Beardie Darkening Stomach and Mouth Gaping?

Status
Not open for further replies.

waffleinakape

New member
Hey, I have a juvenile bearded dragon. I've had it for about three weeks now, and we still aren't sure the sex. Lately, it's been acting different.

The stomach is constantly dark. If you put your hand in the tank, my beardie will open its mouth, which I heard is a way of showing dominance, along with darkening its stomach. My beardie has not tried biting me and I haven't seen any head bobbing, so I don't think that it's trying to show dominance. My beardie lives alone, too. I have been trying things like hand feeding but it is really shy now.

I think that the stomach darkening is mainly to absorb more heat, which would make sense. I heard that the hot side of the tank should be 95-110F and the cool side should be around 85F, but my tank is a bit cooler. The hot side is around 95F, and the cool side is around 80F. I think that may be the problem, but can you explain the mouth gaping?
 

EllenD

Gray-bearded Member
Typically the Cool Side should be between 75-80, the Hot Side between 88-93, and the basking spot (platform within the Hot Side) can differ based on their age, with babies and juveniles usually liking it hotter, between 105-110 as an absolute maximum, adults usually between 98-103...

If you've only had him for 3 weeks and he's still young, he's most likely just a little skittish yet. It does sometimes take them a while to get used to handling, and the more you do it the faster they'll get used to it. Feeding them live insects out of your hand can often help because they'll start to associate your hand with good things! Slowly approaching them with your hand, talking to them as you walk up to the tank so they know you're coming, and talking to them while putting your hand inside the tank, telling them what you're doing, and showing them your hand coming towards them rather than just grabbing them from above also helps them become more comfortable with handling. If you spend some time doing these things every day he'll soon stop being scared and actually like to come out of his tank.

He most likely is making himself darker to absorb more heat, but if he's actually "mouth gaping" while sitting on his basking spot then your temps are a bit too high, as I imagine they are if your ambient Hot Side temp is 95, which is a bit too hot, then your basking spot temperature is probably too high too. 80 is good for the Cool Side but no warmer, he needs a place to go and cool down...Which leads me to ask what type of thermometer you're using? If you don't have either a digital thermometer with a probe on a wire or a gun, but rather one of those round, stick-on thermometers then that's most likely your issue with the mouth gaping. They are extremely cheap and inaccurate, and are often off by up to 20 degrees! So you could very well be cooking him if that's what you're using. And there is no way to measure his basking spot temperature with one of those, you must have a probe to rest on his main basking spot to take the temperature, and if it's over 110, which it may very well be if you're using a round, stick-on thermometer, then it's dangerous.

A digital probe thermometer costs about $10 at Petco or PetSmart. I'd go buy one immediately, and measure his basking spot, his ambient Hot Side, and ambient Cool Side by placing the probe on the basking spot and letting it sit for at least 20-30 mi Utes before reading the temperature. Then place the probe on the floor of the tank on the Hot Side surrounding the basking spot, let it sit for 20-30 minutes, then read it, then move the probe to the opposite Cool Side floor, let the probe sit for 20-30 minutes and read it. And then you'll need to adjust your basking light wattage and/or height to bring the temps down if too hot.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Members online

No members online now.

Latest resources

Latest posts

Latest profile posts

I miss you so much, Amaris 💔
What is a quick way to warm up a cold beardie? His heating element went out overnight and now he's very cold.
Pearl Girl wrote on moorelori1966's profile.
i feel so sad reading your about me 😢
Clapton is acclimating okay I think. He's quick as lightning so I'm not sure how much I should bring him out of his house yet. He's not at all interested in his salad though. I wonder if I should change what I'm giving him. Least he's eating his crickets.

Things to do:
Buy calcium powder
Material to raise surface for basking spot
Scenery decals for back of tank

Forum statistics

Threads
155,903
Messages
1,255,708
Members
75,967
Latest member
Newbeardiemom09
Top Bottom