Bearded Dragon won't eat HELP PLEASE!

take a picture of your enclosure.... im certain its dehydration stress or parasites.... or a combo of all three.

You gotta tell us your setup before anyone makes assumptions. Basking/ambient/cool temps, shelter, humidity, substrate, tank size, anything and everything.

Dont force feed! You can do more harm than good. Reduce the heat if she isnt eating, she'll lose weight slower. Bump the heat back up to a 110 or so basking spot (thats what yours is now, right? should be) when she gets up and running again. Varanio's assumption is pretty spot on given the little info you gave us, but that might change if you give details.

When in doubt, ask the vet. Good luck, and I hope she gets well soon!

Kingsnake.com's forum is a good place to ask if you don't get what youre looking for here.

whats its regular diet?is it on sand?poor girl!hope its ok.I just ask because they can get sant impactations and not be able to you know what and i would think that would make them not so hungry.they do love to drink and i cant strees enough how fast they can over heat,i used to breed them and i lost 2 because i left them in half sun for to long in a basking net cage.I know,it makes me sick to this day.they will loose interest or energy if they dont have enough heat though to digest their food hoping its a good diet.but they do love water.they are native to varanio so keep him posted for sure.curious though on my first questions if you got time,best of luck to you.

Sand impactions can be prevented with a healthy, hydrated dragon. Even a baby should be able to pass a sizeable chunk of sand provided its GI tract and everything is running smoothly, and thats even if they eat any at all. Tiny tidbits of it from crickets aren't that big a deal. Unless you grabbed your dragon and shoved a bucket of sand down its throat, thats probably not the problem.

With the exception of a few types, sand isnt the best substrate. They DO thrive on it, but for a little more burrowing behavior, certain types of soil (ask monitor keepers, they know eveything about that...) can hold burrows beautifully and will be appreciated by the dragons. I'm upgrading my 40 gallon up to about a 60, so I can get it deep enough for some serious burrowing.

Anyway, that was a little off topic, but hope you figure it out.

loconorc;1175840; said:

Sand impactions can be prevented with a healthy, hydrated dragon. Even a baby should be able to pass a sizeable chunk of sand provided its GI tract and everything is running smoothly, and thats even if they eat any at all. Tiny tidbits of it from crickets aren't that big a deal. Unless you grabbed your dragon and shoved a bucket of sand down its throat, thats probably not the problem.

With the exception of a few types, sand isnt the best substrate. They DO thrive on it, but for a little more burrowing behavior, certain types of soil (ask monitor keepers, they know eveything about that...) can hold burrows beautifully and will be appreciated by the dragons. I'm upgrading my 40 gallon up to about a 60, so I can get it deep enough for some serious burrowing.

Anyway, that was a little off topic, but hope you figure it out.

Click to expand...

ive seen it happen bro and also seen x-rays of it in reptile magazine,im just covering every base.If it can happen to 1 it can happen to any.Im sure those ppl did not shove sand down their throats.dang whats with you.You realy get off on bashing ppls ideas with crazy rusty doorknob sand bucket coments,she just wants to know what she can do now to help it.Gulper ive also had one eat a huge fake leaf once,that made mine stop eating until i could get it out,dont ask.this happend to a freinds lepord geckos from pin worms in bait shop crickets.dont let it go too long,see a vet.

GFGULPER;1175855; said:

ok, I will try to make a long story short.. I work at the LFS and I have been taking care of her for quite a while. She had been doing great since we got her from a local breeder about 6 months ago. Her appetite started to die off about 3 weeks ago. She was eating very well. Superworms, cricketts, greens, pinkies and or fuzzies etc.. She is on crushed walnut shells and her bowels seem to be moving fine, though infrequent due to the decrease in food intake. The temp in her habitat runs right around 110* durring the day. By "force feeding" I guess I should have worded that differantly huh? I mash her food up into a pasty gruel and smear it on her mouth and she licks it off. I have grown quite attached to her and want to know what else I can possibly do for her. I did bring her home with me today so I can give her the TLC she needs. I am sorry if I was not completely clear when I posted just wanted to ask a question without boring everyone with a long drawn out story. I appreciate any info that anyone has that will help her feel better

Click to expand...

you are not boring us,we care about this stuff and your liz.if someones bored they dont have to read it,good luck.

Ok, well your temps are off firstly. 110 is a good basking temp, which means THE BASKING SPOT, a flat rock or branch or something. The temp range should go from that all the way down to room temp on the cool end. 110 ambient temp will seriously stress and kill them. Hows the humidity?

Is she eating JUST greens in the vegetable department? Also, superworms tend to make my dragon vomit. I suppose its the chetin that makes it hard to digest. My dragons not in the best of shape, but a healthy hydrated dragon should have no problems anyway.

Walnut shells are a NO NO! I used them and it was seriously abrasive to all animals. It makes the spines on the feet flat in a matter of weeks, and can cause infection. Avoid powdery sands too. They cake in the scales and prevent proper shedding (you dont even want to know how bad that got with mine). If your tank (or a bigger one you might have to buy) is deep enough to hold a proper burrow, find yourself a good burrowing soil and stock up on it. Do a little searching on varanus.net for some good soil info, and check out the FAQ at http://www.proexotics.com. Its not about beardies, but nearly all the info applies just the same.

You were still pretty ambiguous and not very specific, so I went for the 'tell you what I would do' approach rather than the 'criticize and correct' approach which oddly gets people pretty angry...

Anyway, get yourself a good book to. There are a lot of crappy ones out there, try the Bearded Dragon Manual from the Herpetocultural Library (the one with the red edges).
It covers diseases a LOT better than other books, and provides a great solid base for you to build from in terms of husbandry. Only problem is its WAY behind in the morph department! lol

Later