cracking popping sounds in jaw

Wow :shock: -- it sounds like you have a really difficult family situation going on there. I hope you can work things out with your sister so that the beardie and other critters involved can get what they need.

The fluorescent UV tubes and the hood fixtures that go with them are not cheap, but they are worth it for the health of your beardie if ever and whenever you can swing it, especially if you already have issues with calcium deficiency and MBD. The Reptisun 10.0 T5 HO (high output) tubes are about the best available for good UV. Even with supplements, bearded dragons and many other reptiles need the right kind of light to metabolize Vitamin D and calcium properly.

I've heard that some of the coil bulbs were putting out UVC, which is not safe or healthy for anything except disinfecting by killing microbes. That was a while back, and I would think the manufacturers should have corrected the problem once it became known, but that may be silly of me.:roll: They are convenient, of course, because they screw into a regular light socket and you don't need a special fixture for them. Better than nothing, as has been said, until you can get the tube.

Yeah she's a crappy pet owner she's the product of over spoiling. My parents will been to her every wish so there's not much I can do about her.

But anywho back to Ranger he's more important. These are the light fixtures that I have. They belong to my dad from his old aquarium to used to have they still work pretty good. Ranger currently uses two light bulbs the tube light in the long fixture and the Basking bulb in the hood.
I went ahead and got a thermometer. I've gotten mixed responses on what the actual temperature should be but this temperature specifically says on the back of the box of what a desert lizard should be at and it set strong at it. I have it set right at lizard level so if that is exactly the temperature that he is sitting at. At night when my sister turns off all of his lights he goes in his Rock and sleeps. Now even though I have a water dish in there he doesn't seem to want to go to it unless I push him to it and then he realizes it's there I don't know what that's about but it's become a daily thing so I know if I don't push him to it he's not going to drink from it because he's stubborn.

on a side note he used to have very dark stress marks but now they've kind of faded out a little bit is this still normal for a bearded to have? do you think that they're still too dark or are they normal colors I'm not entirely sure what the underside of bearded dragon's belly is supposed to look like because the pictures that I've only seen have these spots everywhere LOL

Most bearded dragons don't drink from their water dish -- that's pretty normal. They're not wired to recognize standing water. They get some of their hydration from their food, and you can also drip water on their nose from an eyedropper and/or give them a warm bath to help with hydration.

I've never seen a thermometer like that before, but in general the ones that stick on the wall are not accurate. The ones with the digital probes that can sit right on the basking area are usually the best.

"Stress marks" are misnamed -- they usually cause more stress to human beardie slaves than they indicate in the beardies themselves. Your beardie looks fine.

Lol thank goodness lol yeah the thermometer was the cheapest I could afford. When the light is off it drops to the low 80s. I wanted to get one in there so I could at least get a general reading on what is going on in there. I'm also gonna cover that glass bottom. He used to have reptifelt but he would mess that up in a week. Ew. But now I can't seem to get him to even poo in his tank... so every other day if theres no poo I put him in a slightly warmer than warm bath. Not too hot not to cold. He will swim for about 20 mins or less then climb my arm to let me know he's ready to get out. Lol he's also shedding and I've heard horror stories about bad sheds so I give him a good rubbing to loosen the shed in the bath.

I've also been trying to do the food transition so I've started with baby food. He LOVES carrots. Lol and pumpkin lol but I can only get him to eat about a spoonful of anything before he's done. I also saw they can eat horn worms..... my local reptile store sells them... not sure if he's old enough to have that treat yet though.

Plain white paper towels are about the easiest, cheapest, and safest thing to use to cover the bottom of the tank. It's easy to spot messes and easy to clean them up, and if your beardie chews on it, it's just wood fiber so no worries.

Baths are good for shedding as well as pooping. As long as you keep the skin moist and don't let it dry out, you shouldn't have any problems. Some people also use coconut oil or coco butter to help with a stubborn shed.

Hornworms grow really big really fast, so you could try him on a few small ones. Most beardies go nuts over hornworms, but you probably wouldn't want to get more than he's likely to eat in a day or two, otherwise they will grow too big before you're finished with them.

dad came home with more repticarpet. He looks happy.

Hello,

How is the dragon doing?
The Repticarpet looks good, that will work just fine.
Which brand is the long tube UVB that you are using? Has his appetite increased?
Do try to get a digital probe thermometer or a temp gun, so you can be sure his basking &
overall tank temps are accurate. Proper temperature gradients are so crucial to their health.

