Bearded Dragon Health & Wellness

Symptoms checker, common illnesses, brumation, shedding, and emergency care.

The most common bearded dragon health problems are metabolic bone disease, impaction, parasites, respiratory infections, mouth rot, and stuck shed. Nearly all of them are husbandry problems first — weak UVB, wrong temperatures, loose substrate, or a diet short on calcium — which means nearly all of them are preventable, and most are treatable if caught early.

The hard part is telling a real problem from a normal one. A dragon that stops eating in November may be brumating. A dragon that turns its beard black may be cold, stressed, or just annoyed. A dragon that sleeps all day in a tank that never reaches 100°F is not sick; it is cold. The guides below are organized so you can start from what you see — the symptom — and work toward the cause.

Two rules that hold across every guide here. First, a reptile vet is not optional for a dragon that has not eaten in a week outside brumation, has a swollen jaw or limbs, or cannot lift its body off the ground. Second, before any vet visit, check the enclosure: measure the basking surface with a temp gun, check the UVB bulb’s age, and look at the substrate. Fixing those solves a large share of cases on its own.

Start here

The overview, a checklist for what healthy looks like, and the rules for when a vet visit stops being optional.

Symptoms: what you are seeing

Start from the behavior and work back to the cause.

Common illnesses

Signs, causes, treatment, and what the vet will likely do.

Normal, but alarming the first time

Brumation and shedding both look like illness to a new owner. Both are normal. Both have a point where they stop being normal, and these guides mark it.