Can changing enclosures cause them to stop eating?

[Nicole Bunch]

We just put our two beardies (8 months old) into a new bigger enclosure that we built. One is eating ok, a little slow to start but the other (usually the best eater) doesnt seem interested at all! Does she just need some time to get use to it? is she stressed? Anything I can do to help her?

Thank you!

 

[PatsyB]

They don't take to change very good. Just give them a bit of time to get used to their new home.

Bearded dragons are solitary creatures and don't need a friend to play with or keep them company. Some people have luck keeping two females together but I personally wouldn't risk it. I've seen too many injuries from cohabing. One of my females is missing part of her tail because she was cohabed before I got her. When she sees my other female through the glass she blackbeards and gets upset with her.

Signs of dominance issues are very subtle, like one sitting on top of the other under the basking light or even one being more aggressive at getting food. So keep an eye on your two. You may need to build another tank or at least put a divider in the one that you have built.

 

[Nicole Bunch]

Thank you!! We had assumed that since the new enclosure is so large and they are so small that catching their food in their would burn to much energy and be to tough for them. So we were pulling them out and feeding in a different tank that is smaller. She was NOT ok with this and we were finally able to get her to eat last night by just putting the crickets in the big cage and it seemed to help some. We have noticed some dominance issues between them and it's likely that we will be adopting out the smaller of the two.

 

[Nicole Bunch]

What's interesting is that these two are from the same clutch, born at the same time and started the exact same size (minus some tail missing on big mama). Big mama stoped eating and growing for quite a while and the other got bigger. Then they ended up going into burmation for about a month or 6 weeks and when we finally got them to pull out of it the small one who wouldn't hardly eat literally hasn't stopped eating since and is now more than double the size of the other! We took them both in about a week ago and were told that neither of them are as big as they should be by now but they spent over a month sleeping and now are starting to finally grow like crazy. They were also in a tank that I think was much too small so hopefully with this very large enclosure that we are still making improvements to, wax worms, crickets and salad we can bulk them up and get them to where they should be. I do have a feeling though that the one who is now the smallest will have to go to a new home simply due to dominance.