r/BeardedDragons

this is Zia. during her last day of life she was very sick, but that’s not who she was and i refuse to remember her as that.

Zia was around 7 years old. i adopted her when she was 1 year old.

she was the sweetest girl. she loved being held and cuddled on blankets.

i feel like a lot of people say their dragon is really hyper or really chill. with Zia, i got a mix of both.

some days she just wanted to relax.

some days she was begging to be let out of her enclosure to run around. i had her cage on the ground and it was custom built so she’s able to walk in and out on her own when the door is open. so she knew if she asked to come out, i would let her out to explore our house. she has a window spot in the sun she would sit at for hours. watching birds fly and watching cars drive by. she had so much fun there. my favorite part was her little head tilts whenever something caught her eye.

her favorite food was dubia roaches and her favorite treat was blueberries.

she wasn’t much of a greens girl. i spent so long working with her to eat her greens. and finally in the last 6 months of her life, she started eating all her greens every day! i am so proud of her.

the craziest story i have with Zia is this…

in 2024 one morning i wake up and see blood dripping down Zia’s hand! i freaked out. while we were waiting at the emergency vet she kept biting at her fingers! it was so stressful i was panicking. we got her all cleaned up and the vet took care of her. the vet said she actually bit off the tips of her fingers not just the nail. but since then she was missing 4 tips of her fingers. they healed fine. recently one of the claws actually started growing back in a unique looking way. she had her special hand i love so much.

she loved to be hand fed so she didn’t have to work too hard. but when i did make her hunt for enrichment, she was speedy!!

i know she loved her life i know she was happy. she brought so much light into my life.

all of this came out of nowhere. just a day before she passed, she was COMPLETELY FINE! she was running, exploring and eating as usual.

i was expecting her to live another 10 years. she definitely took a piece of my heart with her.

her last day of life she was very sick.

i am grateful she chose to let go before she had to endure more pain. she was so strong even in her last moments. she died waiting at the emergency vet.

I love you Zia

Does anyone else feel like all the problems we carry just all melt away when we hold these beautiful babies to bed at night?

I’m debating trying this to see if it’ll work. Bought a spray gun off Amazon and wanna try the 3mm nozzle for this thick material. I know you’re supposed to thin out paint normally for a HVLP gun but drylok says not to thin. Is it worth trying or should I just pour the paint into the thin holes?

Hi! I got this guy a few days ago and he is looking a bit chubby to me, this is my first time owning beardies and this guy in particular is giving me trouble with eating his greens, mostly preferring crickets or BSF larva. Ive gotten him to eat a piece of carrot and some fruit (very sparingly, just to see what he will eat overall) but not a single leafy green. Any advice is appreciated!

I have a baby bearded dragon named Demo. We got her on Valentine’s Day from petsmart. Unsure how old but very tiny. We had her in a 20 gallon tank up until about mid June. She hasn’t shed since, and recently is becoming very lazy and doesn’t get down to eat unless we put her down. If I put her down in her enclosure, she will usually go chase about 10-15 crickets. She doesn’t eat a ton of salad but gets fresh every day. We have been coming home recently to her being on the colder side of the tank. All temps look good. I really am unsure what to do.

so he just shed this out of his ear, and i’ve never really looked closely at it before… do bearded dragons even have ear wax? or is this something like old dead dried blood? its not hard or anything. it’s paper thin like you’d expect.

Hey there, dragon fam!

We got a three-month old red monster last week and she is just the cutest! We've had her for 7 days now and she is in a nice 120-gallon custom enclosure we built with lots of hiding spots and enrichment climbing sticks. However, so far she is only interested in eating bugs (roaches, crickets, and meal worms). I know at this age they should have a diet of 80% bugs and 20% greens, but I can't seem to get her interested in eating any of the fresh salad I put in every morning. I even try showing her roaches and worms that I put right into the salad but she won't move up, she just waits for them to be presented in front of her. When we try to present her with greens, she eats nothing. Is this normal for such a young and freshly homed dragon? Any advice on getting her to eat greens?