Tracie

Well he was doing just fine until his bulb burnt out and when I went to replace the new bulb I dropped it and it shattered all over the damn place. That was Monday. And I only have $3 until tomorrow I've had $3 since Monday to my name but he's been a trooper hanging out in 80 degree weather. He still has his UVB light so he's been turning this really cool yellow but when I take him out he turns a dark deep Brown. Not sure if that's agitation or just a temperature change from going from his 80-degree tank currently to the 77 that's in the house. Although his appetite has really changed dramatically over the past week and a half since before the light bulb destruction. Some days he comes out and he's starving and I've been hand feeding him with a spoon some baby food trying to get him to introduce to the vegetables and everything to the flavors and I've been moving into real vegetables for texture so then I can just drop a bowl in there and say eat. But like I said some days he's starving and will try and eat the damn spoon out of my hand and then other days he'll take a few bites and he just doesn't want anything to do with it. Lately he has been completely turning his nose up to any and all fruits and vegetables and completely attacking everything that moves. I bought 25 superworms and I think I'm down to maybe 11. although his appetite has really changed dramatically over the past week and a half since before the white bulb destruction. Some days he comes out and he starving and I've been hand feeding him with a spoon some baby food trying to get him to introduce to the vegetables and everything to the flavors and I've been moving into real vegetables for texture so then I can just drop a bowl in there and say eat. But like I said some days he's starving and will try and eat the damn spoon out of my hand and then other days he will take a few bites and he just doesn't want anything to do with it. Lately he has been completely turning his nose up to any and all fruits and vegetables and completely attacking everything that moves. So I thought the other day perhaps if I make him a nice little spring salad mix with one raspberry cut up into little tiny pieces and a bunch of superworms make him a bug salad you know, perhaps he would eat it. He ate all the worms out of the salad and then went into his cave. I'm telling you if this lizard could flip me the bird he surely did. Luckily I get paid tomorrow I feel real bad that I haven't been able to keep him warm in his normal temperature of 95 and higher for the past few days. But as I feel as if I was stuck between a rock and a hard place I'm really glad that he's been such a trooper. Lazy and lethargic yes but that's only because he's freezing in the lizard terms but at least he has his UVB lights so he's still getting half of what he needs. And the light is keeping it a little warm in there so it's not the same temperature as the house thank goodness.

Good that he's eating but he def. needs heat to digest his food. If it's warm where you live you can take him out in a plastic tote or kiddie swimming pool. And you can get a 60-75 watt halogen bulb at Walmart for a few dollars. Once you get more money you can buy a couple of bulbs, always good to have a back up.

Also I've discovered that if I skip one day in feeding that when I do feed him he will eat. If I do the daily feeding every other day he's not wanting to even look at Food even if it's moving. But I've been feeding him the baby food. He eats carrots peas asparagus peaches pumpkin applesauce sweet potato spinach and green beans. Of course most of these are mixed in the baby food jars you know like the spinach and peas are mixed the asparagus is mixed with something else with peas, he also has one with kale and cucumber but he's really not liking that one. The asparagus one I ran out of real quick because he was enjoying the hell out of that. I know that carrots are rich in vitamin A so I didn't give him any more than a baby spoonful. The rest of the food is usually one to two baby spoonfuls and that's all he will eat he will not eat any more than that but yet for bugs he will eat 15 superworms and a little more than half a dozen crickets in one sitting. I think I've come to the realization that even though he's of age to be indulging in vegetables and having less worms and bugs and stuff he is turning out to be a straight-up insectivore. And only an occasional vegetarian. Kind of like my sister who claims she's a vegetarian but still eats chicken nuggets from McDonald's LOL I've also taken some of the fruits and some of the vegetable baby food and mix them together and giving him a spoonful or two of that to eat so it's kind of like a puree salad. But he ends up just making a huge mess all over himself.


But I do know that this week's loss of appetite is definitely contributed to the lack of heat lamp that I am absolutely aware of. He's getting a heat lamp first thing tomorrow when I get paid. That is my first purchase at 10 a.m.

Also do any of you have one of those purplish blue nighttime heat lamps? Are those good or those disorienting for beardies. Because I have been told the red light is extremely disorienting and can hurt their eyes. So that's meant for snakes only because snakes see in infrared. Let's remember folks I'm an ex snake owner. First time lizard owner. They are reptiles but completely different. I was looking into getting one of those night light lamps for him at night so I can turn off his bright basking light and turn on his night-time heat lamp. I can also even maybe turn off his UVB at night so it's not constantly running. Because ever since I bought that UVB light last month I have not turned it off which is probably why he's a desert Sandy yellow right now and not a dark deep Brown like when I take him out. Speaking of warmth I think I'm going to go put him in a nice warm bath tub to try and warm up a little bit since he's been sitting in and 80 degree temperature cage for a week and he has not pooped so I need to go poop my lizard. I bought some self-adhering drawer liner that I can cut to size and I was going to make him a little poop Square so I could clean it easier but he refuses to poop in his tank so he will only poop if I put him in the bathtub which is fine. If he doesn't poop in his tank within 1 or 2 days I stick him in the bathtub. The last time he pooped was Monday when his little world went to hell in a handbasket so he's well overdue for a good pooping.

