Expert: Joe Zarnick - 2/20/2011

Question
Our beardie died last night and we don't understand what happened. The only change in behavior was he was eating less. The last couple of day he didn't eat his mealworms which was odd since he always heads for them first, nor his crickets, and not much of his salad. I'm not certain of his age but we've had him for 7 mos. He was close to a year maybe even a little older. Always healthy ate everything! About 12 inches long and a little plump. Appetite decreased but we thought is was because he was getting older. If crickets were hiding he didn't hunt for them, but if we brought them to him he would eat them. Enjoyed a varied salad everyday. We were always careful of what we fed him. About a month ago we put him in a 40 gal tank. His basking temp was 95 degrees and the rest of the tank was about 82. He seemed to like his bigger enclosure. We did have a problem when he discovered his reflection. So we covered the inside walls with paper and all was calm. He seemed healthy until we found him limp on the floor of his tank. We moved him to check for signs of impaction and he gaped and moved his head slightly. We didn't see any signs of mites, uri, or impaction (no paralysis). We heard it was normal to go off feed for a little while. What do you think we missed? Could he have choked on a cricket? His smaller tank was slightly warmer could that be the cause of his declining appetite? Or maybe the stress of a new enclosure. Sorry this is long but we didn't see this coming. He was a very healthy and hardy fella. My son said he asked people on the internet he chats with who have reptiles and they have heard of this happening a lot this year to people they know. Also the spring mix I use was recalled about 2 weeks ago. (olivia's organics)I stopped using it when the recall came out but it was too late. My family ate it as well and no one became ill. Do you have any ideas? I'm afraid to get another reptile.

Answer
Hello, I am terribly sorry to hear of your dragon passing. I have not heard of this going around at all and have never had this as a problem. There could have been some parasite involved but I cannot be sure of this. If all of the things supplied to him were clean, the right temp, and everything was how it should have been then I don't see where u went wrong.