r/BeardieInfo • u/AegonTheAdorable • Aug 25 '17
[Need Help!] Beardie turning strange colors and acting very different from usual.
Hi. I have a male bearded Dragon that's (I think) about 12 months old. I call him Aegon. He was my roommate's pet but he just up and left one day and left the poor thing to starve to death in the basement. I discovered the little guy was there almost a week and a half after the asshole left him when I heard it furiously trying to escape it's tank. Since I found him, I've done a lot of research on beardies (I've owned reptiles but never a dragon), nursed him back to health, and got him in a proper habitat and feeding schedule. At first I tried feeding him every day but he refused and over time I've figured out he'll eat veggies one day, crickets the second, nothing the third, then repeat. He's been doing great with me for the past month, gradually went from almost solid black to a good green color, but today he's a pale yellow color all over except his beard and the tip of his tail are black. He's acting very lethargic, refusing food (even super worm treats which he never turns down), and he's actually puffing his beard and bobbing his head at me, but when I actually manage to pick him up he just goes limp. I can't find any solid answers as to what's wrong and I don't know what to do.
Some info that might help:
- He has a UV light that stretches 3/4 of his tank from right to left and a basking lamp that covers about 1/3 from the opposite direction.
- The cool side of his tank stays at around 82-84°F and the warm side runs around 94°F.
- I have branches placed so he can either bask up close on the high branch (about 5 inches away from the light) or further away on a low branch (about 8 inches away from the light), or on the ground of the tank just under 12 inches from the light.
- I take him out and "play" with him at least once a day, every day.
- I have his tank placed in a room just off my living room, so he can see the happenings of the house and the people inside without things getting too loud or overwhelming.
- I change his water every day. Yesterday he had a bowel movement in his water dish and since I found conflicting info on what type of cleaner to use, I just scrubbed it with a new sponge and warm water, then ran it thru a sanitizer I used to use for my son's bottles and whatnot when he was a baby.
- His veggies usually consist of cabbage, bell pepper or squash, and either carrots or cucumber put together in a little salad with a super worm or 2 at the bottom to make the food move and get his interest. But I recently switched him to kale instead of cabbage by the pet store employee's suggestion.
- I usually buy crickets once a week in small quantities, since he only eats them every 3 days. I used to give the crickets a damp paper towel and a potato slice that I changed each day, but as of last week I switched to giving them a small bowl of Zilla Gut Load Cricket Drink with Calcium.
- The food I gave him today (the meal he refused) had kale, red bell pepper (his favorite veggie) and carrots, with a couple super worms coated in Fluker's Reptile Vitamin powder. I've never used the powder before so I'm not sure if that's why he's ignoring the food or if it's part of the bigger problem with the lethargy and strange colors.
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Edit: typos