bearded dragon advice

[aussiepride]

can anybody tell me whats wrong with her back?
I woke up the other morning and looked in their tank and noticed something wrong with her back

 

[JAS101]

any other pics from diffrent angles ?

 

[Tassie97]

does it have UVB light?

 

[aussiepride]

yeah i have a uvb light and a heat light

 

[JasonL]

Get an xray, prob a calcium deficiency, UVB Bulbs do not stop this from happening, if they are heated for an un naturally amount of hours and have rapid growth rates you can end up with bone issues of one sort or another.

 

[aussiepride]

okay thank you so much

 

[Bel03]

Get an xray, prob a calcium deficiency, UVB Bulbs do not stop this from happening, if they are heated for an un naturally amount of hours and have rapid growth rates you can end up with bone issues of one sort or another.

Sorry to cut in on your thread aussiepride, but Jason, im interested to hear more about this. We have had our beardie for 3wks now, & he is growing quick, he was 4.7grams on arrival & is now 10.2grams.......is that too quick? I ask because i was originally under the impression i should have both his heat & uvb on 12hrs off 12hrs, but have seen a few people mention lately that they turn their heat off for a few hours in the middle of the day........should i also be doing this? At the moment, i turn his uvb on between 6.30 & 7.30am, & his heat lamp on about half hour later, in the evening i turn his uvb off about 4.30-5.30 & his heat about an hour later. He is also taken out for natural sun light 2-3 times a week for about an hour each time. Just want to check that im not doing something wrong.

 

[JasonL]

Control growth by heating, and ALWAYS have constant food supply on offer, in the wild they get limited amounts of heat during the day, cold night, weeks of poor weather ect, in captivity we generally give them way more heat then they would naturally have, I usually heat beardies from 10am till 3pm, never any night heat and bright lights flouros) from 7am till 5pm.

 

[Bel03]

Ok thanks. He does have his vegies & dry beardie food on offer all day, & crickets & woodies i offer twice a day. He doesnt have any heat at night, but i will shorten the heating times during the day, as compared to your times, muppet is getting double that heating time. He seems to be doing really well overall, he eats fine, & has just shed for the first time with me, i just wondered about the heating times cause as i said, ive seen a few people lately mention that they turn heating off for a few hours through the day, & i havent done that.

 

[JasonL]

forget the dry food, supply lots of flowers and leafy greens (just dandelion and clover are fine) and fill them full of insects whilst they are growing.

 

[Bel03]

forget the dry food, supply lots of flowers and leafy greens (just dandelion and clover are fine) and fill them full of insects whilst they are growing.

Yep, he gets lots of flowers/greens etc. The dry food he hardly touches anyway, in fact i think i have seen him eat 1 tiny pellet in the 3wks he has been here, & even then i think it was accidental! I just leave a little bit in there for a 'just in case' snack. As for insects, he eats plenty, although not in the last week as he has just shed & was quite cranky. I found the best way to get him to eat the insects during shed was to feed him after a warm bath, it really seemed to help 'cheer him up'. Thanks again anyway, i will drop the heat light for a few hours in the middle of the day, in between 'live' feeds.

 

[ricky_91]

i feed the adults every second day and i have no heat lamp on the day they don't eat unless its winter and i dust with calcium every second feed because i was told the same thing that the uv bulb isn't enough my friends had a bump in its back like that and it was a calcium issue so they have to feed it calcium liquid for a few weeks and it went away but I've also been told feeding a lot and them growing fast can cause problems. i think some pople feed a lot of pinkie mice and rats to them and my vet said that can become a problem

 

[Wally]

I tend to let my dragons decide if they want to bask or not.

 

[Bel03]

i feed the adults every second day and i have no heat lamp on the day they don't eat unless its winter

WHAT???? Ricky, i really am not trying to be rude, but do you even read half of what you type? For starters, the beardie in the pic imo looks quite young, so daily feeding is recommended. As for the rest of what you wrote.......how do your beardies bask if they dont have a basking spot? & again........what do you mean they dont eat unless its winter? Are you trying to say your beardies only eat for 3mnths out of the 12, & the coldest 3 at that?

I tend to let my dragons decide if they want to bask or not.

That is what i thought was the right thing to do......now i am confused! When i have the heat lamp on for the day, Muppet choses where he wants to lie, he doesnt bask all day, he just returns to it at times.......so should i just leave it on all day, or is it better to give them some daytime without direct heat?

 

[Wally]

Leave it on during the day Bel, they'll decide when they want to thermo regulate. JasonL is spot on with his advice.

 

[Bel03]

Thank you.....so should i just use the 5hr time for heat that Jason mentioned instead of my current 10hr time, but still leave the uv for the 10hrs?

Sorry, its just that i am now confused! I done heaps of research before i got my dragon, so its not that i just didnt bother or anything, but as i mentioned before, i was under the impression that both should be on for similar amounts of time, & that is how i have done it for the last 3wks.......& i dont want to be giving him so much heat if i shouldnt be!

 

[Wally]

Yes, 5hrs of heat is plenty. And 8 - 10hrs of UV is fine. A dose outside to get the real stuff is good too.

 

[Cunningham]

did u dust the insects in cacium when he was smaller

 

[Bel03]

Ok, thank you again! I will change my heating times, & yes, he does love his time outside!

 

[Chris1]

all my dragons are offered heat for around 12 hours a day, however its very rare that any will spend more than 3-4 hours basking,...some bask for an hour, then go for a dig in the cool end, then resurface fro another bask in the afternoons, some will bask for the first 4 hours, then crash up the cool end.

because theyre all different, i let them choose.

that being said, on weekends, days when i get home early, and when the weathers decent which we havent had much of this year, they sit on windowsills watching the world go by, on heat bags that are around 30C. (nowhere near basking temps)

with good/regular calcium suppliments, good heat, and good UVB, calcium deficiencies shouldnt occur regardless of growth rate.