Bearded dragons are good as pets because they are adaptable and don’t get sick too often. But while they can adapt to some conditions, many serious faults in care can cause various issues and illnesses. Many owners, especially beginners, make mistakes with caring for bearded dragons – but it is fine as everyone is learning!
In this post, we will talk about different health issues and diseases that might develop in bearded dragons. We will talk about the diseases, their symptoms and how to treat some them.
Firstly, we will discuss health issues and illnesses such as Metabolic Bone Disease, impaction, mouth rot, respiratory infection, burns, wounds and injuries. We will also talk about abnormal shedding, egg binding, internal parasites, mites, obesity, underfeeding. Then, we will talk about hypervitaminosis, eye problems, yellow fungus disease and dislocations.
Please note, that this information is only for assessing your bearded dragon’s health and any serious diseases should be treated by reptile vets! It is always good to start the treatment or perform first treatment steps yourself, but if an issue is serious, don’t delay professional treatment.
How do sick bearded dragons look like?
You will be able to tell that your bearded dragon is sick if it’s not active or curious as usual. Sick bearded dragons eat very little, don’t walk around a lot, lay flat and act lethargic all day.
Sick bearded dragons can also be underweight or miss parts of the body. Other signs of sick bearded dragons are: vomiting, patches on the skin, constipation or unusual stools, discoloration of the gums, wheezing, sneezing, and loss of appetite.
But be cautious – many sick dragons hide the symptoms (survival skills – they do it not to look weak in the wild). If you notice any difference in behavior, it might be a sign that something is wrong.
Calcium deficiency and Metabolic bone disease (MBD) in bearded dragons
Metabolic bone disease is same as rickets in people. Bearded dragons and other reptile pets develop Metabolic bone disease (MBD) if they do not get enough calcium in their diet or through natural/artificial lighting.
MBD can be also caused by over supplementation with phosphorus (ratio of calcium : phosphorus in bearded dragon’s diet is crucial and should be 2:1-2.5:1). Too much phosphorus in the diet removes the calcium from the body. When there is not enough calcium in bearded dragon’s body, it starts using the calcium from bones!
Symptoms of MBD in bearded dragons are weak bones – in the jaw (which is falling forward in worse cases), legs and even spine. Your bearded dragon might seem unhappy about moving around, as its muscles and bones are hurting.
Most often, bearded dragon’s legs will be swollen and the tail might be crooked. Weak gastrointestinal muscles will also lead to constipation. Your bearded dragon might start twitching and shaking, and tremors are big signs or calcium deficiency.
From day one of owning a bearded dragon, you need to provide it with a calcium rich diet (gut-loaded and calcium supplemented insects and greens) and full spectrum artificial lighting (UVA and 10% UVB).
Prevention is much easier than treatments, and in most severe cases, changes are irreversible. If you think your bearded dragon has any symptoms of MBD, take it to the vet for a blood test and X-ray to look at the bones. Your vet will advice you on supplementation and in severe cases, will administer calcium injections.
Soft jaw in a bearded dragon suffering from calcium deficiency
To improve the situation straight away on your own, give your bearded dragon pure source of calcium – such as dusted crickets or a filed cuttlebone.
In severe cases, your bearded dragon will most probably be so weak that it will reject food, so you need to force feed it. To force feed, use a syringe and feed your bearded dragon vegetable and some fruit purees. Also, use a syringe to drop water droplets in bearded dragon’s mouth.
Impaction and substrate ingestion in bearded dragons
An X-Ray showing impaction in a baby bearded dragon
Impaction is a big issue and many bearded dragons die from ingesting the substrate or other objects. Bearded dragons are curious, and you must monitor their activities. Also, bearded dragons are very likely to swallow the substrate that blocks the intestines.
They can ingest sand substrate while eating/catching bugs, small particles and other types of large substrates, such as cork, coconut coir and others. Read about choosing suitable substrate for bearded dragon’s terrarium here. Impaction might also happen when you give your bearded dragon any bugs that are too big for it.
