Not basking

[Dparmd59]

Hello I have a roughly 7 month old bearded dragon her name is hutch Saturday was a normal day for her get out and play eat her buffet of food bask then she went to bed then I noticed Sunday morning that she didn’t want to bask under her lights like she normally dose and she started digging around where she bask at and it appeared she was trying to dig under something like she was trying to make a cave the she jumped into her hammock and crawled up onto the glass like she was glass surfing but she was just laying there and since this has started happening she has cut back on her eating she will still take food occasionally but not a lot she doesn’t have stress marks she isn’t black bearding she has no mucous coming from anywhere her eyes look good she isn’t coughing or wheezing her skin is normal color her basking temp stays at 106.7 usually her cool side temp is usually 81 to 83 her uvb setup is a 18 inch zoo med fixture with a reptisun 10.0 bulb mounted 12 inches from where she bask her tank sized it a 125 gallon tank that she’s been moved to for about two months since she’s getting longer so she could have room to be more active she’s been really happy in her home to this point her diet consists of roachs crickes those are her staples then just gets hornworms sometimes calcium worms sometimes and also super worms but not as much her veggies are collard greens turnip green bell peppers squash zucchini mango papayas she also get calcium dusted crickets and she get crickets dusted with her vitamin supplement I’m just looking for some good advice on what could possibly be wrong thanks in advance for the help

 

[Emilia Thuet]

It’s that time of year when beardies start to brumate no matter how young they are. It’s basically a form of hibernation where their metabolism slows down and they kinda sleep anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months. Sadly beardies should only be brumating when they are at least a year old or closer to it. Yours is still too young so I suggest to contact your vet or a vet that specializes with exotic pets and ask them what you should do because you will have to force her out of it. She isn’t old enough or big enough to brumate and it can cause health problems in the long run. Mine even started brumating when he was 10 months and I had to force him out of it for at least a month until he was a bit bigger. If you’d like you can post pictures of your set up and beardie, sometimes it can help figure out what’s wrong faster. Besides early brumation that’s really the only guess I can have with the behaviour she’s experiencing.

 

[Sadie]

The T 8 UVB needs to be inside the tank w/ NO clear plastic cover over the bulb and 12 inches is too far for a T 8 it needs to be 6-8 inches directly above the basking decor piece - for the size of your tank I would recommend upgrading the T 8 to a 24" hood w/ a Reptisun 10.0 T 5 --- basking temps are good as long as your taking them w/ a digital probe thermometer --- please readjust your UVB and look at upgrading it -- watch the behavior after you fix the UVB and let me know how it goes -- I would also cut out the meal worms for her for now till shes older - they can cause impaction w/ babies or young dragons as the exoskeleton is harsh on the stomachs --- supers are ok but limited amounts - like 1-3--