Question about my new beardie

[eskayex]

My dragon made it home a couple days ago from petsmart. They didn't know the age or kind of Dragon he or she is. I have a photo attached. He or she is about 8 inches.

Could anybody tell the age & type of my dragon?

He also closes one eye often, like it's something in his eye. Could anyone tell me about that also?

 

[laswabbie]

Welcome to the forum!

http://www.dachiubeardeddragons.com/dragoncare/growthcharts.html

The link above will give you good male & female length v age charts. I'm new to the beardom as well so, unfortunately, I can't help you with the eye blinking problem.

 

[eskayex]

That's fine. Welcome as well! Thanks for the information, I'm looking at it now. Hopefully I can find out what kind of Dragon he is and the eye thing. He or she is still getting familiar with the new surroundingsite so I'm trying not to panic to much lol.

 

[PatsyB]

It's hard to tell how old they are because so many different things factor into their growth such as how they were fed and what kind of lighting they had. At 8 inches he is probably around 2 months old.

Bearded dragons do weird things. The eye blinking could just be a bearded dragon thing. What kind of light are you using for your UVB and your basking light?

 

[eskayex]

Okay. I guessed around 3 months, thank you.

I have a all living things 50 watt basking bulb & a 13 watt national geographic desert uvb fluorescent bulb.

 

[eskayex]

Could you by any chance tell when kind of dragon he is? Ive heard of many types, just not good at identifying the difference.

 

[eskayex]

Here is a another photo of him/her

 

[PatsyB]

Looks like just a normal scale very pretty bearded dragon. I can't find any info about your UVB bulb online is it a coil bulb or is it a long tube bulb? Coil bulbs have been known to hurt bearded dragons eyes. You really want your UVB bulb to cover at least 2/3'rds of your tank. A coil bulb concentrates it into one small area as does a compact bulb. If you look at the link on general care at the bottom of my post, there is some information there about what is the best lighting to use.

 

[eskayex]

Yes the UVB bulb is a coil. Would you say 5.0 or 10.0 tube bulb is better?
Also, he/she doesn't like to chase after crickets. I have to remove the legs for them to be eaten. Could that have to do with the lighting? The basking bulb is about 7 inches away from the basking area.

 

[eskayex]

This is the UVB Fluorescent bulb:
http://www.bhg.com/shop/national-ge...t-bulb-pd0527fb1ed9478dd2adbf04fd07470dd.html

This the Basking light:
http://m.petsmart.com/h5/hub?id=/re...ing-bulb-zid36-14792/cat-36-catid-500036?null

 

[PatsyB]

The proper UVB bulb can make a world of difference. You want to use a 10.0 bulb ReptiSun is the preferred brand. If you can get a ReptiSun 10.0 T5 fixture and bulb that would be best but they are a bit more expensive. A ReptiSun 10.0 T8 bulb is the most common one used. T5 and T8 are the size of the bulb. Most people that get the T8 bulb mount it inside the tank because the mesh top blocks out a lot of the UVB rays. If you do that, you want to mount it over the dragons head so that it doesn't shine in its eyes. A T5 bulb and fixture can be set on top of the mesh tank top and still provide adequate UVB coverage 15 " away.

 

[PatsyB]

Also get a temp gun, you can buy them on Amazon or at a hardware store for like $13. For a baby you want a basking area of 107 degrees, not sure your 50 watt bulb would get that hot.

 

[PatsyB]

Petmountain.com usually has good sales on bulbs and fixtures.

 

[Hdrydr31]

Patsy covered pretty much what I was going to say.. You say he/she came from the petstore what was the substrate from where you got it? was it on sand? if so it could be some irritation.

 

[eskayex]

Yeah I had to settle for cheaper bulb but I do plan on upgrading and also get a temp gun. With you mentioning the UVB light being bove him. Right now the UVB I have is positioned to the left of his basking bulb & basking spot. He tends to look up like "man, move that light!". It would explain a lot. I'll take a look at that site, thanks.

To Hdrydr31: No, no sand it look more like black rocks of some kind from what i can remember.

Could the lighting effect his willingness to catch crickets? I have to remove the legs and leave the room for him to eat lol

 

[JUNGLE JIM]

He certainly looks like a fat and healthy normal beardie to me. When they are hungry they will chase down a cricket no problem. Mine will chase one cricket all over their enclosure until they catch it. Welcome to the forum.

 

[Hdrydr31]

Yeah I had to settle for cheaper bulb but I do plan on upgrading and also get a temp gun. With you mentioning the UVB light being bove him. Right now the UVB I have is positioned to the left of his basking bulb & basking spot. He tends to look up like "man, move that light!". It would explain a lot. I'll take a look at that site, thanks.

To Hdrydr31: No, no sand it look more like black rocks of some kind from what i can remember.

Could the lighting effect his willingness to catch crickets? I have to remove the legs and leave the room for him to eat lol

If the light was coming from the side instead of from above then yes. Dragon's have scaled ridges over their eyes to protect them from the sun shining down.. so if the lights are not coming from above it could be hurting their eyes. Some beardies don't like to be watched while eating so that's not weird.

if he was on loose substrate that could have irritated his eyes, or maybe while in a head shed they will rub themselves on things to remove the shed so it's possible he hurt himself.

 

[eskayex]

Thanks for all of your help. I have more question:

What is the dark patterns that formed on his beard and belly in the past 24 hours?

 

[Hdrydr31]

normal patterns, some call them stress marks even though they are not really from stress. It can be when they are warming up, if they are being curious, or scared of something.. no need to worry they tend to go away the older they get.

 

[eskayex]

Thanks. They are still on his beard and belly now but not as dark as they was this morning. Thanks guys I really appreciate the help. I'll be back on here if I have any other questions.