Sometimes, a swollen object passes down the intestinal tract and doesn’t cause any problem. But sometimes, this foreign objects get stuck in the intestines (guts) and cause blockage.
If you suspect that your bearded dragon has an impaction, try to solve an issue and take it to the vet immediately for an X-Ray if the problem persists. If the loose particles of other objects are not removed as soon as possible, your bearded dragon will die.
Symptoms of impaction in bearded dragons are following: belly becomes bloated, vomiting, bearded dragon is trying hard to defecate or is unable to do so at all. Its belly might be very full and painful – you can touch it and feel the mass.
Try resolving the issue yourself as soon as you think it is the case – firstly, give it some drops of vegetable oil. Put your bearded dragon in a shallow tub filled with warm water and start massaging its belly.
Bearded dragons often defecate in water – and you can help by moving the mass towards its vent. If it doesn’t help – the vet might need to perform a surgery to remove a foreign object. We recommend seeing the vet even if your bearded dragon has defecated.
Mouth rot or stomatitis in bearded dragons
This bearded dragon is showing early signs of mouth rot
Mouth rot is a sore inflammation of mouth and gums. Stomatitis is painful and can cause tooth loss, bleeding gums and even death is severe stages. Mouth rot in bearded dragons occurs due to poor hygiene in the terrarium and poor diet (leading to weak immunity) or lack of lighting.
The symptoms of mouth rot are gum redness, excess mouth watering, mouth secretions and cheesy pus around the mouth in more advanced stomatitis.
To prevent this, increase the temperature in the vivarium, correct the lighting setup and provide a high quality diet. Clean & sanitize the cage regularly by removing feces, uneaten bugs, changing the water etc. Read about cage cleaning routines here.
To treat mouth rot, you need to take your bearded dragon to the vet, who will administer antibiotics. You can also improve the situation greatly by wiping the affected areas of the mouth with diluted solution of antiseptic Betadine.
Respiratory infection in bearded dragons
Bearded dragons rarely develop respiratory infections with optimal temperatures in the terrarium. Causes of a respiratory infection in bearded dragons are cool temperatures in the terrarium, high humidity and weak immunity.
Symptoms of respiratory infection in bearded dragons are following: wheezing, sneezing, gaping, throat puffing and nose discharge in worse cases. Heavy breathing with an open mouth is also a big sign.
To treat respiratory infection, you need to strengthen bearded dragon’s immunity. Provide a high quality diet. And more importantly, reduce the humidity and increase the temperature in the cage to optimal levels. If you have few bearded dragons, separate them.
You will also have to increase the basking spot temperature to 110 F (43.3 Celsius) to induce immune response to fight off the infection. If the symptoms persist for another 5 days or so, take your beardie to the vet immediately.
Burns in bearded dragons
This bearded dragon has burnt its cheek
Bearded dragons might burn themselves in few ways and most of them are results of a wrong terrarium setup. For example, if the light bulbs are placed very low in the terrarium, your bearded dragon might get too close and burn itself.
There might also be cases when the bulbs are too hot and cause high temperatures in the terrarium. Make sure that your bearded dragon can’t touch the screen cover if it gets too hot.
Another reason for burns is heating rocks, which often get too hot and burn the belly. Don’t use heating rocks as they are might get too hot and burn your bearded dragon.
If your bearded dragon has burnt itself, remove any loose substrate that might stick to the wound. Wash the burn and apply some antibiotic ointment and wrap it with a non adhesive bandage or pad. Take your beardie to the vet to get some professional help and advice on care.
Wounds, injuries, tail tip or toe loss in bearded dragons
This bearded dragon had a fight with a cage mate
The common cause of injuries and wounds in bearded dragons is fights with other bearded dragons. Even though you bearded dragons are nice reptiles, they can suddenly become mean with other bearded dragons. This happens even between pairs or groups of bearded dragons that have known each other for a long time.
The best practice is to keep each bearded dragon in its own vivarium. Bearded dragons might get territorial (especially males), and even hatchlings will fight for food, basking spot and other things.
