What kind of dragon do I have?

[ChammiesNDragons]

Hello Everyone!

I am super excited to be apart of this forum I have found my love for reptiles late in life, I'm 29 LOL. But I was always like ewwww, don't touch it! And now I'm like awwwwww, look at the way it chomps those roaches

Anywho, I just got a dragon 3 days ago and it's old enough to where I can see his little man parts under his tail. My son named him Salty. My son is 5 lol. But yeah, he eats out of my hand and lets me hold him, but still has stress marks. I'm thinking because it's still new to him. He closes his eyes when I rub on his head like "feels good.."

I don't know what kind of dragon he is. Like what morph? He's got spikes everywhere and he also has a bit of blue running in between his stripes on his back. I'm thinking hes the sandy colored and blue... but the parents in the window were bright oranges and reds. Their beards were orange. He's got a little orange stripe on either side of his eyes.

I have him in a 32x12 for right now and when he gets big I'm going to put him in something bigger. His basking temp is 95-100, and the cooler end is 80s. He even eats greens from my hands and lets me bath him. He's pretty calm. Also, any idea how I get that red mark off his tail? It's driving me crazy!

 

[ChammiesNDragons]

Also, I should say his temp on the cooler end is 75-80. Doesn't really pass 80. And I have a 10.0 UVB and 75 watt black light for heat. The pet store, not Petsmart or Petco, it's a lil mom and pop pet store( Karla's Kritters), said that the black light is dim enough to where I can keep it on at night and double it as heat during the day. It does good, upper 90s. The UVB is in a big 8.5" dome. I've got newspaper in there for now and I'm looking for a background for him. The kind I saw at Petsmart was ugly, desert, but ugly. He's also got grapevine in there, a big fake rock/branch thing, two dishes and this slate rock that looks like Pride Rock in Lion King... he pooped on that last night, ginormous!! But his urate was white so I'm happy he's hydrated.

 

[Hdrydr31]

Congratulations and welcome to the forum! Your little one is cute! Salty is cute Yea he/she is a bit too young to be able to tell what sex it is.. I would not worry about those marks they come and go it really doesn't mean they are stressed.. Mine shows them most of the time and she's not stressed As long as your nightime temp doesn't go below 65F you don't need any light they can see any light so it's best for them to be in the dark.. If you need heat at night use a CHE (ceramic heating element). They have the 3rd eye ontop of their head that senses light/shadows. Not sure what you can use to get the red mark off but it should come off with his next shed. Good substrates are paper towels, ceramic tiles, contact paper, newspaper, repti carpet.
What all is he/she eating? Here are some good links that most of us use:

http://greathousefarm.com/Greathouse-Reptile-Nutrition-List.pdf
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

We love pictures

 

[ChammiesNDragons]

I don't know, I think I'll take a picture of its tail... I see two little bulges on either side of its vent. But I could be wrong. That's great to know about the lines on the tummy. It's weird, even when he's calm, he has those. It gets fairly cold at night, probably lower 60s. That ceramic heat sounds great! He's eating crickets... he likes them, but they are a bit too fast. I don't really like crickets either, so most of what he eats right now are nymph dubias and bits of turnip greens. I was hoping I wouldn't have to wait for him/her to shed for that mark to come off. It's irritating lol.

 

[Hdrydr31]

I don't know, I think I'll take a picture of its tail... I see two little bulges on either side of its vent. But I could be wrong. That's great to know about the lines on the tummy. It's weird, even when he's calm, he has those. It gets fairly cold at night, probably lower 60s. That ceramic heat sounds great! He's eating crickets... he likes them, but they are a bit too fast. I don't really like crickets either, so most of what he eats right now are nymph dubias and bits of turnip greens. I was hoping I wouldn't have to wait for him/her to shed for that mark to come off. It's irritating lol.

Try this method: go in a dark room with a flashlight, lay him flat and lift up his tail shine the light from the top down it will shine thru his/her tail if male you'll see the 2 hemipenes if none well you know

 

[Hdrydr31]

I don't know, I think I'll take a picture of its tail... I see two little bulges on either side of its vent. But I could be wrong. That's great to know about the lines on the tummy. It's weird, even when he's calm, he has those. It gets fairly cold at night, probably lower 60s. That ceramic heat sounds great! He's eating crickets... he likes them, but they are a bit too fast. I don't really like crickets either, so most of what he eats right now are nymph dubias and bits of turnip greens. I was hoping I wouldn't have to wait for him/her to shed for that mark to come off. It's irritating lol.