My little dude here, which I've had for 3 months and I suspect is around 6 months old, has been going to bed a good 1-3 hours early for the last week or so. His normal sleep schedule is 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, lights are on a timer.

Is this anything to be worried about? He still has regular activity during the day, still eats everything he's fed (bowl of greens daily (typically collard greens) and 5-6 bugs, 3 week crickets/black soldier fly larvae). No black beard or any abnormal behavior other than the early bedtimes.

Hes currently in a 4'x2'x2' tank, 100w bulb and UV, will be moving to a larger tank as he gets bigger. Warm side is typically 90-100f, humidity is unlikely to be a concern as I live in a fairly dry climate.

I've heard brumation typically happens when they're a year+ old, just want to make sure I'm not ignoring something critical.

I’m just going to keep updating, I think it’s nice to share this experience as it was hard finding any real research or proper documents regarding reptiles and heart failure or to know what to expect and this community has helped me hold strong through the tough times to get this far! I found more people who had also had beardies with heart failure here than anywhere else on the internet

Trog (3yr female) was diagnosed back in July before her 3rd birthday. After she hit a year old we struggled with fluid in her belly, to which we discovered follicular stasis. We spayed her, recovery was tough, we sampled the fluid - no bacteria or infection yay hopefully just inflammation. 6 months later we note lethargy, not basking in her own, staying her hide but not brumating, and constipation. She still ate with great enthusiasm however. After months of bloodwork, ultrasounds, an x-ray, almost went for a biopsy surgery, we finally got an echo done with a cardiologist and discovered heart failure.

After being on a higher dose of Lasix (Trog weighs 600grams and receives .3ml of Furosemide/Lasix every 12 hours by mouth) for 3 months I can tell you so far we are doing great. No constipation, she basks in her own, and her activity levels are up. Her weight has come down a little and her belly seems less distended. She has never showed any signs of respiratory struggle thankfully as I believe I caught this very early.

She does unfortunately have some muscle spasms I’ve started to notice, she sees the vet next week and they may do some bloodwork to double check her electrolyte levels, they were fine after her first month but we have no idea how well she is handling the Lasix unless we regularly are checking her bloodwork. From what I’ve read she could be having some spasms due to low calcium as the Lasix is pulling the fluid off of her, everything she eats has calcium on it so hopefully the vet has some answers next week. Other than having the occasional slow day of hiding away once in a while we have made a ton of improvements and I really hope that this continues for a while.

I will continue to update here incase anyone else is struggling while in the same boat. It’s an incredibly tough battle but I hope Trog’s story gives some hope or comfort in knowing you are not alone

I've had the new enclosure setup for almost a week now and she finally came around to digging/ discovering her new hide :)

My sweet little angel is about a year old, she weighs 371 grams and just came out of her first brumation. I feed her collards every day, and two large roaches every third day (everything in calcium of course).

Is she looking a bit on the plumper side or is her body condition good?

She just stares for ages. She hasn’t moved from her stick for forever.

Also sorry about the set up/gradient. One of her bulbs went out and we had to deep clean her tank for coccidia. We haven’t gotten her new decorations yet.

I know he is super stressed out cause I need to hold him for the picture, he runs but I go from the side and carefully scoop him up

The first time he saw the cats (Sally and Paula), he immediately hid. His enclosure is secure, and whenever I’m not at home, I keep the door to the room locked so the cats can’t get close to him unsupervised.

But tonight, while the door was open and I was there, the cats noticed him. To my surprise, instead of hiding, Xiaoxi came right up to the front of the enclosure and seemed to observe the cats closely. He looked much more curious than frightened this time.

Of course, I’ll take things very slowly and carefully. The cats will never have direct access to him, and any interaction will always be through the secured enclosure and under supervision.

But I’m so glad to see that, on his fifth day here, Xiaoxi already seems to be becoming more confident and comfortable in his new home.