Sometimes, a male can attack a female during breeding season when he is full of energy (that’s why it is important to monitor them). Some owners even choose to have 2 females and 1 male for breeding.
Bearded dragons might injure cage mates in different ways – scratching, wounding, biting the digits and the tail and so on. Lost digits or tip of the tail will not grow back in bearded dragons.
Another cause of wounds and injuries might be falling from furniture, being trapped under them, using sharp and abrasive rocks, branches etc. In our furniture and decor post, we have discussed how it is essential to seal structures that are not stable with a non-toxic aquarium sealant.
To treat minor wounds, wash the wound with sterile saline wash and apply triple antibiotic ointment. If needed, remove the loose substrate from your bearded dragon’s vivarium (such as sand) until the wound has healed. Otherwise, it will stick to the wound and won’t let it heal. If your bearded has a serious wound or has fallen from a high object, take it to the vet immediately.
Problematic shedding in bearded dragons
Bearded dragon’s shedding might not always go as planned. Sometimes, patches of skin can build up and not come off. Even though it might not seem too serious, but skin that dries and builds up around the toes might prevent the
In this bearded dragon, the skin around the toes has built up and constricted the blood flow
blood flow in that area. This leads to darkening of the toes or tail tip, and if you don’t help your bearded dragon remove this skin, it can lose that toe or tail tip (called tail rot). Usual spots of retained skin are around the eyes, toes and the tail. Sometimes, stressful living will affect the shedding process and make it harder.
To help your bearded dragon shed, build a shedding box which you can fill with moss or vermiculite to increase the humidity. You also need to mist your bearded dragon once a day when it is shedding. You can use a mister with water or a formulated reptile shedding aid spray.
If you can see retained skin building up around the toes or other areas, gently rub the skin with warm water to peel it off. But don’t do it too soon or too late – only if misting and natural shedding have not succeeded. Let most of the skin come off, and if some of it is still there, help your beardie by rubbing it off gently.
Egg binding in bearded dragons
Female bearded dragons can produce eggs even without a male. The difference is, they won’t be viable, but she will
This bearded dragon is gravid
still need to lay them. Some pregnant bearded dragons become unable to lay the eggs that they have, due to different reasons.
Symptoms of a gravid bearded dragon are following: Pregnant bearded dragon’s weight will increase, and her belly will look plump or swollen. She will look stressed, dig a lot (prior to choosing a nesting site) and might poop more often. At the late stages of pregnancy, she will refuse food. You might even be able to touch her belly with your fingers and feel small round eggs in the lower part of the belly.
There can be few reasons why a gravid (pregnant) bearded dragon can’t lay the eggs. One of them is when she is stressed or doesn’t have a special nesting site to lay them. If there is no nesting site, she will not lay the eggs anywhere and become egg-bound.
Another reason is when a pregnant bearded dragon has calcium deficiency (even slightly) that her muscles are not strong enough to push the eggs in the oviducts. There might also be a lot of eggs, or they might be so large or of abnormal shape that they block the oviduct.
Prevent egg-binding in your bearded dragon by recognizing the pregnancy and providing her with calcium rich diet, stress-free environment and a nesting site.
Pregnant dragon that is actively digging should lay her eggs within few days. If she hasn’t laid the eggs and looks very depressed and lethargic, she might be egg-bound. To treat egg-binding, you need to take your bearded dragon to the vet to perform an X-ray.
X-ray will show eggs in her abdomen. Your vet might have to remove the eggs surgically if they have blocked the oviduct to prevent death of the female.
Internal, or endo parasites in bearded dragons
Steam cleaners can sanitize a vivarium and other surfaces with an up to 200 degree pressured steam
Your bearded dragon, especially a baby or juvenile, might get infected with internal parasites or worms.
To treat internal parasitic infections, you need to take your bearded dragon to the vet who will perform a stool test. Also, you need to remove any furnishings from bearded dragon’s vivarium and only use a paper towel substrate for the time being.
