Adopting a couple of beardies

[Kebechet]

So, I may be adopting a couple of beardies. My boyfriend's mom works at a pet store in northern Washington, and someone came in with two starving baby beardies, with bad eye problems. They wanted the clinic in the store to put them down

She called me earlier to ask what I knew about bearded dragons and possible causes of the eye problems, and to find out if I wanted to adopt them. She wasn't able to talk to me until after work, but the possibility is still on the table to adopt them.

From the sound of it, the two beardies are starving because they are "going blind and can't catch the crickets" I'm going to take a wild guess, and guess that the previous owners (who had only had the babies for a month) were using a coil bulb. Either that, or that they weren't feeding anything with vitamin A, and so they've developed Hypovitaminosis as a result.

I'm seriously considering adopting the two of them to see if I can bring them back to good health.

Considering they're either blind or nearly blind, what should I be doing to help them eat? Would it be better to use a prepared food, like some of those "bearded dragon foods" that I see in the pet stores? Or is this crap, and I'd be better off getting some butterworms and veggies to fatten them up and make sure their nutrition balanced?

Does anyone have any thoughts?

 

[Rhetoric]

I used some of the rep-cal pellet food for a while with crickets now and then. Then I read the ingredients on the container and it was like chicken by-product or something gross. What about some worms with tongs? They might feel the worms touching their face and react. If they just have bad vision you might be able to put some crickets or bugs in the freezer for a few minutes prior to feeding so they're not as fast.
Definitely get them vet checked when you can. A proper diagnosis could really help.

http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Eyeproblems.html
I love all of their links, I met a woman from beautiful dragons at the expo last month and they were really great. I was really impressed with their knowledge. I recently got their multivitamin and its been working great so far.


http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Criticalcare.html
http://www.oxbowanimalhealth.com/vets/products/critical_care
Something like that might be worth trying, I would avoid any of the stuff you'd find at petsmart. It might be alright here and there but I doubt it would be anywhere close to what these guys would need. The second link has all of the nutritional info.

 

[herpgirl2510]

I love butterwroms this is the site I buy from shipping is inluded http://www.elliotsbutterworms.com/. I also would avoid any prepakaged food. This is also a great site http://www.beardeddragon.org/bjive/index.php. I love my beardies and I have adopted two of them you just have to be prepared for the possibility that they may have some expensive vet bills.

 

[laurarfl]

The eye issues may be photokeratoconjuncitivits from improper placed bulbs or coiled bulbs, liike you said. I wonder if it may even be reversible in time.

Beardies can be hand fed fairly easily. I have a rescue beardie that had severe MBD in the past and was beat up by a cage mate. He has problems catching food so I syringe feed and hand feed him soft foods. He probably has kidney issues, too, because of his increased thirst. I syringe feed him green bean baby food for greens since they are higher in calcium and have iron and vit A, and I choose an orange veggie like squash or sweet potato. I add his calcium supplement to this mix. For protein I can add a bit of chicken baby food or he will eat soft worms. He can catch big crickets if they walk right in front of him.

 

[Josh]

We're getting a good community of folks started over at BeardedDragonForum.com
Congrats and good luck with the new additions to your home!

 

[Vince]

Wax worms are good to get some weight on them. Once they start getting some weight on ween them off of them though. Not nutritious enough and too fatty as a regular staple, but good for short term to put weight on rescues.

 

[Rhetoric]

lol, I gave my beardie some wax worms 2 winters ago. I didn't know how addictive they could be, I had to make him quit cold turkey because he started to refuse all other foods for a week or so. They definitely helped put some weight on him.

 

[Kebechet]

Thanks guys! I'll be meeting the little guys in the next couple of days to see how bad they are. I'll keep wax worms in mind if I can't find butterworms. It'll be nice to have a couple scaly buddies to hang with when Link is hibernating :3

 

[herpgirl2510]

Oops sorry i forgot about the sister beardie web site I am on that one too.