Sick bearded dragon

[Ozzy]

I have a sick bearded dragon. I'm not sure what happened to him but here is what I think happened.
I have three baby dragons. They are about 2 months old. I've had them for a month. I think I have two males and one female. When I got them they were all the same size. All of a sudden one male got really huge. While the other two seemed to stay about the same size. I noticed when I fed them that he always seemed to be the first one to grab the food. I always made sure that all three ate though. It started being more of a challenge to get the food to the other two. I think that the big male may have stressed him so he wouldn't eat. So I decided to set up the big male a tank by himself.
Soon afterwards I noticed the small male wasn't eating at all. He went downhill pretty fast. I started giving him pedialyte and then baby food from a syringe. He seems to be doing a little better, some of his color has come back and just a few minutes ago he used the bathroom.
Anybody have any ideas what may be wrong or have any tips to fix it?

 

[Mannannan]

What do you feed them? Mealworms contains a toxin which most young beardeds cant handle.
If you feed the mealworms, I suggest you change to pinhead crickets or something like that.

Good luck /Quensel

 

[Ozzy]

I have been feeding them mainly crickets. I feed the crickets alot of veggies. I also offer the bd's veggies and dragon treats, but they don't seem to want either. I sometimes give them flies. The big male has moved up to larger crickets. I bought some wax worms but I can't get them to eat them. I guess they don't wiggle enough. Yesterday I bought some tiny meal worms and tried to get the sick one to eat one but he wouldn't the large male ate about 3 of them. How old should they be before I feed the meal worms?

 

[Mannannan]

at least 8 inches or so, from what I hear...
How hot is the tank? have you checked for any internal parasites?

 

[Ozzy]

The hot end is about 100 degrees in the day time and about 80 or 90 at night. I haven't checked for parrasites. What's the best way to do that?

 

[carnivorkid]

maybe you should seperate them during feeding if you have a place for it. I have a pair but they usually dont fight over food . My male bd doesnt seem to eat as much as my female one.

 

[Halt]

they cant eat flies, thats what my cousin found out when she went to a reptile expo. sometimes crickets can also have parasites on them.
sorry for old post, just didn't know if you needed help or not.

 

[evergreen]

make sure they get enough calcium and don't give them too many carrots because they have too much vitamin A. What are the temperatures, tank size and how much you feed them? also make sure the sand if safe, like calci sand so it doesn't hurt them when they eat it.

 

[Ozzy]

I don't feed them anything anymore. All 3 died in 04. I think they were sick when I bought them. I got them from a reptile show.

 

[laservet]

Just a note to add to an old thread -- particulate substrates like CalciSand are not safe. I'm a herp vet and I've seen many beardies and other lizards die from CalciSand impactions. The only thing worse would be an organic particulate like bark, walnut shell, etc., as they support the growth of bacterial and fungal organisms.

 

[dravenxavier]

I'll also put in a NO for those calci-sand substrates. The only one that holds any appeal to me is CaribSea's Reptilite. Otherwise, I usually recommend a fine silica-based sand, such as Zoo Med's Repti-Sand. Though personally I use play sand Never lost anything to impaction yet.

I am of the opinion that a lot of impaction issues are more related to proper hydration, but I never did like the way Calcium substrates stick together after they've been wet in the first place.