Hates Tank

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My two month old Nazar extremely hates her tank, she will cling on to me and try hiding in my shirt when i put her in at bed time (Shes with me most of the day since she hates it so much) as well as get extremely dark stress lines, is there a way to correct this?
 

CooperDragon

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What do you have in place for lighting and temperatures? If something is off then she may not want to be in there. She may also just prefer being outside of the tank which is OK for a while, especially if you have lighting set up for her around the house. You could keep her out with you until after bed time and she's fallen asleep. It's often easier to put them back when they're fast asleep. She'll still need plenty of time under proper lighting though.
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
Also, how big is the tank, and what else do you have in there besides what provides light and heat as already mentioned? Since she's still little, there may be something in there that frightens her for some reason. Not that it will necessarily be easy to figure out what it is, but try to watch her behavior and see if her fear appears to be focused on anything in particular.

She may also just be having problems with being put back down in the tank, after getting comfortable snuggling up to a nice warm mammalian body. Our beardie used to do that when we tried to put him down, for a while after we first got him, especially if we were in an unfamiliar place. I think he also needed to learn that we would set him down gently and not drop him, and that it would be much easier if he didn't get too squirmy.

At least she seems to like cuddling with you. :) And BTW, "stress lines" do not always indicate stress, but if you're also seeing a black beard, that (along with the clinging and trying to hide) would mean that she's really upset.
 

Killjoy01

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CooperDragon":1vcuo59l said:
What do you have in place for lighting and temperatures? If something is off then she may not want to be in there. She may also just prefer being outside of the tank which is OK for a while, especially if you have lighting set up for her around the house. You could keep her out with you until after bed time and she's fallen asleep. It's often easier to put them back when they're fast asleep. She'll still need plenty of time under proper lighting though.
SHBailey":1vcuo59l said:
Also, how big is the tank, and what else do you have in there besides what provides light and heat as already mentioned? Since she's still little, there may be something in there that frightens her for some reason. Not that it will necessarily be easy to figure out what it is, but try to watch her behavior and see if her fear appears to be focused on anything in particular.

She may also just be having problems with being put back down in the tank, after getting comfortable snuggling up to a nice warm mammalian body. Our beardie used to do that when we tried to put him down, for a while after we first got him, especially if we were in an unfamiliar place. I think he also needed to learn that we would set him down gently and not drop him, and that it would be much easier if he didn't get too squirmy.

At least she seems to like cuddling with you. :) And BTW, "stress lines" do not always indicate stress, but if you're also seeing a black beard, that (along with the clinging and trying to hide) would mean that she's really upset.

She has a coil that came with the 10 gallon tank, shes very tiny though so the 10 gallon is more than big enough for now but it will be updated to a (about) 70 gallon tank once shes bigger. The bulb will be updated to a rod once she gets into the bigger tank. Theres a large stick in her tank she seemed to be afraid of because it fell over when she was on it her first day home but she crawls up on it now, could she be a little uneasy about the stick still? And the lines were much darker today when we woke up, she ate a lot of red pellets from her beardie blend last night, could that be irritating her? She doesnt touch anything else from the treat blend so i could easily cut that out if i need to

Edit: Yeah, i saw that baby dragons often have the stress lines for the same reason toddlers get so upset over stuff, I just want to make sure shes as comfortablr as possible. She hasnt been drinking hee water so i am going to try misting and see if that works any better
 

CooperDragon

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What are the temperatures on the basking surface and on the cool side surfaces? It's difficult to provide a proper heat gradient in a space that small so that may be part of the issue. Moving to a bigger tank sooner rather than later may be helpful.

Which wattage is your coil UVB? The 26w UVB200 lights are OK for a tank that small as their effective distance is only about 6-8'' but the 13w versions are not powerful enough for a bearded dragon and should not be used.
 

Killjoy01

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CooperDragon":209ndayh said:
What are the temperatures on the basking surface and on the cool side surfaces? It's difficult to provide a proper heat gradient in a space that small so that may be part of the issue. Moving to a bigger tank sooner rather than later may be helpful.

