My beautiful Rico has suddenly died at age 4 and a half :( she was an amazing dragon and everyone loved her

2 days ago I discovered my 4 year old beardie Rico had suddenly died :( this was a complete shock as I always tried to take the best care of her. She was the absolute greatest, sweetest, dragon ever. I’m completely heartbroken her life was cut so short :(

She was acting completely normally, eating well (as always), very active, running around, you name it! up until about a week or two ago, when I noticed one day she didn’t want any bugs, and she seemed a bit more defensive about being handled than usual. I began to suspect she was gravid, because she had laid eggs around the same time last year. So I made sure her dig area was nice and full and had a good private section for her.

She continued eating salads and seemed fine up until about 2 days before she died when she seemed pretty lethargic and I started to think she wasn’t feeling well. I did take her out to hold her which I’m so so so thankful I did that one last time. Well all of a sudden the next day she was in her hide all day and I just let her hang out there cuz she would do that from time to time and then the next day came and she hadn’t touched her food so I looked under her hide to discover she had passed :(

I am so devastated and just don’t understand what happened. She was from petsmart which ofc when I became a beardie owner I had no idea was a no no. But while she had parasites as a baby, I had gotten rid of them and had continued taking her to the vet once a year and they always said she was perfectly healthy:( my suspicions are that she had adeno and just never showed any symptoms or maybe a tumor or something. She pooped fine, ate well, and was very active up until the last few days. I just wish there was something I had noticed in time :(

Anyway I just wanted to share some of my favorite pics of my girl from over the years. I’ll miss her so much. ❤️