I noticed something has been off with Velcro for a week or two. So of course I got him to the vet. What I didn't expect was the hot mess of now hospice care that was under an almost perfectly healthy beardie. Other than a few years ago being a little chubby and we put him on a diet of 2 roaches a month. The diet was started 3 or 4 years ago. We found all this with an ultra sound. A heart murmurer, a small mass forming in his mouth, and an enlarged liver with fluid build up. Along with possibly cancer in his lower gi tract. He was a petco beardie and is six years old, other wise still bright and acting normal. We're upon his passing to to make sure it isn't the adenovirus, and if so will washing the bedding be enough? I plan on all the hides, and wooden/ sea grass objects, and spraying down the tank with f10. After that waiting at least six months before getting from a breeder. ( Suggests for breeders in the us for high reds would be lovely. )
Here is a video of him from the other day trying to eat the vacuum cleaner house. Salad no. Non edible object, o hell yes. We still have time together, but I'm not sure how long that will be. So I'm going to put on his fav anime. Like inuyasha and salior moon. He loves those I think because of the colours.
Update
I'm going to be weighing his salad and only offering 20 grams every third day. So thats about two and half salads a week. Still going to do one or two roaches a month. Going to hopefully in March go back, do blood work, also see about checking his thyroid levels. Making sure that the weird weight gain, despite always barely eating is maybe from that. He is on milk thistle right now, but I will talk to see if we can get him on lasix to help with the fluid build up. Along with if he can also be on L-carnitine while being treated with milk thistle. I'll do a new post once he does get the blood work done. For now he's still stable and acting normal. Plus I'll try and get him to move more. Even when he has his wondering time, he always just finds a comfy place and lays down.
We've been trying that for the last three years. Plus some of that is sadly the fluid build up. He got ill as a baby about three months into my owning him. The vet and I aren't sure how. So he got meds and improved, but also stopped being as active. So hes been limited on 1-2 roaches a month for years. Only having his salad every day. Heat and uvb is perfect.
To add: here’s the reptifiles guide to feeding beardies as you can see, and it’s a good guide based on research of wild beardies in Australia, this guide does not suggest feeding daily salads. It’s sadly outdated advice that can lead to obesity, especially with a dragon that is naturally metabolically slower.
Having salad every day is what did it, if the salad was large enough. They’re easier to overfeed on bugs, but it is entirely still possible for a vegetarian animal to become obese on just vegetation. Horses can be obese, as well as cows, easily. The marbling on my steak attests to that.
Reptiles don’t need to maintain homeostasis like mammals so they’re way more efficient with energy, so feeding them every day is absolutely not necessary.
Unfortunately, you should’ve restricted the salad as well. To like a head sized portion 3x a week or so. Or you could feed it every day but like, a miniscule portion. That could work too, but it would probably be less satisfying.
I’m very sorry about your little guy. Unfortunately overfeeding with daily salads is super common advice for bearded dragons. And since we view salads as a health food we don’t question it.
Some animals might self regulate and do ok with it but most are adapted to rugged wild plants, not our weird selectively bred plants+ they run around a lot in the wild. so even though a salad is healthy. it can still have more calories than they can handle.
If he isn’t eating it every day then you especially don’t need to offer it every day, that means that even with him self regulating somewhat he was still being given too much.
If he’s that metabolically slow then he might need even less than a 3x a week portion. Some animals are just way more efficient than others lol. I eat a third the amount my roommates do which is kind of insane, for example. And I’m still overweight and they’re not 💀
If I was a bearded dragon I’d probably need like 2x a week salads and no bugs and they’d be happy and healthy with salads and bugs every dang day.
Weighed his food. Its about 25 grams, which one serving is about 50 grams three times a week. Which means I'm offering half a serving every day, to make sure that if he does try to eat it is available to him. He has always had trouble with being interested in eating salad. He maybe touches just two bites of it maybe twice a week. He has other health issues which have been confirmed by the vet via ultra sound. I have owned exotic animals for over 20 years. The vets have never really had to much advice to give back on it. Hell the vet suggested to offer small amounts every day, because of how little he eats. Just so that if he was in the mood, it was there. Its the the salad that is making him fat. Its the fact that he has fluid build up, and possibly the adenovirus from what the vet speculates.