Which wattage is your coil UVB? The 26w UVB200 lights are OK for a tank that small as their effective distance is only about 6-8'' but the 13w versions are not powerful enough for a bearded dragon and should not be used.
I just bought a 50w, the current bulb keeps the basking surface at about 107 and the cool side at about mid 80 or low 90
 

CooperDragon

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mid 80s is about as high as I'd go. You could try raising the lamp slightly to cut the basking site to 100-105 and try to bring the other side to around 80-85 if you can. That will provide some more options to allow self regulation.
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
I agree with Cooper that the 70 gallon tank will be much better for her as soon as you can get it, and it will give her room to grow as well as making it somewhat easier to set up a good thermal gradient. You mentioned a "rod" and if by that you mean a fluorescent tube for UV light, those are the usually considered the best, especially the Reptisun 10.0 T5 HO (high output), so it will be good to get that for the larger tank also.

I'm guessing you're talking about pelleted food with different colored pellets and she picks out the red ones? It's really funny how they all have their individual preferences for different flavors and even colors. I'd read the label and see if it's intended as a staple diet (including what kinds of vitamins and minerals it contains) or just as "treats", in order to determine how much to give her, but I doubt if that's what was causing her to be "irritated". And BTW, if she won't eat the other colors you can always feed them to whatever kind of live insect you get for her (crickets, roaches, etc).

Count yourself lucky if she ever drinks water from her dish -- most beardies don't, but you can hydrate them by dribbling water on their nose with an eyedropper or by misting or bathing. They also get some moisture from the food that they eat -- live insects at her age, and greens and veggies later. Unfortunately, the dry pellets are not good for hydration, so if that's what she mostly eats for now, you'll have to be extra careful about making sure she gets enough moisture some other way.

She could be a little nervous about the climbing stick if it fell over once -- hopefully you now have it secured so it won't fall again. But if she's using it now she has probably gotten over it. I suppose there will be a major remodel and some new stuff when you get the larger tank. It may be good to put some familiar things in the new tank (with the possible exception of that particular stick) so she won't feel completely disoriented. Even so, be prepared for a little "relocation stress". Hopefully, she will like her new tank, but at least she seems to like her new human slave. :wink:
 

EllenD

Gray-bearded Member
I'd bet money that the coil bulb is hurting her eyes and/or skin and that's why she doesn't want to be in her tank. Coil bulbs are notorious for causing serious eye issues, different skin issues, and I believe you're talking about your UVB light since you said "I'll replace the co with a rod when she gets bigger", and I know of no coil UVB light that is appropriate for bearded dragons as far as supplying adequate UVB light. So you've got a serious issue that you should not wait to remedy.

If I were you I would go buy an appropriate 10.0 UVB tube, either a Reptisun or Arcadia brand, and get it in her enclosure within the correct distance from her basking spot immediately. She's a baby who is in her most important time of life for growth and development, and this is the time when being deprived of adequate wavelength and strength of the UVB light does the most damage, this is how beardies end up stunted in growth and with permanent disabilities from Calcium and vitamin B1 deficiencies resulting from a lack of UVB light. Anytime a beardie owner tells me that their beardie hates their enclosure I immediately assume it's because of inadequate lighting and temperatures, and with a coil UVB light it's exactly your issue (along with improper temperatures). So waiting any longer to get her under an appropriate 10.0 tube UVB should not be an option, it makes no sense to "wait until you get a larger enclosure for her" because this is the time in her life that having appropriate UVB light for 12-14 hours a day is most important to her.
 

Killjoy01

Member
Original Poster
Ive already updated everything so no worries, weve got a red light basking light, a tube uvb, a digital thermometer, and a ceramic heater for the winter.
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
You might want to replace the red light with a white one. Beardies are understood to have full color vision, and they tend not to do well with colored lights. White full spectrum lights are best, along with a good source of UV as has already been discussed.
 
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