Need a ittle help

My girlfriend and i recently purchased a pair of beardies from a local pet store. they have been living together for 4 months and doing just fine. however, "my" beardie never seemed to grow whereas my girlfriend's exploded in size. we were sure to monitor their food intake so they had equal proportions. we also noticed recently some aggression issues between them and with the size difference, i feared it could do some damage if we let it go too long; so i separated them. now that they are apart, my girlfriends still seems to be growing, even more than before... and mine is still about 3.5" from nose to tail base. he also seems to be avoiding his food. Every time i take him out he also puffs up and opens his mouth at me. so, in order to get him to eat today. when he puffed up and opened his mouth, i would shove a cricket inside and he would eat it. but when left to his own devices, he would just let them crawl on him.
i am completely lost and don't know why he is acting like this.

Separation anxiety?

-Trevor

not seperation anxiety.. if hes small he could be lethargic and perhaps too weak to eat on his own. you should never house two beardeds together so good job for separating them. on the same hand, some dragons grow faster than others or one could be older than the other too, just a few things to take into consideration:gj:

3.5 inchs... from nose tip to tail base?! That is extreamly small for a four month old! can you tell us what size tank you have for both of them, the uvb you use, substrate, his basking temps, and what you dust his crickets with? Thanks

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Originally Posted by Beardedragon

3.5 inchs... from nose tip to tail base?! That is extreamly small for a four month old! can you tell us what size tank you have for both of them, the uvb you use, substrate, his basking temps, and what you dust his crickets with? Thanks

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they are both in 50 gal tanks and when they grow bigger i plan on building a custom ones that would (together) take up half my room. the basking temp is 110 or so, never less than 95, i use a 8.0 reptiglo uvb bulb and i use T-Rex dragon dust on all of his meals since he is so small... so... please help.
i will try to post pictures of both tomorrow.

hmmm, your setup sounds fine. How far away is he from the uvb bulb? Switch to repcal calcium and vits, calcium on week days vits on weekends. How much is he eating a day?

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Originally Posted by Beardedragon

hmmm, your setup sounds fine. How far away is he from the uvb bulb? Switch to repcal calcium and vits, calcium on week days vits on weekends. How much is he eating a day?

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when they were together, he used to devour the veggies when i put them in, now he just stands in the dish and gives me a blank stare. he does eat a couple of lettuce leaves but thats about it. thanks for the advice tho about calcium/vits.

Has your beardie had a vet check up? :confused:

Your set-up does sound fine. Where are you from? :)

Repti-glo 8.0 was discontinued a few months back. The tubes are ok to use though. :gj:

Do you have a flourescent tube or compact coil bulb?

The best UV Tube to use is the "repti-sun 10.0". Since i have been using this UV my beardie has perked up no end. :D

Your beardie is probably stressed as the other beardie was dominating him. He maybe needs time to adjust to being on his own. He will realise that he is not being dominated anymore and should be happier, and eat more :)

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Originally Posted by sanosuke1589

when they were together, he used to devour the veggies when i put them in, now he just stands in the dish and gives me a blank stare. he does eat a couple of lettuce leaves but thats about it. thanks for the advice tho about calcium/vits.

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He should be eaying 30 or so crickets at his age.

wait what!
:O
"Setup sounds fine?" did you say you had your baby beardeds in 50 GALLON TANKS! thats your problem right there, that is WAY too much space for those babies! He should also be eating way more than only 30 crickets a day, what type of salad are you offering? Iceberg is a huge no-no and could be a huge problem if thats what your feeding... what type of salad, are you dusting it with calcium and what size/how many crickets daily? how far away is the lamp from the dragons (50 gallon is tough to get heat to the bottom) what is their basking temp in YOUR tank, i saw you put 110 but where is that being measured and by what type of temp gauge are you using? do you have any photos of their set-up and them in it so we can see how small exactly your talking? 3½ is tiny.. that dragon needs to be in a 10-20 gal tank until it gets acclimated and destresses. do you have a UV bulb? if so is it on top of the tank or is it inside the tank hanging, that makes a huge difference too.

sounds like someone didnt do any research.

Yea, the size definitely sounds too big. I have read that baby beardies that small can actually get lost in enclosures that big and forget where their food or basking spots are. In addition to everything that has already been suggested, make sure the crickets you are feeding them aren't any bigger than the distance between their (the beardie's) eyeballs. Also, and if this has been answered already forgive my blindness, what sort of substrate do you have them on? As for salads, my beardie usually gets a mixture of mustard and collard greens with butternut squash and a few other things mixed in for variety.

Well being to big depends on the individual animal. 3.5" STV is not super small, but not large, Id assume hes 8-9" total including tail. Anyway, a little small for 4 months old.

