6 month beardie, has become withdrawn and less active

[elliotuk]

hi, i got my beardie about 6 months ago, for the first 5 months was quite active and would sit at the glass peering out inquisitvely. it would chase crickets like a nutter.




For the last few weeks however she seems to be far less active, she spends her entire day lying down at the back under a branch and rarely gets up to even walk around.
She is still eating but with less enthusiasm and although she will get up when it sees me put a few crickets down it wont always bother chasing them like she used to and any attempt to catch them is half-hearted and I sometimes have to prod the crickets around in front of her before she grabs them. She still eats her salad leaves too.

now at first I thought that perhaps they are just more active when they are younglings and now that it is a bit older it has just calmed down a bit. But when I go in to my local reptile shop they have a pair of 2 year old dragons and they are still inquisitively pacing up and down the front of the vivarium peering through the glass. My beardie wont usually do that anymore it just lies down at the back and doesnt seem interested in much.

I am a little worried that it may have swallowed a beech wood chip, I know a lot of people say not to use them for substrate but my local breeder says he has never lost a beardie from impaction from wood chips because they always spit them out (I think he was honest has he mentioned he used to lose a lot of beardies from impaction from using sand as a substrate). Anyway could this behaviour be likely due to a wood chip stuck inside her? shes still eating ok she just seems a bit withdrawn :/   but maybe shes just not a kid anymore lol.

If i take her to a vet do they normally xray them to see if something is stuck inside? and if there was a wood chip inside what would they normally do? can they opperate successfully on such small animal?

UVB bulb and basking lamp are on 13 hours/day, temps at hot end around 100F, probably about 80-90F at the other end. nutribal calcium balancer and multivitamin powder is sprinkled on the crickets fed to her every 2 days also.

any advice appreciated thanks.

[perfectly_flawed]

One of the biggest problems with particle substrates is that it holds bacteria and can increase the chances of parasite infection or other illnesses due to that bacteria. Your girl has symptoms of parasites or illnesses. Only a vet can tell you for sure. You'll need to take a fresh fecal sample with you to the vet. It IS possible a piece of the wood chips is causing this. You can request an xray to check.
In the meanwhile, I suggest getting rid of the wood chips and replacing it with paper towel, newspaper, reptile carpet, nonadhesive shelf liner, or textured ceramic tiles. A cleaner environment is a healthier one.
What is the exact basking surface temp? What type of thermometer are you using to measure that temp? Temps that are too low and dehydration are also possible causes of her symptoms. Do you bathe her? How often?