Knowing the signs and symptoms of diseases in bearded dragons will help you understand if your bearded dragon is actually sick. Sooner you find out your bearded dragon is sick (and the actual sickness), the sooner you will be able to help your dragon get better. In this post, we will cover warning signs and symptoms that your bearded dragon is sick and how to know if your bearded dragon is sick.
Signs and symptoms that your bearded dragon is sick
- Shaking
- Wheezing, trouble breathing
- Secretion from mouth, discoloration inside the mouth
- Severe lethargy not associated with brumation
- Weight loss (especially rapid weight loss)
- Eye swelling or closing eyes
- Tail or back kinks, soft bones, hanging jaw, weak limbs
- Extremely smelly and/or runny poop, blood in poop
- Long-lasting constipation
- Bumps on skin
- Loss of balance, distorted walking, head tilting
- Very bloated belly
- Prolapsed hemipene that is not retracting (going back)
- Yellow spots on the body
- Black/red spots
- Very fat body
- Not basking
- Hiding and sleeping all the time
Below, you will find the symptoms associated with specific parts of the body and what illnesses they point to.
In this post, you will only find symptoms and associated diseases. If you also wish to get advice on how to treat or improve the symptoms, please see this post.
Signs and symptoms associated with limbs and tail
| Signs and symptoms | Illness or a problem |
| Weakness in limbs, hard to stand up (first signs) | Low calcium and or/vitamin D3, MBD |
| Swollen legs | Low calcium and or/vitamin D3, MBD |
| Mouth hanging open, soft jaw (late stage) | Low calcium and or/vitamin D3, MBD |
| Kinks in tail or back | Low calcium and or/vitamin D3, MBD |
| Soft bones, easily breaking | Low calcium and or/vitamin D3, MBD |
| Not wishing to move around, laying a lot | Low calcium and or/vitamin D3, MBD and many other illnesses |
| Shaking and twitching | Low calcium and or/vitamin D3, MBD, low blood glucose levels |
| Can’t move back legs, dragging back limbs, paralysis | Impaction, severe constipation, gout, back injury |
| Black, dry, leathery tail | Tail rot |
Most often, symptoms associated with weak and soft limbs indicate a low calcium and or/vitamin D3 in your bearded dragon’s body. Lack of calcium in the diet, not gut-loading live feed and absence of UVB tube light in a tank will cause Metabolic bone disease.
Any broken bones can be as a result of soft bones when suffering from a deficiency. But this is not always the case. Your bearded dragon can break a bone if it falls from a structure or gets crushed.
If your bearded dragon can’t move its back legs, it can be impaction, gout, back injury and more. With impaction, the foreign object, large bugs or substrate fill the guts and compress the spine.
Gout is when a bearded dragon’s kidneys don’t filter out uric acid properly, so their levels rise in blood. Often gout is due to old age, kidney failure. But, it can also be a result of dehydration, high protein levels in the diet.
Signs and symptoms associated with digestive system
| Signs and symptoms | Illness or a problem |
| Smelly and runny poop, poor appetite (read more here) | Parasites |
| Blood in poop (read more here) | Parasites, feeding bugs with sharp legs that cause tears in guts, foreign objects (or just colored poop from food) |
| Very bloated stomach | Calcium deficiency, impaction or constipation, gravid (or egg-binding), respiratory infection, vitamin toxicity |
| Long lasting constipation (more than 10 days) (read more here) | Impaction from eating large bugs or impaction with objects or substrate, polyps (abnormal growth) in guts |
| Weight loss (read more here) | Parasites, improper setup (heat & light especially) leading to indigestion and loss of appetite |
| Not gaining weight (read more here) | Parasites, low tank temperatures also leading to poor appetite |
| Vomiting (read more here) | Eating very large bugs, overeating, impaction, drinking too much water |
Most problems with digestive system are due to parasites. Make sure to take your bearded dragon’s poop to a vet when you just get your bearded dragon to make sure it’s healthy. Otherwise, parasites won’t let your bearded dragon grow and develop properly.
With any of above symptoms, take a fresh (preferably less than 2 hours old) sample for a full fecal test.
Impaction and constipation can also be related. If your bearded dragon hasn’t pooped for more than a week, you should action immediately. Make sure not to use loose substrate in the tank, as impaction is a big problem. Give your dragon a bath, belly rubs, a drop of vegetable oil, pumpkin puree to help it poop.
