Shedding or sick beared Dragon

Hello everyone
So I got a baby beared dragon about two weeks ago in the reptile convention. She seemed to be doing good. Yesterday I came home and found her curled in between her food and water bowl. Usually she hangs out by her hide and light. I also noticed her head Is grey. Could she be shedding? Or possibly sick? Help I’m a new owner and really care about my Liza.

Could you give us a rundown of your setup? That will be very helpful in deciding what might be going on. What type of lighting are you using? what basking light and what wattage? Is your UVB MVB, coil, or tube, what brand, what is the strength (10.0. 5.0, 12% are common) if its a tube is it t5 or t8? What are your temperatures and what are you using to measure them? What are you feeding, how much and how often?

lizardmom25":36r6t19i said:

Could you give us a rundown of your setup? That will be very helpful in deciding what might be going on. What type of lighting are you using? what basking light and what wattage? Is your UVB MVB, coil, or tube, what brand, what is the strength (10.0. 5.0, 12% are common) if its a tube is it t5 or t8? What are your temperatures and what are you using to measure them? What are you feeding, how much and how often?

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Good morning
I’m not sure on the lighting once Is a heating lamp that came with the reptile cage from pet land. And the UV bulb I got specifically for a beared dragon at the convention. Her tank Is a 10 gallon with a hide and I feed her 3 meal worms a day because she wasn’t really eating the crickets

I can already see a couple of potential peroblems but need more info:
DO NOT feed a baby mealworms. They are too small to process them, and they will cause them to become impacted.

3 of anything a day is way too little. Babies should be eating 10-20 appropriately sized insects per feed with 2-3 feeds per day, plus fresh greens offered daily.

A 10 gallon tank is too small to set up a proper heat gradient so he may be getting overheated. You really need at LEAST a 20 gallon, but he will quickly outgrow that so 40 gallon or more is best. What are your warm side and cool side temps, and how are you measuring them?

Knowing what kind of UVB you have is important too. Is a bulb or a tube light?

Do you have a basking area and how close is it to the UVB?

[quote="lizardmom25.
Honestly this Is my 1st beared dragon and I’ve gotten so many different opinions, which Is why I joined this group for help. Idk how to add pictures here if not I would show u the set up.
I was told by petco to buy the meal worms. I’ve tried carrots and celery chopped in small piece and she doesn’t eat it. She also doesn’t like baths. I told the guy at petco she was only eating less than 5 crickets a day and he told me that was a lot for a bearded and to try the worms. I’ve seen a change in her behavior these last few days not sure what it Is. Her tank temp says 85/95 on the warm side. But I notice she wants to be on the cooler side or under the hide, when usually she wants to be on top of her hide looking out and relaxing.

There is an image uploader at the top if the page. How are you measuring those temps. For a baby, basking temp on the surface of the basking spot should be about 105, hot side air temp about 90.

Unfortunately petco often gives bad advice. Improper UVB can cause the behavior you are describing. What type of uvb do you have? Is it like the lightbulb you would put in a lamp, or a tube like a fluorescent light?

lizardmom25":3gtabpw6 said:

There is an image uploader at the top if the page. How are you measuring those temps. For a baby, basking temp on the surface of the basking spot should be about 105, hot side air temp about 90.

Unfortunately petco often gives bad advice. Improper UVB can cause the behavior you are describing. What type of uvb do you have? Is it like the lightbulb you would put in a lamp, or a tube like a fluorescent light?

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Yes I’m noticing that they give very bad advice. Yes the UVB bulb looks like a regular lightbulb. Like the energy saving ones with the swirl us. I have the heat on one side and the UVB on the other. I have a temperature thermometer in the tank most the time it’s at 95

Stephsteph":22v79xv3 said:

lizardmom25":22v79xv3 said:

There is an image uploader at the top if the page. How are you measuring those temps. For a baby, basking temp on the surface of the basking spot should be about 105, hot side air temp about 90.

Unfortunately petco often gives bad advice. Improper UVB can cause the behavior you are describing. What type of uvb do you have? Is it like the lightbulb you would put in a lamp, or a tube like a fluorescent light?

Click to expand...

Yes I’m noticing that they give very bad advice. Yes the UVB bulb looks like a regular lightbulb. Like the energy saving ones with the swirl us. I have the heat on one side and the UVB on the other. I have a temperature thermometer in the tank most the time it’s at 95

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The heat and UVB need to be on the same side of the tank, and needs to be on 12-14 hours a day along with the basking light. Those coil bulbs are mostly junk. There is one special high output one that is OK, but for the most part tube UVB is much better. For those coil bulbs the dragon has to be directly under it, most of the time within 4 inches of the bulb, to get adequate UVB. Also, some of the cheaper brands put out some wavelenths that can be damaging to beardie's eyes. Your very best bet is a reptisun 10.0 or arcadia 12% t5 bulb in a fixture with a reflector that covers 1/2 to 2/3 of your tank. I think UVB may be his issue, especially given that you don't have UVB and basking on the same side. You say he is spending more time on the cool side. That may be because he needs the UVB.

As for the thermometer, if its the stick on kind, its useless as well. They can be off by as much as 20 degrees. You need digital thermometer with a probe to read air temp, which should be about 90 on the hot side, and a temp gun to read surface temp on the basking spot, what should be about 105.

these are the products I use:
https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Lasergrip-774-Non-contact-Thermometer/dp/B00837ZGRY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1526061916&sr=8-3&keywords=temp+gun

https://www.amazon.com/Exo-Terra-Combination-Thermometer-Hygrometer/dp/B001NOGK7Y/ref=sr_1_5?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1526061940&sr=1-5&keywords=reptile+thermometer

https://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Reptisun-T5-Ho-Fluorescent/dp/B00AQU8GF0/ref=sr_1_3?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1526061970&sr=1-3&keywords=reptisun+10.0+t5+24+inch
this is just the bulb, you will need a fixture similar to this:
https://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-26053-Reptisun-Terrarium/dp/B00AQU8F2O/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1526062045&sr=1-1&keywords=reptisun+terrarium+hood

the light should be about 12 inches above the basking spot, alongside the basking light, 10 inches or so if it is set on top of a screen lid.

You really need to get a bigger tank to get her set up right, 20 gallon at lease but 40 would be best. She will outgrow the 10 gallon in a couple of weeks or proper care, and the 20 soon after. My baby is 5 months old and already almost as long as a 10 gallon tank. He is rapidly outgrowing his 40 gallon.