New baby dragon not eating

[Big Mike]

I picked up two unrelated baby beardies at the Calgary show. They are both active and alert and look quite healthy as far as I can see. The smaller one is about 3-4 weeks old and the other one is 5-6 weeks.

I have them in a 66 gal tank with full lenght UV and a good heat gradient. The floor of the warm end is 80-90 deg. (UTH) and there are rocks to hide in/around and bask on. There is a heat lamp over the rocks and the temp up there is 90-100 deg.

I put them (one at a time) into a 5.5 gal tank with week old crickets. I'm doing this about 3 times a day for now.

The older one eats lots of crickets and some of the greens that I have in the main tank. The smaller one has only eaten crickets for me on one occation. He just sits there while the little cricks run all over. What can I do?

[Greg West]

I would leave him in his cage, and not move him into another container. I am having the same problem as you as I had said to you at the show. I was told that if you dont get them to eat for 5 days, then you would want to get worried, but other than that, I wouldn't worry too much. It takes them a day or 2 to get accustomed to their surroundings, and that is why I say you should just leave him in there to eat. You also might want to section off the cage so that there is less room for them. A cage that big would make it hard for a 1 inch bearded dragon baby to find food.

hope that helps, and I hope both of us dont have any problems with these guys eating. I saw my guy try for one cricket, but not sure if he got it or not. I have seen him drink every morning so I am not that worried.

Greg

[Zoe]

I agree... moving him to a little container 3 times a day will only stress the baby out more. If possible, set him up in a smaller (15g) tank with various food items and lots of hides and heat, and place that in a low traffic area. He'll feel much safer if he can hang in his hide and watch the prey run around, as opposed to be surrounded by crickets with no where to go.

Zoe

[V.hb]

beardeds do not stress like other reptiles. moving a healthy beardie around really doesnt do much to them.

I would advise taking the healthier one out of the enclosure and leave the smaller one by itself for awhile. Feed it smaller meals, and dont feed crickets that are too large for it to handle.

These are hatchlings right? make sure hes got a good escape from the heat too.. I find beardies with no cool spots dont do as well either.

Chances are if they are both together the smaller of the two is just stressed because of the larger one. I wouldnt say it has anything to do with the traffic in the area of the tank. it's just dominance. Good luck

[eyespy]

Definitely separate, the smaller one might be too submissive to the larger and therefore too stressed to eat.

Also, the basking temp should be higher. Beardies need a gut temperature of 103 in order to digest properly. Adults can get an internal temp that high from temps in the 90s but babies sometimes need a basking spot as high as 120 to achieve the right core body temperature.

Jackie Vandiver is a well-respected breeder who taught me a wonderful handfeeding formula to use for resistant feeders. You might want to drip some of this on his snout from a feeding syringe or medicine dropper to give him energy after all the fasting he's done. I start all my hatchlings on this and feed it to my rescues and it works wonders!

Take equal portions of Rep-cal bearded dragon pellets and baby bird handfeeding formula and cover with boiling water. Let the mixture soften so you can mash it up, then add an equal portion of baby food. Peach or chicken work beautifully. It's best to start out with peach to give energy and then you can switch to chicken once the digestive system is able to fire on all cylinders.

Thin the mixture with a 50% solution of electrolyte formula such as Pedialyte cut with water. Make sure it's soupy and easy to drip out of the syringe or medicine dropper.

This mix will provide beneficial gut bacteria to help them digest, fluids, electolytes and sugar to give them energy, plus protein and vitamins. I don't like Kaytee baby bird formulas as they contain a preservative ethoxyquin that is suspected of being liver toxic. Zupreem and Tropican make baby bird formulas without EQ.

Good luck and let us know how this little one makes out!