Only leave food and water bowls in the cage (you can use something that you will throw away), and the lamps. Throw away any uneaten food (it might be contaminated).
Most of the internal parasites are killed by ammonia or bleach solution (don’t mix). But an even better solution is to use chemical free solution which is a steam cleaner, to kill parasites and sanitize a vivarium.
Get a steam cleaner than heats the water to minimum 160 degrees F (71 Celsius) to kill most of the parasites. McCulloch steam cleaner, for example, heats the water to up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also give your bearded dragon probiotics or a worm guard to help boost the appetite and fight with parasites while taking another prescribed medication.
It might take 1.5-2 months to clear the infection successfully with a proper hygiene and medications.
Coccidiosis is a common internal parasitic infection in bearded dragons caused by protozoa
Change the substrate daily or twice a day, and disinfect any furnishing for future use. Remove any stools straight away because bearded dragon might touch them and cause reinfection.
Separate bearded dragons into different cages, as they can transmit the infection. Also, provide your sick bearded dragon with a high quality diet fortified with vitamins, to strengthen the immune system.
Coccidiosis
Coccidiosis is common in young bearded dragons – and is caused by protozoa. Coccidia are normal parasites in bearded dragons, but in those with a weak immunity, their number increases dramatically which causes problems.
The symptoms of coccidiosis is a bad appetite and digestion, lethargy, loose and foul stools. In severe cases, bearded dragon loses weight, becomes weak, listless and can even die. Coccidia parasites multiply very fast, and form colonies inside your bearded dragon’s gut.
Treating coccidiosis is hard and requires medications and the perfect hygiene in a vivarium. You must clean the vivarium with a 10% solution of ammonia or 5% bleach, or even better, with a steam cleaner (at least 160 degrees). Never mix bleach and ammonia, however.
Make sure that the smell has dissipated before putting your bearded dragon back in. An even better solution is to have another temporary cage for your bearded dragon, and switch it to one and another when cleaning.
Tapeworms, roundworms (Nematodes), Trematodes, Pinworms, Microsporidia, Cryptosporidiosis (Crypto)
Tapeworm is another internal parasite. You can often see small oval shaped segments of the worm in bearded dragon’s feces. With tapeworms, your bearded dragon will look tired, and not gain weight even with a normal appetite.
Pinworms can also live in your bearded dragon’s gut without causing problems until the immunity becomes weak.
Their eggs can be killed with temperatures of around 135 F. Nematodes are not as serious as Coccidia, for example, but can also cause weight loss, poor growth and depression. They can only be seen under the microscope, but not with a naked eye in feces.
Microsporidia are internal parasites that cause Microsporidiosis. Affected bearded dragons become depressed, and some develop skin swelling on the head and body.
Cryptosporidiosis (Crypto) is a disease caused by Cryptosporidium parasites and can infect both bearded dragons and humans! If your bearded dragon has been infected with Cryptosporidium, you must be extremely cautious.
Symptoms of the infection are weight loss, stomach ache and swelling, depression, and vomiting. While most people get well without medication, it is fatal to bearded dragons.
In general, if you suspect any parasitic infection in your bearded dragon, take it to the vet for a feces test and prescription of specific wormers.
Ticks/mites in bearded dragons
Ticks/mites can infect your bearded dragon, but they are easier to get rid of than internal parasites. The good news 
is, you can see mites and ticks with an unaided eye and start the treatment as soon as possible. Even though they are very small, you can notice them when grooming your bearded dragon, or dead ones in the water bowl.
Mites are red in color and are thin when hungry and round and fat after feeding on bearded dragon’s blood. They reproduce very quickly, so you need to act as soon as you have seen few of them.
Mites often hide in bearded dragon’s skin folds – such as around the mouth, under the belly, between the limbs, around the eyes and so on. Mite bites will cause dry skin in bitten areas.
To remove mites from your bearded dragon, start with using a white paper towel substrate for the time of treatment. This way you will be able to see them crawling and they will have no space to hide.