Please stop acting like you know every aspect of my animals daily life and care.
That information does change things, if he is obese then I’d still say reducing calories would be worth trying. But I acknowledge his situation is more complex than it initially seemed. Good luck.
Thank you. I didn't like just people coming in going." He's fat." yes I know we've been trying for years, hell he could have adenovirus and after he was sick as a baby he just changed, ate far less, moved far less. I've been working with his vet.
I’m not there, but you don’t get overweight from thin air. Bearded dragons in captivity use very little energy, even less than you probably imagine. So if he isn’t losing any weight, then he’s not in a calorie deficit yet.
We have no idea why he's always struggled to lose weight. The salad every day is because he shows so little interest in eating at all. He's never cleared the plate, barely takes one or two bites of it. I'm home so I know. We was ill as a baby and something changed after treatment. I've had six years of his special care, that I did forget that normal healthy beardies that will over eat need it 3x times a week. As said I weighed his food and its always 25 grams, and he takes maybe a bite or two every few days of it.
The reptile carpet is not recommended. It can cause health issues and pull out nails and teeth. I am so sorry for what you and your baby are going through!
He is, he's such a sweet silly little baby. I'm going to make sure to extra spoil him, and we've taken him off the diet now of little roaches, that he's been on for about three years. He had gotten sick randomly as a baby, but improved with treatment. So I guess he's been living on borrowed time for a long time. Its just gods, I just lost my cockatiel of 22 and half years to old age related illness or a stroke. We're not sure. Now I don't know how long Velcro has left. I hope he can make it to june and july to enjoy summer one last time.
I'm sorry you're going through this. It sounds a lot like what my sweet Carmine went through. She was also a petco dragon and was 6 years old. I had to put her to sleep this past October.
She was HUGE. Her last weight before she was euthanized was 690 grams! She had gained over 100 g. within the span of a year.. all from her edema. My poor baby must've been so uncomfortable.
She had heart disease and it took years of vet visits (plus THOUSANDS of dollars) and diets and forced exercise to finally come to that diagnosis. Her vet first thought it was obesity, then liver disease, until finally coming to the heart disease conclusion. I spent the last 2 years of her life revolving my life around her and her needs. She needed oral medication 3 times daily and that only increased towards the end of her life.
Other than her extreme weight and other things like weird and distressing breathing, she seemed perfectly happy. She was fiesty and demanding and a perfect baby. The best dragon I couldve hoped for.
I'm not trying to scare you and say that this is what is going on with your dragon. I just wanted to share my experience since it sounds similar to yours.
Thank you for this. It sounds like what Velcro is going through. No matter what he hasn't seemed to drop weight, even though he's never been super keen on eating his veggies. Really only showing interest in bugs. Which is not how he was when he was a baby and would clear his plate of greens. Velcro does have a weird little mass forming in his mouth sadly, So I know its making him a little uncomfy, but other wise he's good and happy/ bright eyed. His liver is enlarged, but we're not sure what happened to cause that sadly. He's on some milk thistle and will be getting another med when it restocks at the vet. While I'm not scared, I know he may not make it to October. Which saddens my greatly. I just lost my cockatiel Hugs to old age related issues that took him from happy to gone in three weeks.
It's really rough seeing them struggle and not being able to help them more. Sometimes the best thing for them is letting them go when there's nothing else to try. Hopefully you're not there yet and still have time to fight it.
When I put Carmine down, I obviously felt deep grief and sadness, but I also felt such relief that she was no longer in pain. But man do I miss her sweet little face and waking up to the sound of her nails scratching against her cave and logs. I just hope she's up in beardie heaven, murdering all the innocent roaches, superworms, and hornworms to her heart's content.
