Lethargic Baby - Work Related

Being the good little employee I am (and a decent human being) I am working on making sure the animals in the store I work at are cared for properly. So let's begin with the bearded dragons and one that is not doing so well. This morning a co-worker brought the bearded dragons to the back so she could clean the cage. I watched them in a kritter keeper while she did this. There are 5 babies together in a tank about the equivalent of a 10g. All are around 2 months old I would guess. (usually we get tiny ones in that are about a month old but these are about 1.5-2 inches long not including their tails.) One was very small when I first started working there a month ago. He is now almost the same size as the others and is 2 months old.

So anyway, the smallest one was looking a little lethargic so I took him out and held him and checked him over. He seemed like all he wanted to do was just lay there. He only squirmed if I bothered him too much. I successfully got him to eat 3 small crickets (correctly sized and I should add that they were hand fed. I got him to open his mouth and I stuck part of the cricket in and he ate them.) and offered him water, though he drank none (I offered by dipping my fingers in water. I also tried misting his head). I gave him a soak and set him up in the "hospital" room. After an hour he was still in the same spot but he had lifted his head as if he was enjoying the basking light.

So what can I do for the little guy?

Also, how often and how much should the dragons be eating? Petsmart requires us to give them juvenile dragon pellets. They also get fresh veggies several times a week. Crickets are usually only a handful of small crickets, dusted on occasion (I doubt anyone but me and the pet care manager do this) If I had to estimate how many crickets they offer, I'd say 20 per day for 5 dragons, at most. Most of these crickets find their way under the cage carpet and are dumped out later. So yea. I want to make sure these dragons are getting the right kind of care and I will go to my pet care manager if things need to change.

Please let me know what I should be doing for these little ones and what I might be able to do for the lethargic baby dragon. Thank you to anyone who responds! I want to do my job well and make sure these animals are cared for.

They should be offered crickets minimum twice a day as much as they can eat in 10 minutes. They need there protein and calcium so they can grow. Crickets should be dusted with calcium w/ d3 5 days a week and vitamin powder one day. Good luck.

Im sorry Jay but if hes not doing good chances he will make it in a petstore is slim to none. He should be eating around 50 crickets a day, dusted, and have a good UVB light. Even if you dust the crickets, without a UVB light his little bones wont be able to retain the D3, leading to MBD, ( Bone Deseise) I know thats not possible at a commercial petstore so like said chances are slim.

Your not even supossed to be selling them under 7 inches because of how fragile they are.

Crap ran out of time to edit that.

Im sorry Jay but if hes not doing good chances he will make it in a petstore is slim to none. He should be eating around 50 crickets a day, dusted, and have a good UVB light. Even if you dust the crickets, without a UVB light his little bones wont be able to retain the D3, leading to MBD, ( Bone Deseise) I know thats not possible at a commercial petstore so like I said, chances are slim.

A general breeding rule is that you are not supossed to be selling them under 7 inches because of how fragile they are, but the "Dragon Mills" Sell them as soon as they hatch.

They do have lamps on them during the day. I will find out today if they are UVB. They don't get anywhere near that many crickets per day. A few days ago I was helping feed the reptiles and my co-worker scooped up maybe 20 crickets, dusted them and that was for 2 dragons for the day. And if I'm not mistaken they only get crickets 4/7 days of the week. I think they assume the baby bearded dragons are going to eat the pelleted food, though I've never seen them eat it and none of the people here even offer it right. You are supposed to moisten the pellets with water. My co-workers just stick the pellets in dry and expect the baby beardies to eat them. I think that is why they only offer but so many crickets. I will gather some more information today about how they are cared for (feeding, lighting). I will also let you know if that little dragon is still alive.

I can already tell you they are not UVB. The only Lamp accepted UVB bulbs are MVB, and those are $50 bulbs which no petstore will provide. There are compact bulbs but they just make things worse.

Most babys will not touch Pellets, especially dry.

:( I will talk to my pet care manager, but I feel like I'm already becoming a "nuisance" since I've already come to the managers with so much already. At first I thought we cared for the animals really well and for the most part we do, but the reptiles don't have everything right and some co-workers just don't care about their job. (at another store I heard an employee say to a customer that she could put a goldfish in a 1g tank that was meant for a betta fish)

I may start looking for a better paying job anyway. I don't want to work in a place that won't listen to what I have to say about how we care for the animals, but at the same time I love working with the animals. :(

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

:( I will talk to my pet care manager, but I feel like I'm already becoming a "nuisance" since I've already come to the managers with so much already. At first I thought we cared for the animals really well and for the most part we do, but the reptiles don't have everything right and some co-workers just don't care about their job. (at another store I heard an employee say to a customer that she could put a goldfish in a 1g tank that was meant for a betta fish)

I may start looking for a better paying job anyway. I don't want to work in a place that won't listen to what I have to say about how we care for the animals, but at the same time I love working with the animals. :(

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The best thing you can do is Educate their buyers about their needs ( Some people think dragons are beginner lizzards... I dissagree) and hope they follow through.

I don't think we carry MVB. :( We carry the long strip bulbs. Are these okay? (ReptiSun, ReptiGlo, etc). I never suggest the pellets. They are a joke in my opinion. I've never seen a dragon eat them.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

I don't think we carry MVB. :( We carry the long strip bulbs. Are these okay? (ReptiSun, ReptiGlo, etc). I never suggest the pellets. They are a joke in my opinion. I've never seen a dragon eat them.

