Help needed with beardy

[spam_stan]

recently bought 2, 6 week old beardys, one grew faster than the other in the space of 1 week and seemed to dominate the smaller one, then the smaller 1 died. we then went out and got another beardy, put them together and the new 1 is fine but the other original has gone dark and not eaten for 3 days now, i saw him in the water for a good hour this morning, but all he seems to do is sleep and bask, ive offered it wax worms and plenty of veg but no signs of eating, is there anything i can do to force feed or help it?? its basking area is about 34 deg C, and cool area is 26 deg C. any advice would be much appreciated as i dont reckon itll make another 24 hrs

[jools]

Hi, welcome to the forum. Firstly your basking temp is way too low - should be about 41-44C at the point where they bask. Too low temps will depress activity, appetite and digestion. Do you have a UVB? As for housing beardies together that can be fraught with problems. You have already experienced what can happen with the first one that died. The one that has gone dark will be like this because he is either very stressed from having a newcommer on his territory (beardies are naturally solitary animals and often don't take well to sharing) or because he is too cold. The newcommer should also have been quarantined btw. My advice would be to up the basking temperature immediately. Split them into 2 separate vivs as soon as you can - you may well have to soon anyway as you may have 2 boys (fighting) or 1 male and 1 female (breeding way too young). Hope this helps.

[spam_stan]

many thanks for the quick reply, we were informed by the pet shop that temp should be no more than 32 deg c, but after reading up i believe 36 is about adequate, ive not got them in seperate viv.s but only since yesterday, the ill 1 was in the tank that has a UVB 10percent, not sure on age of bulb, will buy a new 1 A.S.A.P! he was really active before we put a new 1 in with him, but hes been seperated for over 48 hrs now, i just measured the basking spot hes always in and its about 39 deg c. ive also just observed it having a poo, some clear white ish goo came out?? also just dabbed a bit of baby food on its nose, hoping itll lick it off.

[Dynamos Dragons]

Beardies can get stressed quite easily and go off their food, even if you add a rock to their environment. So it will need time to adate to the change in its surroundings...

[kerryrep22]

as already said, you cant really keep two beardies together im afraid, and yep the temps are too low for the basking area, 40-45 oc is better. remember that they get their energy from heat and light, so if its not hot enough, they will feel lethargic and inactive, like when people get cold and hungry.