I had my 7-8" dragon in a 40B all the way to 17" (bigger tank now). But if hes not eating. Take the tank, and maybe make it instead of 36x18x18, make it 30x18x18, a little bit actually makes a difference.

Second is is the UVB a tube, or a compact. Compacts are dangerous. Also, i just have a worry about repti-glos in general, the 10.0 tube has some dangerous qualities while the 8.0 is fine. I wish there was a way to make sure its a 8.0 versus the newer 10.0s packed into the remaining 8.0 boxes and marked as 8.0. Just watch for squinting and that eye problems, sleeping alot ext.

Relocation stress is reasonable to assume, but its not seperation anxiety, these are the animals that a male will breed the female day in day out until shes egg bound and dies, or two males will bite eachothers limbs off until they cant fight any more, leaving one or two dead. (Some female pairs do work, but thats really it). So you definitally did the right thing by seperating, as by 6-8 months, they reach sexual maturity and if they are male-female, breeding too young can kill. and at sexual maturity they get fiesty and fight. So good job of preventing the problem, sorry that you were not informed that they are solitary to start with.

The new tanks and surroundings may make him worried and not eat. If he is loosing weight or weak, you can give some chicken baby food, or ground up veggies/feeders. This can be given with a dropper or needleless seringe, and is very useful to give the energy and calories to get him on track. They really like the chicken baby food too.

A vet visit would be good, Parasites can cause this, Also Bearded dragons Naturally have Coccidia in there GI tract. So stress from a move can comprimise there immune system, and let the coccidia levels skyrocket to unmanagable levels for the beardies immune system, a fecal should tell you if this is a problem.

The puffing is a sign of Agression and stress/unease, when he does that, if he seems really nervous, let him be, if hes treatening you, ignore it. Its a tough line, At the moment, id just not stress him too much.

The difference in growth rates can be attributed to dominance on any level. One gets the better basking spots, most UVB, better branch, more food, and overall dominates the other, So he doesnt grow, gets weak, Stressed, and uneasy. Submissive/dominant is natural dominance, but with beardies they are not naturally social, so your observed problems occur.

How do you measure temps, this is a big thing, Stick ons can be 20 degress off. You want to measure basking temps, so you need a digital with a probe or tempgun to take the surface temps.

Anyway, if hes loosing weight, and not doing so good, Do the following.
Give some type of food, wether squash or chicken baby food (natural if possible), or blended/ground up of his regular food (greens/veggies, you can do insects but you wont want to use the blender ever agian.)
Then keep him hydrated. Giving a daily bath in warm water (not hot, not luke warm, test on your wrist, what youd consider warm almost hotish but tolerable, use for him). Have it up to his elbows/armpits, a facecloth can be used for traction. This should make him also go poop, so just a warning. Or you can use a dropper/needless seringe and put drops of water on his nose and let him lick them off.

Try not to force food down his throat as you dont want him to choke, putting drops of the food/water on his nose/lips towards the point will make him naturally want to lick it off, and he gets the nurishment you want him too.

Just to have and read over, here are some good caresheets that really go over alot.
http://www.kakadudragons.com/caresheet/
http://www.beardietales.net/bt_caresheets.html
http://beardeddragoncaresheet.org/care-sheet.html

Update us when you get a chance, and any questions shoot away.
Ben

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Originally Posted by AshleyB

wait what!
:O
"Setup sounds fine?" did you say you had your baby beardeds in 50 GALLON TANKS! thats your problem right there, that is WAY too much space for those babies! He should also be eating way more than only 30 crickets a day, what type of salad are you offering? Iceberg is a huge no-no and could be a huge problem if thats what your feeding... what type of salad, are you dusting it with calcium and what size/how many crickets daily? how far away is the lamp from the dragons (50 gallon is tough to get heat to the bottom) what is their basking temp in YOUR tank, i saw you put 110 but where is that being measured and by what type of temp gauge are you using? do you have any photos of their set-up and them in it so we can see how small exactly your talking? 3½ is tiny.. that dragon needs to be in a 10-20 gal tank until it gets acclimated and destresses. do you have a UV bulb? if so is it on top of the tank or is it inside the tank hanging, that makes a huge difference too.

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i miss read the post, i had thought he said he split the tank it half;) Nugget would eat only 30 crickets on average, never ate much more for some reason. The thing is is that they CAN eat up to 50-100 crickets, I know on a few days he sure did!

And, A ten gallon would be impossible for a beardie. They could fit in it surely, but their basking bulb would cook the whole tank and not give him much of a cool side if any. I know my mercury bulb would.

He said he has a 8.0 reptiglo, too;)