Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[DazandJulie]

We've had our female dragon for 5 weeks now and shes only eaten 2 crickets and 2 locusts, which i hand fed her when she hissed at me. She doesn't move at all preferring to stay under her plant all day and night keeping an eye on us. Her viv is 36x18x24 with ceramic heater on pulse prop set at 32 at hot end 24 at cool end during day dropping to 23 at night, UV is reptisun 5.0, substrate is beech chippings. We put fresh greens and water in every day but she doesn't go near them or her bath. We had her checked out 3 weeks ago and she was in good health , shes approx 18 months old.

[DazandJulie]

Sorry I forgot to ask if anyone has any advice they could give to us. She's starting to worry us a little now.

[beardie barmy]

she might of ingested something she should not have make her have a nice warm bath and see if you can get a bowel movement out of her. is she still pooping ?

[Nelson]

Whats 32 in real money (temps?).

Other than that sounds like brumation.

[DazandJulie]

32 is about 90 and 24 about 75. We've tried to bathe her but she jumps out and runs back to her plant as soon as we leave go. She doesn't like to be handled. We've only removed 1 poop so she ain't going to the toilet either. I thought brumation myself after reading about it on here but she doesn't seem to be sleeping much just looking about.

[Nelson]

90 degrees is far to low you need a basking site of 110-120 degree's.

Sort that, as her inactivity is most likely due to this.

[DazandJulie]

Thanks for the advice. Ive just given her a bath and made her stay in there, she's not happy with me now though. Ive also upped the temps to see if it helps.

[Bri.]

This is an extract from Barry Summerhayes site. Loads of useful info.

Rankins do not require quite as much heat as a beardy, they seem to like it best at 90f under the spotlight, with a gradient of 80f in the centre and 70-75f at the cool end. It is absolutely vital that you have a gradient, if you do not have somewhere for your animal to cool down it will eventually die of heat exhaustion, due to not be able to regulate their own body temperature, known as thermoregulation. The have no way of controlling their own body temperature other than by sitting under a direct source of heat radiation and then being able to move away from it when they need to cool down a touch.

I have heard people putting heat mats down the ‘cool’ end of the viv, this is really not necessary, they will only go and lay down that end if they are too hot or if they wish to sleep or to hibernate(see brumination). The adult Rankin has a liking for half burying itself in the substrate at night, ( for security?)and to be cool, this way, you will not ever have to turn off your thermostat, the animals will thermo regulate themselves entirely, without the need for you to have a ‘night time’ drop on the thermostat.

I've got the temps a lot lower for my own Rankins than I do my Beardies.

[Nelson]

That's the first time ever that I've ever heard Rankin's need lower temps than Beardies.

[Bri.]

Nah, heard it from several people over the years :

The key to heating your enclosure is providing a temperature gradient from a hot basking zone, to a cooler area. Basking temps should be in the low 90s. The cooler zone should be around 75-80 degrees. From Sundial Reptiles http://sundialreptile.com/care%20sheet-rankins.htm

....and the Rankins section at the Leopard Gecko Hut http://www.leopardgeckohut.co.uk/rankins/caresheet.htm

Jas's site http://www.reptilebreeder.co.uk/caresheets/rankinsdragon.html

Rankins prefer a slightly lower basking temperature than beardeds, my Rankins are given a hot spot of around the low 90’s the middle of the vivarium between 80/85f and the cool end around 75f.