Remove all accessories and only leave lights and feeding bowls to prevent mites from hiding in various spots. To kill mites on bearded dragon’s skin, use a reptile mite spray like this. Ivermectin is also popular as a spray to kill mites on a bearded dragon and its cage.
Be careful when removing dead ticks that still have their heads under the bearded dragon’s skin. The best practice is to use a dog tick removal which twists a tick and removes it without leaving its head under the skin (which can cause infections). In general, mite treatment can take up to a month to complete, depending on the case.
Weight loss/obesity in bearded dragons
Bearded dragons might become obese if you feed them too much food, especially insects and mice high in fat. Obesity is a big problem in bearded dragons, and can cause internal organ damage and even premature death. Normal weight for an adult bearded dragon is 300-700 grams, and its shouldn’t look too fat to be walking and climbing.
The best way to help your bearded dragon lose weight is to reduce amounts of fatty foods and provide it with more vegetables and greens. Read a complete diet guide for bearded dragons here.
Fat bearded dragons might also develop hepatic lipidosis, or a fatty liver disease. This can be fatal in bearded dragons that are fed high fat diets or have another metabolic disorder.
This young bearded dragon is malnourished
Underweight bearded dragons look malnourished and weak, with a flat belly and bones sticking out . There can be different reasons, such as underfeeding, bearded dragon rivalry causing underfeeding, lack of full spectrum light, poor diet, parasitic infections etc. You must find an underlying cause and improve bearded dragon’s quality of life for it to gain weight.
If you don’t act on time, your bearded dragon might die. Sometimes, new owners pick malnourished bearded dragons that have been abused by previous keepers, and try to give them a better life. In these situations, a malnourished bearded dragon can improve quickly with new caring owners.
Vitamin or mineral toxicity – hypervitaminosis in bearded dragons
It is easy to overdose with vitamins, and the most common type is vitamin A hypervitaminosis. In our post about supplementation and diet, we mentioned that you should get vitamins that contain beta carotene instead of vitamin A. Beta carotene is used by bearded dragon’s body as needed, without building up in the body.
Another type of mineral toxicity is hypercalcemia. Hypercalcemia develops when you over-supplement bearded dragon’s diet with calcium or vitamin D3. Too much vitamin D3 also causes increased absorption of calcium – leading to mineralization of kidneys.
Eye problems and squinting in bearded dragons 
Bearded dragon’s eyes can get inflamed and sore due to small foreign objects that get into the eyes. It is usually small grains of sand substrate that get into the eyes and irritate them. To treat this, flush your bearded dragon’s eyes with reptile eye drops or rinse with water. If the problem persists, change the substrate or take your dragon to the vet – there might be another issue.
Yellow fungus disease in bearded dragons
Yellow fungus disease in bearded dragons is caused by a fungus called Chrysosporium anamorph of Nannizziopsis vriessi, or CANV. 
Bearded dragons can become infected with a Yellow fungus disease by having a direct or indirect contact with contaminated items. Symptoms of Yellow fungus disease are yellowish plaques, scars and ulcers that can develop on limbs, tail and belly.
Yellow fungus disease is not easy to treat, and your bearded dragon will need a treatment with anti-fungal medications prescribed by the vet. Start the treatment as soon as possible as the disease causes pain to bearded dragons. Raise temperature in the basking spot to help fight off the infection.
Prolapse in bearded dragons
Prolapse in bearded dragons is an emergency. It happens to male bearded dragons – prolapsed hemipenes will be sticking out from the vent area. Prolapsed hemipenes will be red to dark red in color. Take your bearded dragon to the vet immediately if you don’t know how to clean the hemipenes and push them back into the vent correctly.
Broken or dislocated limbs in bearded dragons
Your bearded dragon might fall and injure itself, causing broken or dislocated limbs. You will be able to tell your bearded dragon has dislocated or broken limb if it is reluctant to walk, not using or dragging the affected limb. If the limb is broken, it will most probably look ‘hanging’ or crooked. Take your beardie to the vet for an X-Ray scan.
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