I noticed my 2 year old female started trying to, what looked like, bury my male. At first I though it was funny, but I just got back from the Animal ER, he unfortunately had passed. He was okay at 5pm for evening proteins. At 10 after i finished a movie with my wife, my wife just happened to point it out, and we witnessed it happening. He was 3 years old. I don't understand why or what could have happened, he was gasping for air, he had a proportionate diet of greens some veggies, and crickets and roaches, as well as some meal worms, fed proteins twice a day with the second portion always dusted, but he was like the picture of perfect bearded health.. extremely upset and waiting to hear back from the doc about why he could have died. I just want to know if anybody has had their beardies do that, bury their partners... she would not accept me picking her up and she curled up in a corner. I don't want her getting depressed....
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Strange behavior
- Thread starter Atlas
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Very sorry to hear that your male has passed..I personally have not heard nor experienced anything like that, however these critters are very smart and have personalities that amaze me everyday. Again very sorry
Do you think he passed before she was trying to bury him? Gasping for air sounds like maybe he had a respiratory infection. Did you ever notice any excess fluid in his mouth or watery eyes or anything like that? Did he have a bath that night? My 4 1/2 year old tends to aspirate water in the bath tub that makes her gasp for air until I can shake the fluid out of her.
Maybe gasping for air wasn't a good way to describe it, it was like a pained grunt. He would open his mouth and his body was tensing up, his back looked funky... it was contorted, looked like something was trying to come out, he was only breathing from one side. Honestly I feel like he might have had a collapsed lung on his right side. But he was definitely still alive prior to getting hurried, he was still bobbing his head when I went to grab him.
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Very sad 
Sorry you had to experience that.. Part of me thinks the female was trying to hide her partner in order to protect him.. These critters are amazing.. I hope that your female comes around from her loss.
Sorry you had to experience that.. Part of me thinks the female was trying to hide her partner in order to protect him.. These critters are amazing.. I hope that your female comes around from her loss.He had developed leukemia apparently. It's extremely rare and his liver started causing him troubles, his body just shut down on him, I had no idea they could develop these things... poor little guy was extremely spritely, nothing ever seemed out of the ordinary, he was carrying on with his dragon self. I'm pretty upset about not knowing or even having the thought to get him taken in before, but now I will know for the future.
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He knew you loved him and you gave him lots of TLC don't be too hard on yourself sometimes our critters are soo stoic making it hard for us to know somethings wrong until it's too late.
Don't beat your self up. This was something that you absolutely had no control over, you didn't cause his death. Think of it this way, what if you knew? What if you took him to the vet and found out that he had leukemia and you started him on meds. Leukemia treatment has to be pretty rough. Months of aggressive meds for what? So that he could be around for you for a few more months, maybe a year? Months of treatment that makes him sick and weak and makes him loose his appetite and his spirit. I hate that he passed, but at least he passed still being his self until the end. He was happy and that's how you need to remember him
Reptiles and amphibians are very good at hiding illness until the very end. It's almost like their way of not letting us suffer with seeing them so sick. That's why it's good for us to keep detailed records of what they ate and when and their weights and measurements so that we can tell if there is a drastic change in anything.
Reptiles and amphibians are very good at hiding illness until the very end. It's almost like their way of not letting us suffer with seeing them so sick. That's why it's good for us to keep detailed records of what they ate and when and their weights and measurements so that we can tell if there is a drastic change in anything.