If nothing is helping, take it to the vet as it can be serious impaction or abnormal growth in intestines, that will need surgical intervention. Don’t delay it, as it can kill your bearded dragon.
Signs and symptoms associated with neurological system
| Signs and symptoms | Illness or a problem |
| Head tilting, loss of balance | Inner ear infection, meningitis infection, head injury, concussion |
| Confusion, loss of balance, extreme panting | Overheating |
| Spasms, inability to stand up, lethargy | Toxin exposure (sprays, paints, chemicals, toxic bugs/plants), low blood sugar level, infections |
Signs and symptoms associated with mouth, nose, throat, eyes
| Signs and symptoms | Illness or a problem |
| Dead tissue around the mouth, redness, pus, black teeth, discoloration inside the mouth, sometimes pus, drooling | Mouth rot (can also be caused by low tank temperatures) |
| Puffed and enlarged throat | Food stuck in the throat, needs removing carefully |
| Wheezing, gaping, hard breathing, open mouth, drooling, inflated throat, clicking noises | Respiratory infection (also caused by low tank temperatures) |
| Swollen nose, scratches, bleeding | Abrasion, bearded dragon hitting the glass or other surfaces |
| Inability to open eyes | Dust, small objects or loose substrate in eyes, stuck shed, bright light, mites, flush out with reptile eye drops like this. |
| Sunken eyes | Dehydration, infection, death |
| Slimy and thick saliva, wrinkly skin | Dehydration |
Signs and symptoms associated with body
| Signs and symptoms | Illness or a problem |
| Toes stuck together (read more here) | Retained shed, dried blood or food making them sticky. Make a soak and disinfect if blood is present |
| Ripped claw, black toe (read more here) | Injury, bites |
| Fat pads, round belly | Obesity, a serious problem in adult bearded dragons, can lead to a fatty liver |
| Hemipene doesn’t retract within a day | Prolapsed hemipene |
Signs and symptoms associated with skin
| Signs and symptoms | Illness or a problem |
| Bumps under the skin | Cysts, abscesses that need incision and draining |
| Black spots, leathery skin | Fungal infection or mites for small black spots (red or black) |
| Yellow spots, plaques, ulcers around the belly, limbs, lethargy | Yellow fungus disease |
Brumation vs. sickness in bearded dragons
Many brumation symptoms are similar to sickness, and you will need to differentiate them. Before your bearded dragon starts brumating, it will slowly refuse food, will start hiding and digging more.
Bearded dragons can start brumating only after they turn 10-12 months old, so younger bearded dragons shouldn’t be brumating. What is more, a big difference between brumation and sickness is that during brumation bearded dragons don’t lose weight (not more than few grams).
Your bearded dragon will start brumating once temperatures go down a little or when days get shorter. Bearded dragons are very intuitive, even with smaller changes. But not all bearded dragons will brumate in captivity.
You can read a useful post on brumation here, to learn about differences and signs.
Sickness vs. stress in bearded dragons
If your bearded dragon is stressed, it can seem sick as well. In fact, prolonged stress will cause sickness as it suppresses the immune system.
To find out if your bearded dragon is stressed, you need to look at many different factors. If you have just brought your bearded dragon home and it’s not eating or basking for few days, it’s fine. This should pass within a week or so.
Bearded dragons can become stressed due to many factors – lack of light or heat, other pets, bright lights, loud noises, cage mates and many more. Please find out the causing problem and fix it.
While adult bearded dragons can survive stress and lack of food for longer periods, babies are not as strong. If a baby bearded dragon under 3 months old seems stressed and isn’t eating for more than a week, take it to a vet immediately.
You can read a full post on stress in bearded dragons and how to manage it here.
Summary:
So how to know if your bearded dragon is sick? If your bearded dragon showing any signs of illness and it’s not due to stress or brumation, please take it to the vet as soon as possible.
Also, review your setup because treatment or improvement often starts at home, by reviewing living conditions.
If your bearded dragon is showing severe stress, lethargy, is losing weight, not eating or pooping and more, it is probably sick. Bearded dragons are hardy and it can take a long time for them to start showing any symptoms. Prevention is much better than treatment.
Please read this post on bearded dragon illnesses, where you will find more symptoms and advice on treatment or management.