BD wont open eyes regularly

my dragon isnt open his eyes on his own unless he is eating crickets and if move him in a weird way. he eats crickets fine but closes his eyes while chewing them. he isnt eating his salad which he used to eat all that i could put in. he started the day before my forlecent bulb broke it was a flukers coil light and didn't give him any problems for the past months. then for the time being i have a Rzilla light that is for tropical reptiles and have being putting this on him for 12 hours a day but i got this light after this started to happen. i also have been letting the night temps get to about 60ish or more. he isnt really seeming the need to move but does a little during the day. he is also about 9 months old and has been fine until the last week. when he does open his eyes they dont seem to be watery, dry, swollen or sunken they seem to be fine. i hope that is enough info.

I am not as experienced as alot of the people here but my guess would be the light your are using.... Coil bulbs are not recommended one bit for our lil ones. I would recommend getting him the Reptisun 10.0 (flourecent tube). Out of curiosity what are the temps during the day on the basking side and the cool side?
Junior

they are about 100 for basking spot and is only a 10 gal so i would guess that the cool spot is about 75 to 80

you need to turn off the UV light that you have in there until you can get hold of a reptisun 10.0. If the problems only began when you switched the UV light i am quite positive that this is the problem. And as the previous poster said coil lights are really bad for their eyes. You need to get a tube which sits directly next to the basking spot and which covers 3/4 of your cage.

And i'm pretty sure you should have a bigger tank than a 10 gal for a 9 month old. what are the dimensions in inches of your tank? and how long is your dragon?

Nikki

I have to agree with the others that the UVB light is probably the reason for the eye problems. All the coil & compact UVB's are dangerous. He would be better off without any for a few days until you can get the Repti-Sun strip fluorescent.

You mentioned that he is 9 mo old & in a 10 gallon tank which seems like he must not have enough room to move around. It's very hard to get good basking & cool side temps in such a small tank. What wattage basking bulb are you using & what type of thermometer? How do you keep him hydrated, by misting, bathing or giving drinks on his nose for him to lick off?

Coil bulbs are compact flourescent bulbs. Some of them have been linked to eye problems in the animals. Those problems have been fixed by changing the formula of phosphors in the bulb, but being that the manufacturer did not issue a recall, the old, bad ones are still out there. There is a way to tell the difference, but it involves looking at batch codes on the packaging. I am not at home, so I do not have the info handy. The cool thing about C.F. bulbs, either coil, or straight tube is that they emit very little heat, which makes it easier to control the temp gradient in the enclosure. If you are using a coil bulb, I agree, shut it off untill you can either get a different bulb, or, I will try to remember to post the codes to tell if you have old or new. But, it sounds like you have one of the old style.
Bill

i would also recomend taking out the coil bulb.

so your using a 100 watt heat bulb in a 10 gallon? first, what are you using to measure the temps? if your guessing be carefull. i did that when i first started; i guessed it was about 100 in the hot spot and 75 on the cool side... boy was i wrong! 113 on the hot side, 87 on the "cool side". that was in a 10 gallon with a 60 watt bulb.

id recomend getting a digital probe-thermometer, they're only $10 and are very accurate for the price.

You really should look for a larger tank for your lizard. A 10 gallon really is a bit too small for anything more than a hatchling sized beardie. Tanks tend to run about $1.50 a gallon in most parts of the us for smaller tanks. That would put a 20 long at about $25 and $20 for the screen top. Usually Petco or Petsmart have "buck a gallon sales" about this time of year. Another good way to find a bigger tank at a decent price is Craigslist. Give those a try, your beardie will thank you for it! If you were in the area between Denver Colorado and Seattle Washington, I could bring you one, as I will be moving to Seattle in a week or so and I have a bunch of 40 breeders that I need to go away!
Take care,
Bill

I have a digital thermometer, and the beardie is 9 inches and i will be upgrading to a bigger tank soon as well as a hood uvb with repti-sun and after studing him i think that he is going trough brumation due to the nights when i cut all the lights off and my house may have gotten under sixity(i measure the low temps in the early morings instead of the middle of the night which may have been warmer than the nights). i have also noticed that his eyes are fine but he just seemed to want to sleep. the fluckers Sun-Glow Coil lantern UVB 15w bulb works great, if the light was the problem i think after 4 months of using it, he would have should sign earlier on and not after the bulb broke. he is opening his eyes now more often since i have been leaving the infared light on all night. he is also eating his salad. thanks for the help i will keep yall posted on Otto's well beinging

The infared light will disturb his sleep, because although they claim that beardie's cannot see it they can. A ceremic bulb is the best thing to get as it emmits no light, just heat, if you can't afford one of them then a black bulb is better than an infared one.

