Big eyes??

So Ranger scared me half to death last night. His basking bulb burnt out yesterday but being a Floridian hes good for a spell. BUT LAST NIGHT (About 8pm) he was sleeping on his rock Under his UVB lamp and his EYES were BULGING out of his head!!!!!!! :shock: My son said whats wrong with Ranger? I Panicked thinking that lump under his eye had formed an abscess or something, I picked him up and he opened his eyes like "What's the big idea lady!?!?! Where are we going?" His eyeballs sucked back in. It was BOTH eyes lol Thats what made me really really panic. He looked like Large Marge From Peewee. I mean They were HUGE! His eyes were closed but they were HUGE!!!!

At a loss for words here guys.... wtf... lmao What was that all about? Is that a beardie thing (Besides scaring the heck out of their owners weekly) Is there a purpose for that if it is?? Was it like DEEP REM sleep??

Either way hes good now. Hes side eyeing me atm for food. And the lump has shrunk in case anyone was wondering. Its still there but its 10x smaller than it was a month ago. Honey is working wonders!

Hi there,

That can definitely be scary but it's a very common behavior

They do this when their face is shedding, or getting ready to shed. It helps stretch the skin.
Definitely freaky when you see it for the first time. It's just coincidence that it occured around a lighting change

You said he was sleeping under his uvb bulb - do you keep his lights on at night?

-Brandon

lmao hes like 4 maybe 5 years old lol Hes my first lizard as well as a rescue. This page has Helped me SO MUCH getting him back to normal. I guess his Natural behaviors are starting to come through and Im just now noticing lol Im more of a snake owner lol they are so much easier lol they are the Ronco rotisserie ovens of the reptile world. True set it and forget its lol minimal upkeep needed (almost like cats lol). But Lizards they are in need of way more attention (like children). But once you get a groove going its all good.

no all lights go out at 930. He either wanders inside his rock at this time or finds a comfy position atop of the rock. Once its lights out Thats where he stays till 730am

I did buy a purple nightlight But it was WAY too hot for the lamp hood and I was told its not good for their eyes anyways so I tossed it with no regrets.

Hah

Yeah the purple lights aren't good for them. They need darkness at night. So if you need extra heat at night youd want a CHE. If your house doesnt get below 60 you dont even need supplemental heat.

I didnt realize he was older. It's more common for the younger growing dragons to do it since they are constantly shedding, but the adults still can do it on occasion.

We could go over your lighting setup with you to rule out any other possibilities but I'm about 100% sure that it's just normal eye bulging

-Brandon

Eye bulging is a normal thing for beardies, it's usually to help loosen up the skin around their eyes for shedding.

See this article: https://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/eyebulging/

if it looked like that then it's a perfectly fine situation but if it's not that then I'm a bit concerned.