, you may want to look into getting liquid calcium for her, as it is easier to make sure she's getting enough. I don't know how cold it is where you are, but you can try taking her outside for some natural sunlight if it's above 75F, and that's obviously much better than any UVB light.

Also, I don't know that this is allowed (so sorry if this is against the rules :(), but http://beardeddragon.org/ is a great resource specifically for bearded dragons, and you may get more and/or better responses there.

I hope this helps, and good luck! :)

Thanks for replying. In your response I do see a few things I am doing wrong through due to follow other websites and things I have found before coming across this website.

1. As for her only eating 20-30 crickets a day instead of bringing the crickets to her tank I took her to the crickets tank and let her eat her fill in 10 minutes twice a day. That's all she would ever eat. I guess the bad info I found there was to not give more calcium that what I was or that could be bad. Same with the multivitamin. Crickets of course were gutloaded with Zilla cricket drink /calcium and are fed fruits and vegies.

2. With the light it is a coil never read anywhere that that was bad. And it is on the other side of the glass. Never read anywhere that that was bad either. And bad info on temp care sheet I had from pet store had those temps on it so that's what I did unfortunately.

3. I use the zilla humidity gauge with thermometer on the heated side and a stick on thermometer on the shaded side. I keep the humidity at 20%.

Her water dish is in with her and it gets changed morning and night. I will make the changes you suggested and hope for the best.

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Originally Posted by beardiecactus

Thanks for replying. In your response I do see a few things I am doing wrong through due to follow other websites and things I have found before coming across this website.

1. As for her only eating 20-30 crickets a day instead of bringing the crickets to her tank I took her to the crickets tank and let her eat her fill in 10 minutes twice a day. That's all she would ever eat. I guess the bad info I found there was to not give more calcium that what I was or that could be bad. Same with the multivitamin. Crickets of course were gutloaded with Zilla cricket drink /calcium and are fed fruits and vegies.

2. With the light it is a coil never read anywhere that that was bad. And it is on the other side of the glass. Never read anywhere that that was bad either. And bad info on temp care sheet I had from pet store had those temps on it so that's what I did unfortunately.

3. I use the zilla humidity gauge with thermometer on the heated side and a stick on thermometer on the shaded side. I keep the humidity at 20%.

Her water dish is in with her and it gets changed morning and night. I will make the changes you suggested and hope for the best.

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She passed before I could make the changes. I will try again in the future. I shall do more research before getting another, plan on going to a few reptile shows.

Oh no! I'm so sorry :(

😔 I lost a Beardie a couple years ago. So sorry to hear about yours.


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Oh no I'm so sorry :(


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I read through and was floored when I read she passed. I'm truly sorry for your loss.

First of all, I'm terribly sorry for your loss. I'm not sure how long you had her, but I know how easy it is to get way more attached to reptiles in a very short period, as opposed to cats or dogs. I think it's because they rely on us so much more than other animals. At least, that's been my experience.

Honestly, I know VERY little about beardies, so my advice is severely limited. With that said, you might consider a UV meter when you're ready to have another go at it. As important as UV light is, it can't hurt to be overprotective. Also, I don't use UV bulbs at the moment (pythons don't really need them) but I've heard nothing but good things about ZooMed bulbs.

I hope that helps in the future, and good luck.

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Arcadia or repti sun 10.0 tube bulbs. :)