And as for the UV bulb, sometimes they don't show signs of having a problem with a UV for longer than 4 months. If the UV has had bad test results you should really turn it off before your beardie gets a more serious condition of Photo-kerato-conjunctivitis.

I don't really think it will disturb his sleep. If he is doing better with it, than use it. People think it will "keep him awake if it isn't completely dark". Well, these animals DO exist in the wild, and even in Australia, they get light at night from the moon. So, if they can't sleep at night if there is any light, all the wild ones in the world must be sleep deprived. LOL
Bill

Hello,

I highly doubt that they sleep out in the open though! :mrgreen: They burrow at night to avoid predators, so it is most likely pretty dark in their burrows though.
The Infrared lights are much different than moonlight with respect to the color spectrum.


Tracie

Many folks have their beardies cages in the living room, or somewhere that the animal does not have it's own room where lights don't come on after a certain time. I would bet that covers 90% of the owners here. They will sleep when they need it. I have witnessed my own sleeping in the day, or at night while I am watching TV, as long as it is tired, it will sleep. Animals are not like us, no matter how much we wish they were. Reptiles and fish have no emotional attachment to us whatsoever. They just don't. We project these behaviors and feelings on them. It has been proven scientifically that our little ones do not have the capabilities that some folks think their lizard, snake, fish etc. has. Sleep is something that all animals in the animal kingdom, except for us humans, get when they feel they need. I do think it is great that folks try to keep pristine conditions for the animals they decide to keep, but, a reality check should be done every now and then.
Bill

valdimir":905c2 said:

I have a digital thermometer, and the beardie is 9 inches and i will be upgrading to a bigger tank soon as well as a hood uvb with repti-sun and after studing him i think that he is going trough brumation due to the nights when i cut all the lights off and my house may have gotten under sixity(i measure the low temps in the early morings instead of the middle of the night which may have been warmer than the nights). i have also noticed that his eyes are fine but he just seemed to want to sleep. the fluckers Sun-Glow Coil lantern UVB 15w bulb works great, if the light was the problem i think after 4 months of using it, he would have should sign earlier on and not after the bulb broke. he is opening his eyes now more often since i have been leaving the infared light on all night. he is also eating his salad. thanks for the help i will keep yall posted on Otto's well beinging

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Just to make sure, does your digital thermometer have a probe end? Actually, if he is 9 mo old, he is very small for his age at only 9" long, is that measurement from his nose to tip of his tail? If he is that small, a good part of the reason could very well be because of the coil UVB, as that affects their total health.

bmb527":905c2 said:

Many folks have their beardies cages in the living room, or somewhere that the animal does not have it's own room where lights don't come on after a certain time. I would bet that covers 90% of the owners here. They will sleep when they need it. I have witnessed my own sleeping in the day, or at night while I am watching TV, as long as it is tired, it will sleep. Animals are not like us, no matter how much we wish they were. Reptiles and fish have no emotional attachment to us whatsoever. They just don't. We project these behaviors and feelings on them. It has been proven scientifically that our little ones do not have the capabilities that some folks think their lizard, snake, fish etc. has. Sleep is something that all animals in the animal kingdom, except for us humans, get when they feel they need. I do think it is great that folks try to keep pristine conditions for the animals they decide to keep, but, a reality check should be done every now and then.
Bill

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I'm sorry that you don't feel that your reptile has an emotional attachment to you, that's unfortunate that you feel that way or that you haven't developed a bond with him or him to you. They are really very smart creatures and a few people don't really seem to notice all the signs & symptoms proving that they are very "in tune" to us & show this in many ways. You are really missing out on a lot of the beardies characteristics and emotional attachments to humans. All of ours relate to us in many different ways daily and do indeed know and respond to all 3 of the members we have living in this household. I think you would be quite amazed if you saw how they interact with us daily.

I agree with Diamc 100%,beardies DO bond with humans and they each have their own unique personality

Valdimir,you have received alot of great advice.I wish you and your beardie the best