A Little Worried

So I'm a little worried about my new buddy, JoJo. Other than this little thing, he is perfectly healthy. Moves with a purpose, climbs his hide to bask, eats like a champ and bathroom habits are regular and consistent. I had some issues with lighting the first couple of days I had him. I upgraded to a ReptiSun T8 10.0 tube. The next day my timer malfunctioned and he went about 3 hours (I was asleep) with no heat. Temps never dropped below 75 but now he's keeping his head pointed up. He sleeps laid out like a pancake but he when he's awake, his head is up and it looks a little wonky. It's not as dramatic as stargazing but it's still kinda funny. He also flexes his beard a lot. It doesn't look anything like the beardies with URIs but he does a little more than just normal flexing. He only does it when he's laid out basking. His colors are super bright, he's always super alert and looking around. He's a little picky about when he eats but, otherwise, he's a very stereotypical baby beardie. I have the T8 UVB, a ZooMed 150W basking bulb (temp controlled so he doesn't fry) as well as a ceramic heat emitter that keeps him about 96-98 overnight. I will be picking up a laser temp gun tomorrow after work for more accurate readings, but his temps haven't been below 98 for the past 2 days save for the mishap with the timer. I have an analog thermometer in there and I know they aren't super accurate but it gives me a rough estimate until I can get a more accurate method. He's eaten probably 30 dubia roaches in the past 2 days as well as some cucumber. He won't eat right when I give it to him, he still hasn't realized that my hand isn't going to kill him

https://youtu.be/ez9yerrFlMY
Here's a video I took. He only seems to do the weird flexing/exaggerated breathing his eyes are open and he sees me. The quality is pretty crap because I had to zoom in on him. This could be normal and I could be making something out of nothing. I'm just a little worried

Hi there, it's good to hear that he's eating well and otherwise acting fine. I just want to mention that a tamp. of 96-98 at night is waaaaaay too hot, that can be the cause of problems in itself. Is his cool side that high through the day as well ? His cool side should be between 75-83 at the most and night temps. can go down to 67-70. High nighttime temps. can cause breathing distress just as well as a U.R.I but will hopefully disappear after the temps. are corrected. Offer water dripped on his snout for a drink. Or put a shallow plastic soaking container in to soak him in 2-3 times a week [ supervised ] and take it out after you soak him for 5-10 minutes just to give him a chance to drink.


BTW, what substrate do you use and is the uvb bulb mounted in the tank ? Can you post a pic of the entire tank ?

AHBD":3a4t5egr said:

Hi there, it's good to hear that he's eating well and otherwise acting fine. I just want to mention that a tamp. of 96-98 at night is waaaaaay too hot, that can be the cause of problems in itself. Is his cool side that high through the day as well ? His cool side should be between 75-83 at the most and night temps. can go down to 67-70. High nighttime temps. can cause breathing distress just as well as a U.R.I but will hopefully disappear after the temps. are corrected. Offer water dripped on his snout for a drink. Or put a shallow plastic soaking container in to soak him in 2-3 times a week [ supervised ] and take it out after you soak him for 5-10 minutes just to give him a chance to drink.


BTW, what substrate do you use and is the uvb bulb mounted in the tank ? Can you post a pic of the entire tank ?

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The only reason he gets heat at night is because my roommates keep the AC ridiculously cold. Like never above 65 cold. The substrate is a mat for easy cleaning and I have the screens pulled apart to hold the uvb fixture over the open tank

Everything else sounds good but you'll have to get the CHE much further back so the temp. is not over 80 anywhere in the tank at night. A temp. of high 90's all the time can kill your baby. It's actually better off at 65 than 95 at night.

AHBD":290orctn said:

Everything else sounds good but you'll have to get the CHE much further back so the temp. is not over 80 anywhere in the tank at night. A temp. of high 90's all the time can kill your baby. It's actually better off at 65 than 95 at night.

Click to expand...

Good to know, I'll either just turn everything off at night or find a different place to put it

Sounds good !

So after some serious messing around with bulbs and temps, I've finally gotten his day time temps to 105 and his night time temps around 70. The problem now is he seems to have lost a lot of energy. I attributed his behavior yesterday to nearly being fried by a bulb that was way too hot after going with no heat. But, today, he's had steady temps since 8 am and he just isn't acting all that well. I gave him a bath and he lapped up a bit of water and I put him in a feeding bin to see if he would eat. He didn't eat any, maybe just one. He did lick up some of the loose vitamin powder off the bottom but he never even chased one of the dubia's unless he waited until my back was turned. He's still alert and he always tries jumping out of the feeding bin and the bath so he's got energy, but he just isn't as active or hungry as he was a couple days ago. I've only had him for a week, has anyone had experiences with relocation stress lasting this long or longer? I just don't want him to starve himself