6.1Body condition
Obese dragons have been photographed and shared so widely that a lot of keepers have the wrong picture in their head of what normal looks like. The scale runs morbidly obese, obese, healthy, emaciated, and the healthy one is leaner than most people expect.
The age-based feeding charts still circulating are the main reason. Use the weight-based schedule in 4.1 and adjust to the animal.
The five-point check
The outline gives you the verdict at a glance; this scale gives you things to look at and feel. Four places tell the story: the fat pads on top of the head, the spine, the hips, and the base of the tail. Score your dragon honestly, once a month, alongside the weigh-in.
| Score | What you see and feel |
|---|---|
| 1 · Emaciated | Head fat pads deeply sunken, leaving dents. Ribs visible, spine standing proud all the way down the tail, hips sharply prominent. From above the body reads as an upside-down ‘V’. A vet visit, not just a feeding change. |
| 2 · Underweight | Fat pads slightly sunken, so the head looks flat. Spine still protrudes, hips easy to see. |
| 3 · Ideal | Fat pads filled, very slightly convex. You can feel the spine easily but barely see it. Hips visible without protruding, and the body tapers cleanly from ribs to tail. |
| 4 · Overweight | Fat pads bulging, beard looking swollen. The base of the tail bulges out past the hips and the spine is getting hard to find under your fingers. |
| 5 · Obese | Fat pads very prominent, beard swollen, belly swollen, tail base far past the hips, spine impossible to see or feel. In a female this is an emergency in slow motion; see the caution below. |
6.2Infertile egg laying
A female laying infertile eggs is telling you she’s getting too many calories. Overfeeding overrides the normal reproductive process and lets her produce eggs with no male involved.
Controlling portions does more than stop unwanted clutches. It addresses reproductive problems generally and protects against fatty liver disease. Source: Dr. Jonathan Howard, BeardieVet.
If she has already laid, the usual advice is to feed her up. Increasing calcium, hydration and protein is sensible, but be careful, keep overfeeding and you get an endless cycle of laying. If she’s mid-clutch and you’re not on loose substrate, give her a dig box.
6.3Respiratory infection
Viral, bacterial or fungal. What breeds it is too much moisture, poor ventilation and a dirty enclosure, with wrong temperatures and long-term stress making it likelier.
Signs
- , Visible difficulty breathing
- , Mucus around the nose or mouth
- , Sneezing or snorting
- , Clicking or wheezing
- , Constantly puffing the throat
- , Gaping when not basking
6.4Reading the tail
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Dark tail | Often normal. Can also mean feeling unwell, irritated, absorbing more heat, or in the mood to mate. |
| Dull tail | Shedding. The tail goes dull first and sheds last. |
| Tail rot | Follows trauma or incomplete shed, often starting as a kink. Needs a vet. |
| Curved tail | Commonly a sign of metabolic bone disease. |
| Tail bend | Many are born with one, from how they sat in the egg. Harmless. |
| Tail kink | Shed gripping tight enough to cut off blood supply. Watch it closely; this is how tail rot starts. |
6.5Femoral pores
Both sexes have them; males more prominently. Keeping rough surfaces in the enclosure for them to rub on is usually enough to stop them clogging.
If they do clog, a warm bath and a soft toothbrush will help. Never squeeze them. It causes damage and pain, and if there’s bleeding or any sign of infection that’s a vet visit.
6.6“Stress marks” usually aren’t stress
One of the most persistent misunderstandings in the hobby.
Those marks are normal pigmentation. Dragons change color with temperature: the pigment cells come up to the surface when the animal is cool and withdraw deeper as it warms. Going pale is how they stop absorbing so much light and infrared.
The marks on the throat and belly fade along with the dark pigment on the back and sides once the dragon is fully warmed, even while it’s still sitting under the lamp.
The real emotional signal is different. When a dragon darkens its beard and the skin of its chest, that is a response, closer to blushing in humans, and linked to excitement, alarm, aggression or fear. Source: Dr. Frances Baines.
6.7Bathing
If you do bathe: a tub or the sink is fine, water around 85–95°F like a baby’s bath, no deeper than the armpits, and no soap. A soft toothbrush or a wash cloth does the same job with less stress.
The myth worth killing: dragons cannot absorb water through the vent or skin. They only hydrate by drinking.
If yours has stuck shed, or won’t defecate unless it’s bathed, the bath isn’t the answer. Go back over lighting, temperatures and humidity. No dragon should depend on a bath to pass waste.
6.8Parasites and disinfecting
Three things will properly disinfect an enclosure and kill coccidia eggs: a veterinary-grade disinfectant such as F10 SC, ammonia at 90% water to 10% clear ammonia, or a hand-held steam cleaner.
While you’re treating, run paper towel substrate until the dragon is clear, and disinfect after every poop.
Routine fecal exams are how you catch this early, and as Chapter 7 explains, they’re also how you tell normal seasonal dormancy from a sick animal.