Yea crickets are a pain I used to raise them.. Now I raise Dubia's my Izzy loves them. make sure you vary the greens .. I wish I knew what was safe to remove the mark but maybe someone else on here will chime in..

 

[Hdrydr31]

I don't know, I think I'll take a picture of its tail... I see two little bulges on either side of its vent. But I could be wrong. That's great to know about the lines on the tummy. It's weird, even when he's calm, he has those. It gets fairly cold at night, probably lower 60s. That ceramic heat sounds great! He's eating crickets... he likes them, but they are a bit too fast. I don't really like crickets either, so most of what he eats right now are nymph dubias and bits of turnip greens. I was hoping I wouldn't have to wait for him/her to shed for that mark to come off. It's irritating lol.

So your household temp goes below 65F ? Burr never mind me I have Rheumatoid arthritis and a few others so our home is 73 ish You may want to get a digital temp probe or a hand held temp gun to get accurate temps

 

[ChammiesNDragons]

Hi! Thanks so much! I tried that flashlight thing but he didn't take it so well, lol, meaning my husband haha. But I'll attach a picture. Yea it gets pretty cold in here and I'm not sure the heater will flow all the way where he is. I think I'm going to try collard greens too. And I bought raspberries. He's starting not to like crickets since the dubias lol. He doesn't eat them. My kids also renamed him Blue, you'll see why. He's gorgeous. I love him.

 

[PatsyB]

Welcome to your new addiction! I have you beat, I started getting interest around 37! I had a friend when I was younger that used to go hunt frogs and I thought that was gross and now I have 5 frogs, 3 bearded dragons and a chameleon! I also never liked bugs and now I have bugs in tanks in my house. I still don't like spiders!

Anyway, they all have those two little bumps on the sides of their vent. They are like little fat pads or something. When he's around 4-5 months you'll be able to really tell. The bumps would be on the tail ABOVE the vent. One bump in the middle is girl and two bumps on each side of the tail is boy

Couple of things hdrydr31 gave you some good info already. Here is a link to a lighting article, it gets kinda technical in parts but it really explains how they see light and the difference between the different bulbs. http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Reptile-Health/Habitats-Care/Reptile-Lighting-Information/
I'm assuming the UVB bulb you have in the dome is a compact bulb? You really want you UVB to cover at least 2/3'rd of your tank so that he gets coverage. Also offer hides so he can get a away from the light if he wants to. A good bulb to get is a Reptisun 10.0 HO T5 or T8 bulb. If you are mounting your lights over your tank you want to get a T5 bulb and fixture since it penetrates the mesh. If you are mounting the light inside your tank (over your beardies head) you can use a T8 bulb and you can even just use a normal household fluorescent light fixture for that. I am big on not making modifications to my tanks or the lids to my tanks so I use the T5 bulbs on top of my tanks.

 

[ChammiesNDragons]

Did you guys see the pictures I posted on the last message? Do you have any idea what coloration he is or if he's a morph of some kind? From what the pet store told me, he's over 4 months old. The dome over his tank is large enough to reflect the uvb 10-12 inches in either direction. I made sure it would cover over half his tank. Most the time he spends is under his heat light so the ubv is directly over that area. It's a 10.0 but I'm not sure what brand I got, I'll have to look.

 

[ChammiesNDragons]

I hope these come in a little bigger.

 

[Hdrydr31]

He/she is very cute.. On the male or female my Izzy is a girl and when she what that size she had those little oval bumps but now she doesn't....So in the beginning I went back and forth it's a boy .....then it's a girl... it's a boy...nope it's a girl!! I would say don't worry about the sex until he/she puts on some weight and size to fill up and out then 7-8 months things will become clear I don't know hardly anything on coloration morph...

 

[PatsyB]

Oh wow! You def have a boy on your hands, those are some big bumps above his vent!

 

[ChammiesNDragons]

Thanks Hdrydr31! I'm hoping it's a boy! He just looks like one lol. If not, the name "Blue" still fits a girl. Whatever the case is, it eats like crazy LOL!

PatsyB I'm really hoping so! Go team Boy!

 

[ChammiesNDragons]

Also,

If he breaths through his mouth at times, does that just mean he's hot and is trying to regulate himself? The temp is at 95 or so, I thought they like it hotter?

 

[Hdrydr31]

Also,

If he breaths through his mouth at times, does that just mean he's hot and is trying to regulate himself? The temp is at 95 or so, I thought they like it hotter?

Yes they will do that and yes it is how they regulate their temp.. It would be different if they were cold and doing that..