Hissing bearded dragon

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amcelli72

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Hello, I am new to owning a reptile. My boyfriend and I got a baby bearded dragon from a friend of a friend who couldn’t take care of him. He only had him for about two weeks. We’ve had Newt (the beardie) for about five months now. When we first got him he was very good; eating normally, letting us pick him up. But after about a month he started getting very stressed and angry. I did research and found out it may be too cold in his tank so we fixed that problem. I now use a 150 watt basking bulb and a 26 watt uvb. The temperature now ranges from 95-100 during the day on the warm side and about 85 on the cool side. At night it’s about 75-80. Once we adjusted the light (took about three different bulbs that we tried to get it right) he tamed out for a few days and let us pick him up. Then he again started getting angry again. His beard would be black, he would hiss and try to bite, and would squirm everywhere when we would try to pick him up. So we kept trying to handle him every day to get him used to it until he got too crazy and we would have to put him down. It’s been five months of this. I love this dragon but I don’t know how much longer my boyfriend can deal with this. He’s considering rehomeing him but I don’t want to. He doesn’t seem sick to me. He eats live crickets, occasional wax worms, and loves his pelleted food and veggies. He eats well and sheds well. I should also add he’s only on carpet substrate not sand because I heard about younger dragons becoming compacted from sand. I don’t know what else could be wrong with him. Please help!
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
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Do you know how old he is overall? Can you post some photos of him and his setup? You can upload photos here https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ and post them to your thread using the XIMG button when you reply.

It's a good sign that he is eating and active. The mood may be hormonal but that usually doesn't last too long (varies between dragons). There could still be something off with his setup but I think you were on the right track. Are you measuring surface temps in the tank using a digital thermometer w/probe or a temp gun? It's important to adjust the lights based on accurate surface temperature readings and to create a nice gradient across the tank from about 100-110 down to 75-85 or so during the day.

Which model is your 26w UVB light? How far is it from the basking area? The compacts don't tend to have much range compared to a T5 tube. Swapping that with a high quality UVB lamp might make a big difference depending on the setup.
 
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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.
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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

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