It's very normal and healthier for an adult dragon to only eat insects a few times a week.

And really best not to bathe him until you get the heat lamps ! He will become chilled afterwards since a towel can't warm them up after or dry them completely. So just wait until you get the heat lamp.

Oh, and no colored bulbs at all. You'll only need heat for him at night if it goes below 65. Then you can get a CHE [ ceramic heat emitter ] that produces heat but no light.

Thank you for mentioning that ceramic bold thing. I forgot I saw that online for like $10 $5 something like that something in the cheap range and I was wondering what the hell it was cuz it wasn't making much sense the way it was shaped LOL yeah I think one of those ceramic ones will be nice to have at night maybe because my dad likes to keep it at 77 in the house. But I did bathe him he had four days of poop stuck in there. I have him wrapped up like a little tiny bearded burrito and we're going to watch some TV while I snuggle him in the warmth. He's definitely not going back in until he's dry. And he has hiccups too he drank some of the water. I had the shower head on because he likes the massaging rain LOL that also could have caused a few hiccups LOL but right now he's all snuggled in with a little bit of towel over his head all I can see is his nose. It's like his own little snuggly warm Hideaway LOL he actually got a little agitated when I turn the water off LOL I have that weird lizard that likes to swim. He also likes a little warmer than warm water and not the lukewarm. And he will sit in the shallow end until about half the tub is full of water from the shower head and then he goes and Dives right in and start swimming along around the drain where it's deeper and he comes back to the shallow and sits for a minute then it goes back in LOL

If it's 77 in the house at night you don't need any extra heat at all ! And be sure to keep him against your body so he can get the heat from YOU. Remember, they can't get warm in a towel, they have no body heat. The towel can't keep heat in unless there's a heat source so he has to right next to your shirt, against your body for warmth.

You should turn off the UV light at night too. It's best if you can keep it as dark as possible for them at night so they can sleep. As long as he has the UV light on at least 10-14 hours/day (some people recommend as much as 16 hours/day but there still needs to be a dark period with it off) and as long as he spends enough time basking, he should be ok for sufficient UV.

There seems to be a wide variation among individual beardies when it comes to food preferences. They're supposed to be omnivores, but some seem to think they're carnivores and a few seem to prefer to be vegetarians. The trick is balance, variety, and moderation if you can possibly manage it and if you can get the beardie to cooperate. Most of them are quite capable of picking worms out of a salad without eating the salad if the worms are what they prefer. :roll:

They all seem to have a different reaction to water too -- some seem to hate it, but it sounds like you've got one that really likes it. And if he prefers to poop in the water instead of in his tank (some of them don't seem to want to mess up their living space, and others don't seem to care), it makes it nice and easy to clean up after him. All you have to do is dump it down the drain. :wink:

I'm glad you're going to be able to get him a new heat lamp soon, and I hope you'll soon be able to afford a few spares in case one gets broken or burns out again. Also, remember that as long as you have the UV light, you can use just about any kind of a white light for heat in a pinch, even the old style cheap incandescent house light bulbs we used to use before we converted to CFLs and LEDs, if you can still find any of them around. Cuddling up with a warm mammalian body can help too, as has already been mentioned. :love5:

So I finally have him eating vegetables. He will not touch his worms now. So he is eating endive dandelion cabbage and kale. I have a Tupperware that I cut them all up into tiny bite-size pieces and have made pre-made salad for him so every day even on days that I'm not home all you need to do is grab a small handful and toss it in the bowl. Although I do need to put worms in the bottom of the bowl to make the salad move but he eats the entire salad now and will not touch his worms. The tank is finally warm enough for him to defecate on a daily basis. My mother decided to put in a tiny water dish for him and that's where he decides to go. So now there is no water in the dish it is now I guess his pooping Bowl easier to clean oh my gosh LOL all I need to do is take the dish out clean the dish put it back in. I can only imagine what would happen if I stuck a litter box in there LOL just kidding he is eating on a daily basis now he is nice warm and toasty he sleeps at night under his Rock and I turn off all his lights. He seems much happier. Although he has for the past few days had a bit of an aggressive streak puffing up like a puffer fish. And hissing at me. I've never experienced that what is it Mating Season or something? But once he settles down I take him out and he's totally fine. But while he's all agitated and pissed off I can't even put my hand near the tank because he tries to bite it off. I have no idea where this came from. He's always been so gentle and mellow. I'm hoping it's just some kind of Mating Season thing and it passes.