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The reptisun 10.0 tube version will work great for them. Convincing your manager to use one is another thing :(

I cecked on the baby. He is extremely weak. Im going to talk with my pet care manager about what they plan on doing with him. The uvb bulbs we use are reptiglo 5.0. I got the baby to eat 2 dusted crickets yesterday.

I checked on him this morning when I got to work. He is still alive but very weak. I was told to not feed him any more crickets since the pet care manager is feeding him a nutritional food (I have no idea what it is but it might be some kind of paste. He had already cleaned it up before I got a chance to find out what it was) He said he's setting up a vet appointment asap for the little guy.

The other dragons seem to be doing well. Lots of stuck shed though. I fed them (17 dusted crickets consumed by 3 dragons). The 4th dragon is small (like the ill one) but he is active and healthy looking. He didn't eating anything, so I'm wondering if he is going to do the same thing as the sick one. I work tomorrow morning, so I'm going to see if I can't get them to eat more and try and get the small one to eat a few. I am not able to feed them much more than one meal, so even though you say they should be eating close to 50 per day, they only get one meal a day, and 17 split between 3 dragons (they had even shares) is not much. That is only about 5 crickets in one sitting. I offered more but none were interested.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

I cecked on the baby. He is extremely weak. Im going to talk with my pet care manager about what they plan on doing with him. The uvb bulbs we use are reptiglo 5.0. I got the baby to eat 2 dusted crickets yesterday.

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Are they compact? Regardless 5.0 is not enough UVB, and if its a bulb it will cause even more problems than not having enough UVB. And how big are the crickets, they should not be longer than the width from the dragons eyes width apart.

Paste or no paste the Husbandry isn't good enough to save a sick dragon :(

The reptiglo that we use is one of those strip lights. The crickets are appropriatley sized. Temps are good and I mist them down in order for them to get water since the other employees just stuck a water dish in. I will update on the sick one's condition after my shift (which I start in 5 min) For the uvb, which strip light is apprpriate?

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

The reptiglo that we use is one of those strip lights. The crickets are appropriatley sized. Temps are good and I mist them down in order for them to get water since the other employees just stuck a water dish in. I will update on the sick one's condition after my shift (which I start in 5 min) For the uvb, which strip light is apprpriate?

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Use ReptiSun 10.0, that works great and I use it for my girl. Let us know how the baby is doing as well, I hope he can pull through but from what you described it seems he may not make it.:(

He was basking when I checked on him. He is still very weak. At the moment, he doesn't have a uvb light on him. :(

We have reptisun 10.0 in the store and they would fit our fixtures. I will speak with my manager about whether or not they can change them. The reptiglo lights I found out are for tropical set ups. :( This is making me really upset. I thought I'd love working here but every time I turn around a customer is being idiotic or the company policy won't let me provide proper care. :(

Checked and we have reptiglo 10.0. Would those be okay? My pet care manager said he would check with the people we get our supplies for our setups and the policy and see if we can't change the bulb that the beardies are under to something better.

Unfortunately the little guy died today. I was so heartbroken. I was really hoping he'd make it. Kind of makes me wonder if I should even work there. :(

Oye I am so sorry to hear this!! For the future dragons you get in....(and Matt can tell you if I am right as he knows waaay more than I) but anyways...I read that as babies you feed them as much as they want at least 3-4 times a day during the first year and it should be 80% protien and 20% greens everyday!

They only feed them 1x per day and its usually no more than 20 crickets for all 4 of them. At the moment I don't even think they are getting their veggies either. I haven't seen a dish of veggies in there since early last week. I work various shifts so I will try and sneak them crickets when I can.

This just makes me so angry. Why house and "care for" the bearded dragons if you are not willing to do it correctly? Why do everything half-***? This kind of makes me want to go out there and start my own pet store where the animals are taken care of the way they should be. Animals are not shipped in from big companies that simply breed these animals over and over and over, with no time taken to provide them with proper care. *sigh*

Thank you guys so much for your help. I want to do what is right and give these guys the best care. I will try and do things under the radar and try and get these guys some proper care. I'm thinking of having a long sit down with my pet care manager. I may end up being the most annoying employee and I might sound like a whiney baby but I want those animals cared for right. Not people putting together habitats wrong, not people feeding a baby ball python 4 pinky mice, not using the wrong uvb bulb for the dragons. I want these animals cared for right and if I can figure out how to do that and stay within policy, I will. :taz:

Hey Jay....you are allowed to write ass....lol:P

I totally know what you mean ....but it cuts into the almighty profit...which just kills me. I use to think I wanted to open a store....but now...no way. I am waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy to anal with my animals. They would be priced out of this world just to keep up with everything they had. :oops: I can just imagine the family coming in that wanted to cut corners on the "throw away" pet. I wouldn't let them have it. I would soooooooo be out of business!!:cool:

Yea. Same with me. I actually had a talk with one of my managers. She understands where I am coming from but basically told me that even though I have knowledge of the animals at our store, it doesn't matter. What Petsmart says, goes. There are people far more experienced and knowledgable than me making the decisions. And she basically said the advice of people like you guys (breeders, hobbyists, etc) doesn't matter either. Ugh!