Bearded Dragons and a Question

[Jay_Bunny]

A few of you may have read my threads on the bearded dragons at work. We started off with 4 (2 4ish gram babies, and 2 that were 2-3x larger). One died fairly early on and last month we had another go downhill. He was 4g, not eating on his own, and eventually it got to the point he couldn't bask or stay on his branch. He was weak and I was livid. He had not had UVB light for over a week (I was assured the bulb was uvb, but I took it out and checked it and it was not UVB, only UVA.) His basking light was also not strong enough. That morning, I went to my manager and I will admit, I was not that professional. I basically told him that this was unacceptable and how was I supposed to do my job when I had neither the equipment to do so or the help of the other pet care employees. I demanded the bearded dragon go to the vet (often times this store will wait till the last minute) and I told him that I was tired of asking my pet care manager for the needed supplies because I never got them. After a moment, he said he would store use out a UVB bulb for the dragon, and get him to the vet that day.

Bad news is, he died the next day. He did go to the vet and the vet said he had a really bad calcium deficiency. He was given a shot but he was just too far gone.

Good news is, we got the correct UVB lamp (10.0) and a stronger basking light. Just in time too, because my favorite dragon had started going down hill. (Might I mention that the uvb light on their display cage is not strong enough and these dragons are fed less than 10 crickets a day, each. Though they are provided with dragon pellets and veggies.) He was taken to the back and put under the UVB light and the stronger basking light but people just kept dumping crickets into his cage expecting him to eat. Sometimes he went days without eating because he could not chase the crickets. He was really week. Again...I got pissed. I was so tired of seeing the dragons suffering because no one else would step up and do anything. I began soaking him daily and force-feeding (making him open his mouth and sticking the cricket in his mouth) 1-2x a day. After a few days of this, he began to come around.

I am happy to announce that this dragon is now doing 100x better and eating up to 20 crickets in a sitting. (the other dragon that was also doing poorly that came into the sick room after this one ate 25 crickets yesterday while I was there)

Sometimes you just have to put your foot down. I let my manager know that I found this lack of knowledge and that my co-workers were unwilling to do their job to be unacceptable. I mean, my pet care manager is a nice guy and he really does care about the animals but some of my co-workers, while they know facts about the animals and can help someone set up an enclosure, not all of them are willing to take a bearded dragon that won't eat on its own and stick their finger in it's mouth to get it to open its mouth (I used my fingernail. Please let me know if this is okay or not. I don't want to hurt them. They seemed fine though and are doing better because of it) and shove a cricket in by hand. I have attempted to try and show them how to do this in case they ever have to do it, but they don't seem to like me very much.

I know I may come off as a "know it all" even though I know I don't know it all, but I get so frustrated when someone doesn't know even the simplest of things sometimes. Sure, you know that a goldfish can't live in a bowl and you can tell people what a hamster needs, but when it comes down to a sick animal that needs your care, you are unwilling to do it and it just pissed me off. I'm very passionate about baby bearded dragons as I had one die on me a few years back due to my mother's mistakes. So every time I see one of these little dragons get so weak they can barely hold their head up, everything I went through with my own little Tyke just comes flooding back. I don't mean to get mad at my co-workers but you can understand how frustrating it can be. I've never yelled at any of them or anything but with the recent events with the dragons, 1-2 seem to not like me because I was so frustrated at the fact the dragons were not being cared for properly.

We also had another dragon (#5) that was doing fine. I took him out to feed him (I put them in kritter keepers to eat because I don't want to just dump crickets into the cage only for the crickets to go under the cage carpet and go uneaten) and he acted normally, chasing crickets. He ate about 5-6 crickets and I put him back. I took the next out to feed him and when I went to put him back, I looked in and saw #5 on the floor of the cage, beard black, straining. He peed liquid and I went to pick him up to check on him, and he was limp. I thought he was dead. His belly was bloated and his beard stayed black. After about an hour, he died. Any clues as to what this could have been? This was a week or so ago, and the other dragon is fine.

[maverickgtr]

How big were the crickets? I'm relatively new to bearded dragons but it may have been impaction if the crickets were too big him. The crickets should be no bigger than the space between the dragon's eyes.

[Jay_Bunny]

The crickets were almost too small. They were smaller than the space between the eyes. I forgot to mention, he also regurgitated the crickets just before he peed.

[Beardedragon]

Yeah, how big were the crickets? Something went wrong if he was fine and then ate and went down hill.

What kind of 10.0 is it also, Tube or Spiral?

Im glad the other one went well, hopefully they will sell them to people who know what they are doing.

[Jay_Bunny]

The 10.0 is a reptisun (or glo) 10.0 tube. The two in the back have really improved after the store began using it. I think the last time I checked the uvb light on their display tank on the salesfloor, it was a reptiglo 5.0. We have mercury vapor bulbs and such but the store would never store use one of those. Waaaay too expensive.

And the crickets were the appropriate size. They were smaller than the space between the dragon's eyes. I even went as far as looking at the regurgitated crickets that he puked up just to be sure. My manager thought I was crazy, but as far as I could tell all the crickets I pulled for them that morning were smalls.

[BPelizabeth]

awesome job!!!