bearded died want to know why

Question
QUESTION: Hi, I got a baby bearded dragon about 3 weeks ago. i have perfect lighting and temps. this past weekend he started to look bad. he would stay in 1 spot 4 awhile with his eyes shut. he was non-responsive and would only open his eyes when i moved him. Then today he wouldnt move so i picked him up and put him on his log to bask. He started to puff up. Then, today he started staring at me with his mouth open. He got down on the ground and had what I believe was a seizure, because his whole body was starting to shack and his head went crazy. Then he was dead. Can you please help me because i would like to get a beardie in the future just not a baby. I would like to know what went wrong. Can you please help me?

ANSWER: You need to follow the directions and provide the information I require first. The possible causes are too numerous to list, and I can't give an answer based on you telling me lighting and temps were "perfect". I don't know what that means to you. I also have no idea what substrate you were using, and what you were feeding and how often...etc...etc.

I can't make a diagnosis on virtually no information from you.

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QUESTION: ok, it was in a 20 gallon because it was just a baby and the temps were 100-110 on the basking side and 85 on the cool side with a uvb lighting tube(repti-glo 10.0) that was on top that covered the cage. I hade reptile carpet in the cage that i kept clean. I offered crickets that i dusted with calcium dust. I would feed him 3 crickets in the morning but he would only eat 2. When I would come home at 4:15 from school he wouldn't eat. At night I would offer 2 crickets but he would only eat 1. I would spray him with water about 3 times a week and i would drop water on his nose if I didn't see him drink from his dish. Which he learned how to do in the first week. So can you help me out now?

ANSWER: What calcium dust were you using? Did you use it every time? What size were the crickets? What size were they in relation to his head? How often did he defecate and when was the last time he defecated before he died? What was the appearance of the feces?

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QUESTION: calcium dust: t-rex bearded dragon calcium plus. I used it almost everytime. some of the crickets were a little big but no bigger than the length between his eyes. He would defecate everyday but within his last couple of days it slowed down. He defecated the day before he died. i dont remember what his feces looked liked.

Answer
Really without a necropsy this is a guessing game. It sounds like symptoms that fit several possibilities.

One - hypocalcemic tetany. Despite the repti-glo 10.0, it might not have been sufficient UVB. Beardies are desert lizards and require mercury vapor UVB lamps, especially when young. All the calcium dust in the world is useless if your UVB lamps are low grade. I personally find tube lamps to be near useless. This means he may not have been uptaking the calcium in the diet, which can cause seizures, coma, and death.  

Two - It could have been hypercalcemia or hypervitaminosis, as symptoms are nearly the same as for hypocalcemia; and based on the fact that you gave him supplements everyday. That is excessive. Supplements should only be given about once or twice a week at most if you are using a proper diet and decent lighting. People way, way, over use supplements to make up for not having good lighting or diet, or they don't understand proper supplement use.

Three - It is likely it could have been gastroenteritis caused by improper prey size. This is how most baby Beardies probably get killed. You try to save money and give them the bigger crickets because it sounds more economical. This either ends up impacting them, or causing inflammation of the intestines, which can then lead to infection. Seizures, ataxia, and paresis are common in baby Beardies fed prey items that are too large.

Four - He might have had pre-existing conditions from poor care at the pet store, but I can't say with this limited information. Pet stores mostly do a terrible job, but most reptile pets that make it long enough to be sold are actually killed by something the buyer does wrong after they get them home.  

Five - He may have had just a temporary paresis or ataxia due to eating a cricket that was too large for him. As before, this is common in baby Beardies when you give them prey that is too large. In some cases the effect is temporary and tends to pass after they get it digested a little....However...if he was weak and had ataxia or paresis, you may have killed him through Heat Stress by moving him to a 110F basking area, when he was too weak to get out from under it and thermoregulate himself. Small reptiles cool down and heat up much faster than larger ones, and consequently they are killed much faster by extreme temps.