• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

This is already going to be a bad bad bad day! :(

Eriathiel

Eriathiel

Short and Sweet
So its only 8:30 a.m. and today is not going well. I woke up this morning, and the lizard (bearded dragon) that I am supposed to be watching is dead. It was doing so well! I did EVERYTHING I was told - and he was eating and seemingly happy! The girl I'm watching it for has only had him for a week, and I know she's going to be crushed! I don't know what to do. I will offer to get her a new one... but I really didn't need this right now! Uggggg.
 
He probably had an existing condition that didn't show up right away. I'm sorry. It's not your fault.

Nanci
 
How long have you been watching it? If she only had it a week, and you've only had it a short time, there is a chance that something was wrong with it before she got it. Was it a baby and does it have a guarantee from the breeder?
 
Unless you've been totally neglecting him for longer than a month, I'd definitely say that he had an existing health condition.

I've seen Beardies that were 'forgotten' about - ie, no food or water - for over a month that were still able to be nursed back to health.

They're really quite hardy reptiles - I doubt that you did anything overtly harmful to it in a short amount of time, unless you fed it Rhubarb or Lightning Bugs (both are extremely fatal).

Sorry for your loss, whatever the cause may have been.
 
Last edited:
He was a baby - and no there was no guarantee - I was with her when she bought it. I'm hoping she will understand.
I have only been watching him for three days - and that was part of the week that she had him (She got him last sunday - not yesterday obviously but the sunday before).
 
Oh and I've only been feeding him what she gave me- crickets and prewrapped veggies that she cut up for him!
 
Why was there no guarantee? Just about every pet-shop I know of has a 7 day guarantee and most breeders will do two weeks. And those are minimum numbers. Buying a baby without one is not a smart move, regardless of what species of reptile it is.

Seeing as he was a baby, I'm not too sure what might have gone wrong. A week is definitely not long enough for you to have done anything wrong to him, especially if he was eating. Things like MDB, Impaction and Adeno tend to take far longer than that to kill a Beardie.

My guess would be internal parasites. They're pretty quick killers once they get established in their host dragon.

I'm sure your friend will understand. She'll undoubtedly be disappointed, sure, but you did nothing wrong that I can see. :)
 
Last edited:
Thanks Matthew - I don't know why there wasn't a guarantee - I thought that was odd, and tried to tell her she shouldn't, but she wanted him so badly! I think I will get her a new baby for her birthday which is coming up, but this time I will insist it comes from someone who has a guarantee! The breeder we spoke to said she wouldn't guarantee is because she didn't know what we would do with the lizard once we took it home. I honestly didn't like her, but it wasn't my choice or my money...
 
I'm sorry to hear this. :( I really don't think it's your fault at all.

Do you know where the crickets came from? Crickets have a tendency to carry high levels of coccidia, which passes on to the animal that eats them (in this case the beardie). Most beardies carry coccidia without showing signs of illness (the way humans and other animals carry E. coli). If this batch of crickets carried a higher level than others, OR if the stress of moving to a new home and then being taken to another stranger's home for babysitting upset the beardie's system, then it's possible that the beardie died from coccidia.

Either way, it wasn't your fault. You really shouldn't be held responsible for buying her a new one, but if you really want to, then maybe you can go in for half...and hopefully you can find a better breeder. It also wouldn't be a bad idea to find a cricket breeder in the area too. I don't trust pet store or feed store crickets.
 
Did the poop smell horribly? None of my bearded dragons ever had it, but I was told that often, if they have coccidia, the poop will stink really badly.
I don't know if I am allowed to post the name here or not, so I won't right now, but I have gotten a few beardies, and a friend got one, from a breeder located in PA who does have a guarantee. The last time I bought one, it was 30 days, but it might be up to 6 weeks now. I always went out to the house to get mine, and they were very well kept, but they also ship. If I am allowed to post the name, I will do that, if not, I can give you the name by pm.
 
The poop didn't smell at all. She gets her crickets from the pet store that she works at in town - and I know she feeds them to her other beardie who seems to be doing just fine, so hopefully it wasn't the crickets.
griffinej5 the name of that breeder would be wonderful! You can pm it to me if you wouldn't mind - do they have a website?

Thanks for all the kind words guys - I just feel so bad, I pet sit all the time, and I've never had one die while I was supposed to be in charge of it so... its a little upsetting!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top