my beardie got his tail eaten!?

Question

we had two hatchlings in the same tank, and the big one went and chomped the little one's tail. there's almost an inch that looks ready to drop off. will his tail continue to grow, or is it going to be stubby from now on??
my guy is somewhere between 3-5 weeks old.
we have seperated them now, sticking them into a 90 gallon tank, and putting a mesh screen in the middle. they can still see each other, but they can't get to each other. i really want to seperate them compleatly, but my boyfriend says he doesnt want to seperate them, cause they will forget each other. i told him that's the POINT, cause the dominance chain's gotta be broken, so the small one can catch up on size, but my boyfriend is being a jerk about it.
will the little guy's tail be ok?? i know that beardies don't regrow their tails, but it would be horrible if his tail's stumped off at such an early age.
and yes, we DO feed them enough. we feed them each about 15 - 20 crickets per feeding, three times a day.

i would love to loose the bf, but he's the one that feeds the things, and i'm terrified of crickets. they chirp, and look at you all mean and stuff. ugh.
i was at work when it happened, and my boyfriend is the one who saw it happen. so far that i know, there was no blood at all. it's just that a piece of the end looks crooked, and looks like it's going to fall off. both f us are afraid to touch it, just in case it does fall off. is polysporin reptile safe? when we bought them, two weeks ago, they were both the same size, but so far, one's doubled in size, and the the smaller one's about 50%ed the size. i'm pretty sure it's a sub and dom thing, but from what we can observe, their both eating the same amount of crickets.
the strange thing is is that they will both sit there, waving their arms at each other for forever, but they never bob their heads. i think they have their signals mixed up.

actually, he doesn't seem to be bothered at all by his tail. i mean, i'm not sure, it's not like he's hopping around and swearing, but he's not doing anything he doesn't usually do, when he did have his whole tail. since it's just the wee tip of his tail, i'm wondering if he even realy felt it. it happened a day or two ago, and it's not swollen, or anything, and the little guy still runs around and eats and all that. i'm more worried that the tail's going to stop growing from now on. i know that sounds heartless of me, but he really doesn' seem to care... we're taking him to the vet, and some breeders to be sure, though. i figured to the breeders, cause i don't actually think my vet knows a damn about reptiles.

Answer 1

Apply neopsorin to the wound a couple of times a day. Use paper towels as substrate for now until the wound has healed (a lot more sanitary). You may want to consider taking the dragon to the vet. I have been in your same situation before. When I first started getting into dragons, I got two babies, and kept them together in a cage. Not more than a week later I came home and found that the male had bitten the females foot off. The reason you will probably want to take your little guy to the vet is because even though you are keeping the wound clean, bacteria has probably already gotten too far into the wound for a surface antibiotic ointment to cure. The vet will probably give you and antibiotic that you rub on the beardies stomach that will seep into his skin and clear out any other infection. Even if you just found you beardie after the bite happend, the bacteria from the other dragons mouth can cause infection.

Tell your bf this....he should change his mind. Separate them unless you wanna see some limbs coming off too. Dragons shouldn't be together...babies, juveniles, or adults (unless breeding). If you keep a male and female together and they have reached sexual maturity, they will try to mate. Mating should only be done if the female is old enough (about 18 months, 350 grams)...if the female is not old enough or too small, dystocia (egg binding) will likly occur, and cause death to the female. Males can even over breed females to death, which is another reason they should only be together when mating. Breeding is not cheap. Usually it costs around $1,000. With two males......they'll fight til death. Two female, they can SOMETIMES live together. However I do not recommend it. I've known some people who have had two adult females housed together for years without a problem, until one day they just started fighting. It's just not worth it to me...keeping dragons together. Dragons are solitary reptiles. They don't care much for play mates, probably would be a lot happier without them.

The dragons tail should be fine. It will be stumped, but with good care it should heal up nicely and quickly. Another important thing, make sure you give him luke warm soaks and add some pedyalite to boost his hydration. This is good for sick, hurt beardies. Good luck to you and the little guy! I hope he gets better real soon.

P.S... http://www.herpvetconnection.com is a site where you can find HERP vets in your area, just click on your state.

Answer 2

I'm going to make the assumption that both dragons were the same size when you got them. Most likely the one got larger because it is the more dominant of the 2. If the difference between the dragons becomes an inch if they're small or an inch and a half if they're juvenile they should be completely separated. Most likely the more dominant dragon caused the smaller dragon undue stress and that is why the smaller one has grown slower. You need to completely separate them at this point. The smaller dragon should not be able to see the larger dragon at all.

The part of the tail that was bitten will fall off and most likely it will heal fine on it's own. If it is an open sore then i would use neosporin or polysporin on it until it heals. Yes the tail will not grow back and the dragon will be proportionately smaller thoughout it's life because of the tail nip. But, it will have no long term health or quality of life issues associated with it.

You should always have greens available to the babies at all times from when the lights go on till about an hour before they go out. I don't know if the tail nip was hunger or dominance so I figured I'd just cover both bases. Babies need a lot of small meals.

Here's a good web address for greens and vegs.

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

They won't bob their heads for a while and even then only the male does that.

I feel for you on the cricket thing but after a while it won't bother you at all if you just give it a try. I have roaches and at first they totally freaked me out but now they're just another bug. lol.

Answer 3

Yup, it is not recommended to house beardies together. The larger one will dominate the smaller, and the smaller won't even eat well in the larger one's presence. Fighting is common. You can use neosporin on the tail, but if it seems to be getting worse, you need a vet. You need to make sure substrate, UVB, and heat temps are all correct as well. I'd recommend www.reptilerooms.com and go to the forums section to read the care sheets on them. There are a lot of experts on this forum who can give you more care info. Just ask!

Answer 4

Keep them separated . Has the bleeding stopped ? If not use corn starch to stop it . Then apply antibiotic ointment twice a day until it is healed . If it gets red or swollen he needs to go to a vet .Lose the boyfriend , just kidding. Tell your boy friend you can reintroduce them to each other once they are older . You never want to put two reptiles that are different sizes in the same cage . The larger one will attack the smaller one .Check out the forum at http://www.repticzone.com

Answer 5

regardless of what your bf says, you need to seperate the beardies. it is very possible that the dominant one eats most of the crickets, causing him to grow quickly, so the smaller one's growth is stunted. beardies generally solitary, and only come together to mate. tell your bf this, and tell him that a responsible beardie owner would seperate them. if you do breakup with him, you can either try to get used to the crickets, or feed the beardies something else, such as silkworms. go to www.beautifuldragons.com/503xtreme/Nutrition.html for a complete list of what you can and cannot feed them. find a reptile vet ASAP and have them look at the wounded beardie....i hope he gets better and good luck! =]

Answer 6

You need to get over your fear of crickets, use forceps to grab them if you have to. Keep them seperated, it will happen again and next time it could be a foot. The size of the tank is way too large for their age, keep them in smaller enclosures which will make it easier for them to get their prey and less chance of the crickets hiding. Keep the tail clean with polysporin, no alcohol or peroxide or iodine not ment to be used on wounds.

Answer 7

chop up his salad into mouth sized products and combine some mealworms in with it. it is how I have been given my beardie to devour his salad because of the fact the worms make the salad circulate and caught his interest. in basic terms the different day i positioned his salad bowl in his tank with out worms/crickets and he luckily munched on his salad regardless!!

Answer 8

seperate them your boyfriend is wrong in the wild beardies seperate.

try feeding it salad then you could lose the boy friend and the crickets
K.I.S.S your dragon
(keep it simple stupid)