Serious only please!! beardie nail care?

My teen son has had a bearded dragon for almost 4 yrs now, he has always been very health and pretty easy to keep happy. I had to stress I live in a small town and our Vet is out for hip surgery and there is no vet within 2 hours either way so at this moment the vet is out of the question..





Anyway Ozzy has always been very health and eats very well. My one and only concern is that he might be missing something due to his nails. They brake off very easy while he is climbing around and a few toes like the smallest ones have no nail at all and it doesn't look like anything is growing back? Is this normal? Or is he missing something in his diet for strong nails. He eats a wide varity of fruit veggies crikets and meal worms, except apples he don't like them no matter how we fix them. Can someone help????Serious only please!! beardie nail care?
Honestly, I expected your question to be about trimming nails! Bearded dragons should have their nails trimmed or at least have sections of rough rock in there tank to wear them down with... A great alternative to this, while protecting your dragon from substrate ingestion and impaction, is to use textured ceramic tile for substrate... The more textured the better. If you manage to fix the problem and/or get more dragons later on, keep this in mind... But part of this bit of spiel is to tell you that this problem is NOT normal. Dragon's nails are similar to dogs. They're solid and they have a quick. If they aren't worn down properly by regular exercise on a rough surface, they need to be trimmed regularly. If this isn't possible because his nails keep breaking, then there's something wrong.





Make sure he's getting enough calcium. Dust his feeder insects with a calcium supplement (make sure it's a good one!), and even sprinkle a little on his salads. A calcium deficiency could very well be your problem. I assume he has a UVB light if he's healthy, but make sure he's getting enough UVB. Make sure the light you have lets out the proper amount of UVB and that he can get within 4 inches for ideal absorption. If you're using a Mercury vapor bulb as a basking bulb and the uvb source, this shouldn't be a big problem. Dragons should be able to get within 6 inches of the heat lamp, anyway, at their basking spot.





Watch out for any deterioration in his condition. Low calcium and improper UVB are the direct causes of metabolic bone disorder, which can be deadly if it isn't caught in time. If I'm right and it's a calcium problem, you need to fix the problem ASAP or you risk your dragon developing MBD.





Good luck with your beardie, and I hope he gets better!Serious only please!! beardie nail care?
do you have a uv light? it could be that or a calcium deficiency you can buy calcium powder at a pet shop that you just sprinkle over food.
First, apples aren't very good for them anyway... it surpresses appetite, so don't worry about it.


His nails could be from not being hydrated enough. Try some warm soaks every other day or so and just let him play in the water for 20 minutes or so. It is possible he could have a nail fungus and that is causing them to be brittle. Try using some listerine on a Q-tip and after a nice soak, just wipe it on his toenails. It is a normal thing for them to break nails or even lose/pull them out. It may be due to the kind of climbs you have for them, or just because they are very active and as you know... ';bouncy'; for lack of another word. Sometimes they grow back and sometimes they don't. It's just the nature of the thing. For more help, I would advise you to join the group below. They are wonderful people and can help with possible Rep. Vets in your area as well as housing, care, foods etc. They are extremely knowledgable and helpful.


http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Beard鈥?/a>
I've seen many lizards with a missing nail, so I don't think that that in itself is unusual. It could just be an injury, like a nail caught on something like screen mesh, where the nail bed was injured, thereby preventing regrowth of the nail. If you think that, or something similar is the cause then switch to a glass aquarium. Also keeping the nails trimmed might also aid in keeping them from getting caught on anything else in the enclosure. If you do trim them, you should make sure not to use the type of nail trimmers that cut the nail side-to-side: Reptile nails are laterally compressed so you can sometimes split the nail using that kind of nail trimmers. There are ones for cats which have the opening which you put the nail into and the blade comes up from below. This type is good.


Although UVB (ultraviolet light) should be provided via a fluorescent light above the tank. You can buy these at a decent pet store. Lizards cannot synthesize vitamin D without the presence of UVB. Actually humans can do this too, but we are also able to absorb vit D in our diets as well.


Bearded Dragons are one of the best choices for a pet reptile. They are quite hardy and they don't get to monsterous sizes so that you have to give it up later on. Good luck!