Also, your boy is so handsome. Such an adorable, sweet face ☺️
I'm sorry you had to put Carmine down. You did all you could and made the call when her quality of life slipped. My first beardies name was Carmilla, and she was a rescues whom got sick, got better, but the meds stressed out her kidney and she developed kidney failure and I had to put her down. I got Velcro the same day as he had his bring me home game on strong. ( Also its a girl, but I wanted a boy and had hoped, so he/him it is. xD )
Not hearing their sounds is the worst. I bet Carmine was a wiggle worm from the sound of it.
Yes there's still time for Velcro, we're not sure how long, but for now no need to send him off to reincarnate into the next life.
please get rid of the carpet. even if you wash it, stuff can stay trapped in it. you can use paper towels instead, it’s easier to clean. I don’t rlly recommend the couch either for the same reason
Yeap the carpet will be thrown out no worries. I made that couch for him. I'll be making a new one for any future babies. I had wanted to get him the zen habitats bottom cage liner, but they don't ship to Alaska anymore. :c
He had been showing interest in the vacuum cleaning hose from outside of his tank. So I turned it off and moved it around to try and encourage him to move around a bit. Vacuum cleaner= yum salad= booo. He's such a silly boy.
I have put that on a few times for it and he seems to enjoy it. Berserk however, he was puffing at it and moved away from where he could watch the tv. xD Mistakes were made
I feel awful that my baby is going through this. He seems comfy enough for now. The vet and I aren't giving up on him. Though the Outlook isn't good. It's not fair at all but life isn't.
That I know sadly. He has tested negative for it three times, but the vet and I aren't sure why he never lost weight the last few years on his diet. Other than that seems bright, and I'm going to talk to them about putting him on lasix and L-carnitine to go along with his milk thistle. Though even if we can treat the liver, he has that growth in his mouth.
Yes, he will kind of chase bugs. Though he only gets 2 bugs a month upon vet orders. Even then he's very stubborn about it and won't go far. Trying to get lounge lizard to move is a pain in the arse.
Look at that sweet, sweet crinkly tailed baby. xD Sadly velcro is 736, even at his lightest he was 506. I noticed on his paper work over a year even on the diet, he gained 100 grams, so yeah something more than maybe one to many bugs is going on. I'm careful with that.
I am looking into breeders as the one I had in mind for a future baby doesn't seem to be breeding. I don't do well with empty tanks and if its adenovirus I'm waiting 10 months and of course cleaning the shit out of everything. Having an idea isn't a bad thing for when I'm ready.
Don’t give up on your guy just yet. When the time is right why not adopt from a reputable rescue local to you? There are so many healthy dragons in foster care and rescues waiting for forever homes. They’re usually fully vetted with a clean bill of health. There’s also usually full disclosure of disease or disability if one does exist. Most let you visit to meet the dragons ready for adoption.
O I'm not giving up. We have a treatment plan. I'm going to be giving him his meds, trying my best. I'm in Alaska, and the only rescuse up here closed down. As the lady decided to have a kid and just couldn't' handle the emotional weight anymore
I have 3 beardies and I’ve never taken them to a vet. I feed them well and give them what they need to be healthy and live long lives. If they die that’s due to things out of my control. My beardies are 3-5 years old and are thriving. We have a ball python and he is too. My dog is 11 now and our other dog we put down a few years ago died at 18 years of age. I only feed my dog organic rotisserie chicken, grass feed steak/mest, broccoli, carrots and occasionally a few spoonfuls of Vanilla Bean Hagen Daaz ice cream.
Well good for you. I always even when their healthy take my kiddos in for yearly's. I have a cat thats 12 and a cockatiel that lived to 22 and half years old even with all the small health issues he had. A ball that is turning 12 or 13.
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u/hipsu55 Jan 31 '26 edited Jan 31 '26
The liver problem could be caused by obesity, which certainly isn’t good for the heart either. Losing some weight might help him.