sick beardie

If someone could maybe give me some advice. I have 4 five month old beardies. I fed them crickets Yesterday like I usually do every day and this afternoon I noticed that one of my beardies is really bloated and seems to be having mild convulsions of his limbs. His fingers are convulsing. I'm not sure what happened or what I shpuld do. If anyone has some advice please help me. Thanks for your time. Laurel Baber

Hi, SEE A VETNARIAN!!!!! I love these guys and I hate to see stuff like this happen to them. For one make sure he has plenty of water. For two be careful with those crickets, I recomend you dont buy from the place you got them from. For three the symptoms you described are sometimes connected with eating a firefly. A firefly has a substance similar if not exact to a medication we use for our heart with in his glowing part of the tail. To us it is harmless. To a Bearded Dragon however it is fatal. If he injested a firefly the beardie is most likely dead. Since I dont know what happend all I can say is give it water dont feed it much and if so feed it greens and possibly vitamins. Make sure it has enough heat and UVB. Make the tank similar to the summer outside. Finally most off all see a vet right away!!!! I can not stree the importance of this. If you can not pay for the vet there is sometimes non profit ones but you will have to look into it. I would suggest more greens and less live foods. Crickets carry alot of disease and when they are not powderd with vitamins they are not very benaficial any ways. If you want to feed live foods feed Tiny meal worms or even earth worms that you dig up. Be carefule with earth worms only get them from somewhere you know you dont put insectiside or other poisons. My Beardies have a absolute love for meal and earth worms. I hope your Beardie gets better........Sincerally, Jon "from Bearded Pets"

BEARDED PETS
Email: jon1048@yahoo.com
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i'm pretty sure crix are more beneficial than mealworms...I was told by numerous people that mealworms were more like treats than food, and that they can get impacted from mealworms.

really. I always found that crickets brought alot of disease in with them. I had a hole family of lizards die to a infected cricket bag. As far as worms go I prefer dusted earth worms.

Where do you get your crickets from.. and what were they infected with?

I got them from a petsmart. I dont know what they had. I dont want to argue about this. thanks for the advise

Didn't want to argue with you.. just wanted to know where they came from etc..

Thanks for the advice. I have a feeling the crickets were sick also. Because another one of my beardies is sick also. As for firefly I would never feed them one of them. I really think its the crickets!!! I also always dust them with vitamins. By the way I also got these crickets from Petsmart I usully order offline but I was in a hurry to get crickets I ran out the ones that I get offline. I will never by crickets again from them. THANKS Laurel

Look at the size of your crickets. It sounds like a case of impaction.

Make sure your basking temperatures are correct (sometimes a change in the local weather can cause a drop in overall room temp, affecting your basking temperature even though your lighting hasn't changed). They need the temperature to properly digest food.

Also a soaking in warm water will help them pass the impaction.

Crickets are a good staple diet provided they are properly gutloaded. They are only as good as the food that is put into them.