Is this normal?

I just adopted a 2 year old female beardie I've had her for about 4 days and she hasn't eaten and has been very still since shes been here. Shes very friendly she lets me pet her and hold her but I'm worried about her not eating and acting lethargic. I've been checking her temp regularly and everything looks good about 85 on the cool side 100 on the hot. I'm just wondering if shes sick or something.

yea, its normaly, especially if you just got her. it's called relocation stress, and generally lasts anywhere between a week and a month. she's getting used to her new surroundings. beardies can go for quite while without food or water. keep veggies (not insects) in the tank at all times (except at night). she'll eat when shes hungry enough and feels safe and secure enough to do so

Definitely relocation stress is one of the factors, however what is her substrate, tank size and UVB lighting? And how are you monitoring temperatures?

Should I be handling her while she's like this? she hasn't seemed to mind or be aggressive in any way toward me? Also I have a 40 gallon tank for her, brand new carpet substrate and 150w bulb on one side a 60w night time bulb and a 60w on the otherside. I' have a thermometer on either sides but I'm investing in a gun cause they seem more accurate.

I'd let her settle in for a bit before handling, some beardies are fine to handle when you get them but if they're not eating and are still settling in and being lethargic then I'd leave them alone for now.

Does the night time bulb produce any light and what temps does it get to without the heat during the night?
If it produces light you have to get rid of it as beardies see in all color and red/purple/green/blue/black lighting can keep them up during the night and mess up their eyes a bit.
And if it doesnt drop below 65 during the night then you need no night time heat at all, if it does however you can use a CHE (ceramic heat emitter), this produces no light and only heat.

Are the temperature gauges you have digital ones with probes or are they stick on ones?

Do you have UVB for her at all? If not then this is why she is not eating and being lethargic, beardies need UVB to survive and be healthy, without it they die a slow painful death as they develop MBD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMvShx_hxDI
This video shows a severe case of a bearded dragon with MBD, because it got so bad they had to put it down.

And just so you know all UVB bulbs are not the same, a exo terra compact/coil bulb wont be the same as a zoomed compact/coil bulb, and a exo terra tube light wont be the same as a zoomed/reptisun tube light. Theres good and bad brands for different things, exo terra sucks at tube lights but works "okay" in the compact/coil section, meanwhile zoomed does tube lights pretty well but all of their compact/coil bulbs fail to produce any good UVB.

Anyway make sure you have a tube light going over her, it should be a Reptisun T5 HO 10.0 22" at the very least. Also know that your going to have to upgrade her tank to a 75 gallon soon as 75 gallons is the minimum for an adult bearded dragon. 40's and 50's just dont work for beardies above a year old, beardies are generally 18-24 inches in length and are fairly active and also semi aboral so the space that 40 and 50 gallons offer just dont cut it for them.

arieleleo":18ucqfsk said:

Should I be handling her while she's like this? she hasn't seemed to mind or be aggressive in any way toward me? Also I have a 40 gallon tank for her, brand new carpet substrate and 150w bulb on one side a 60w night time bulb and a 60w on the other side. I' have a thermometer on either sides but I'm investing in a gun cause they seem more accurate.

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Hello,


Here's a previous post by me on how to tame a beardie/make is less aggressive: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=241763

and Just for the record, a 40 gal breeder tank is WAY too small for an adult beardie. I Think you should upgrade her to a 4 L x 2 W x 2 T tank and She'll be much happier.

Also if you have a red bulb for the night time then throw it out. Beardies typically don't need a heat bulb for night time unless the house or tank temps drop below 65F.

and By another 60w on the other side, Do you mean UVB? is it a coil or tube?

How's she doing today?

-HippieLizards.

Whoops, I Didn't see VenusandSaturn's post, I Guess I Just echoed what she said then. Lol Never hurts to have multiple opinions

Thank you guys for letting me know this I'm a total noob with any kind of reptiles she's my first but yeah the UBV one is actually 150 UVB (not watts I read it wrong) and 26w is that enough? She does have hotter basking lamps and they're all exoterra the UBV is a coil where the basking ones are regular bulbs. And i'll just stick to turning off the night time lamp at night then I was just worried it was going to get too cold in there for her. Shes pretty small for an adult but I will update her cage at some point soon. MBD looks terrifying I wanna keep her the best she can be! I adopted her from someone who wasnt giving her enough attention so I'm trying to make sure she's as comfy as possible.

Please throw out the Coil uvb and get a Reptisun 10.0 T5 HO (high output) tube bulb. here's the link: https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjOrvy1ycTaAhVHVw0KHRISB-oYABAFGgJxYg&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAASEuRoyHD5pcREwu93h53AaFuCJg&sig=AOD64_3FEBzUnEDceh5Wd65EDmjmubsaYw&ctype=5&q=&ved=0ahUKEwjZ2Pe1ycTaAhVDoFMKHV5GAcUQ9aACCDA&adurl= They're one of the best out there.

and Yes, I know, MBD can be very terrifying. I'm actually rehabilitating a beardie that has MBD. It's been hard rehabilitating him because he was terribly neglected and one of the reasons why he has MBD was that he didn't have a UVB bulb. It's very important to have a proper UVB bulb. :study: