HELP Beardies Tail Is White ?!

HELP PLEASE..

Hi, my name is Jason and I am new to the forum. I have a 6mo old beardie that I got from a girl who couldn't take care of him anymore. Approx 2 weeks ago he shed for the first time since I have had him which is around 3 months, and now his tail has remained whitish gray and gives the appearence that he needs to shed it, but has not. It almost looks as if it's starting to swell at the base of the tail around and behind the cloacal opening.

I really knew nothing about the creatures prior to getting him other than that I knew as an animal lover, I would do the best I could to provide it with whatever it needs to keep it happy and healthy. Almost everything I have learned has been through personal research via the internet and great sources of info such as this forum. While I am sure you will all have questions as to his terrarium setup, feeding, care, and so forth.. I will do the best to describe this here.

He is a 6 mo old bearded dragon and is approx 14 inches from head to tail.
He is in a 40 gal reptile terr and I am currently using All Living Things calcium sand as substrate ( but plan to use tile in the near future ).
The light setup consists of a 100 wt. reptile halogen made by flukers (basking spot), a zilla desert 50 coil (which I intend to replace with a repti-sun 5.0 36" tube as soon as i get a fixture, already have the bulb), and a 100 wt red night heat lamp.
The basking sopt is roughly 105 -111 degrees measure with a crappy zilla multi guage ( yes I will get a probe asap.)
The cool side runs about 83 degress with the use of the heat lamp as well running 24/7 with a few half hour breaks to cool the lamp.
i run the UVB and basking light 12 hrs on 12 hrs off.
His humidity levels run at around 30% across the board with no water dish and about 40% with it.(he never uses it but i keep it there in hopes he will.)
I feed him approx 40 - 50 crickets / wk dusted once daily with Repashy bearded dragon calcium plus w/ d3, and once a day a salad consisting of mustard greens and green beens chopped up. occasionally a small bit of carrot.I gutload the crickets with critter culture bearded dragon food.
The past week I have been misting him and yesterday he got his first bath.. ( I never knew you had to bathe em, just found that out).
All water is treated with repti-safe.

Here are his habits.

All in all hes fairly friendly,
I handle him once daily and spend a lot of time around him as he is in my home office I work in at night,
He basks frequently and gapes like I'm told he is supposed to,
he cools on a log in the center of the terr about 6-8 in. under the uvb bulb.
He will eat his veggies but it sometimes takes some coaxing,
He is very aggressive while hunting crix. lately he has been sleeping under a rock hide which he had never done before.

This is my last shot before I take him to the vet.

Hope I answered any potential questions to help aid in the diagnosing of the issue I am having.
I will try and upload a pic if I can so you can see what I mean, workin on that now ( New to photobucket and noob forum poster ).

Thank you so much for any helpful advice that can be given.

Jason.

Follow Up Pics.

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/oo148/sicgoat/12-07-08_1458.jpg

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/oo148/sicgoat/12-04-08_1849.jpg

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/oo148/sicgoat/12-04-08_1911.jpg


And of course I intend to deck out the terrarium in the next coming week,
it looks boring but then i have already spent over 600 bucks on the little guy.

Whatever makes him happy. =)

Thanks again.

Jason.

Hi Jason, welcome to the forum. :wave: Looking at the picture, it does look like his tail is getting ready to shed. Giving him frequent baths will help him to shed faster. Make sure to put a washcloth or small towel down in the sink or container to keep him from sliding around which also helps them feel more secure. The water can cover his front legs but watch him closely as they can drown very quickly. Having his vent area (where he poos) right down in the water for about 15 min will help hydrate him too.

Calci-sand is very dangerous because it contains calcium & encourages them to lick it, builds up over time and hardens in their bellies like cement, so I would suggest that you remove that asap and even replace with paper towels for now. You could pick up some reptile carpet, non-adhesive shelf liner or slate tiles, any of those would be much safer.

I noticed that you're using a coil UVB, those are very dangerous and cause all sorts of health problems. I suggest you turn that off right away as he is better off without any UVB for a few days until you get the hood for the fluorescent bulb. You can go to Walmart, Lowe's, Home Depot or someplace similar and get a standard fluorescent light like you would use over a kitchen sink, in a basement or in a garage, pop out the bulb that comes with it, replace with the UVB (leaving the plastic cover off) and then you'd be all set. With the fluorescent, your beardie should be about 6 to 8 inches from it. The fluorescent UVB should be right alongside the basking bulb so he can get both benefits at once while he is basking.

Walmart has the AcuRite brand digital thermometer with probe and the one that gives one reading at a time costs about $8.00, the one with the dual reading costs about $12.00, they are really worth the investment. Any type of stickon thermometer can be off by as much as 20 degrees. Here's a picture of the AcuRite with the dual reading and also humidity readout:


He could be sleeping under the rock hide to avoid the coil UVB and/or because the temps are too hot, so I suggest you make the suggested changes very soon.

You don't really need any night time heating unless the room temp drops below 65 degrees. Red lights do disturb their sleep, so if you need more heat at night, you can pick up a ceramic heat emitter which produces heat but no light. Here's a picture of one:


Since he is a 6 mo old, you should be dusting with calcium w/D3 but phosphorus-free 5 days a wk, but only 1 feeding a day and with vitamins the other 2 days a wk, but only 1 feeding a day. Here's a site that shows a list of greens/veggies, offering a variety will sometimes help them eat more of their salad. http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

I know this is a lot of info, but I think you'll notice a big difference in his overall health with these changes. If you have any questions, please ask. :wink:

Thank you very much for the sound advice.. My beardie and I really appreciate it. I will make the neccessary lighting and heating changes no later than payday friday. Damn christmas has really eaten a hole in my monetary situation right now, but that's ok. There's a lot worse things you can do with your money than buy people gifts.

Thanks again.

Jason.

You're welcome. I do know what you mean about "christmas has really eaten a hole in my monetary situation right now", believe me, you're NOT alone. :mrgreen: