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.
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