Beardie Bother

Spanish Guitar

Hey,



Got my beardie on Sunday; all has been grand. He settled in well, and was eating like ninety..... until today.

All of a sudden he has no appetite... at two months old is this normal? It's now been 24 hours :eek: since he chowed down, and I'm getting a bit worried. The crickets are the right size etc etc, and I seem to be doing everything right. Now he's literally turning his little beardie nose up at anything I offer him!! (Well, at least he doesn't have to worry about getting food in his beard like me Ma!)

Any similar experiences out there with new beardies? Am I worrying over nothing?

Thanks Guys

Spanish

Our man in Havana

Thats natural enough - I feed my guys every 2 days & they are always ready to eat. Take out any uneaten crickets - crickets have been known to chew toes off of young beardies. If he goes more than 3 days - take him to a vet. I recomend John Bainbridge of Argyle & Bainbride or Bairbre O'Malley.

Spanish Guitar

Could you tell me roughly how many size 2 crickets you'd expect a 2 month old beardie to eat in an average day?

Cheers

Hellrazer

When mine was a baby I was going through 3+ boxes a week.Now that hes nearly three,one box a week plus his veggies does him fine.And sometimes he wont eat crix at all for a week or more but will eat as much veg as he can get.
They`re wierd animals like that--I wouldnt be overly concerned about him going off his food for a days either,mine still goes off food for a week or more when he feels like it and then will devour a whole box of crix in the space of a few hours.

Just make sure your temps are right in the basking spot--the hotter the better--mine are at 115f right under the lamp.
Richie

Spanish Guitar

That's great advice, thanks a million. A relief!

Spanish Guitar

I tried to feed him again today with dusted crickets but he didn't seem interested.

I left him for a moment and then just happened to throw in a cricket that wasn't dusted.

He went for it straight away so I threw in another one and he went for that too.

I found that he would eat them if they weren't dusted. In the end he must have eaten about 15.

I think that he maybe he's having trouble picking out dusted crickets from the substrate as they don't tend to move around much once they realise that he is there.

Has anybody else ever had a similar problem?

If so what did you do to get round it because obviously I can't give him crickets that aren't dusted?

I have a large storage box and I am considering moving him there for feeding. Has anybody else ever tried this?

Hellrazer

Maybe you`re dusting them too much--Heres my method.
Get an empty clear plastic bag, put in dusting vitamins,and crix and shake like mad.
Then just put the crickets in to the beardies cage.Keep the bag because the excess dust can be used for next feed.This method gives just a nice coat of dust on the crickets.

What substrate are you using--If its only a few months old you should really only be using paper towels or lino turned upside down is another good choice.
Sand is really only recommended for beardies over 6-8 months old as they can eat it and get impacted.
Also bath once a week in luke warm shallow water up to their shoulders will "loosen" them up.
Richie

thecivvie

Why do they recommend lino turned up, I never understand this. I use lino but right way up but am switching to slate

thecivvie

Hellrazer wrote:

Maybe you`re dusting them too much--Heres my method.
Get an empty clear plastic bag, put in dusting vitamins,and crix and shake like mad.
Then just put the crickets in to the beardies cage.Keep the bag because the excess dust can be used for next feed.This method gives just a nice coat of dust on the crickets.

What I do here is I have a Tupperware container, circular and about 4 inches high with calc on the bottom. I keep my crix in a keeper and just put the tube into the tupperware container and shake out how many I need, put the lid on and shake like mad and then just lay the container in the viv so the crix come out, basicaly the same but it pi***s the hell out of the wife as it is her Tupperware

Hellrazer

tcob1 wrote:

basicaly the same but it pi***s the hell out of the wife as it is her Tupperware

I know that feeling---why do you think I switched to plastic bags
Still not as bad as finding 100 dead mice in the chest freezer and my wife thought they were sausages until she thawed them for dinner!!!!!

As for the lino turned upside down--Its easier for the beardies claws to grip it and it cleans easy aswell.

thecivvie

The wife has 4 cupboards of Tupperware, just looking for something big enough to feed my new corn

Dude never has had a problem with grip on the lino but it does have a rough texture to it anyway