Why is she black bearding?

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Alupe

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Got home from work to find my year and a half old bearded dragon with a black beard. Took her out and it disappeared. Gave her a bath, she ate, she pooped, normal stuff. Put her back in her viv and about half hour later it was going darker again. But as soon as I stroke her head, she sees me or I get her out it disappears. She laid infertile eggs about 5 weeks ago if that is relevant. Her basking temp is around 37C and her cold side is around 30C. She has a Zoomed Reptisun 10.0 Lamp, 30 W, 36" 914 mm. Is she just being hormonal or maybe wants more attention? I can't seem to figure out why it's going darker. She's not aggressive in any way either. She does seem kinda thirsty but doesn't look dehydrated. Her urate was also orange so I probably should cool it with the calcium. Any ideas?
 

Alupe

Member
Original Poster
Thought i'd post a little update. Calling it "black beard" was wrong. It's more... grey? Like it's not full on black it's like halfway. Tonight, I let her fall asleep on me for 10 minutes and noticed it was still slightly gray. I've raised her temps only slightly hoping this may help. I'm hoping she's just being hormonal or a slight stomach upset from crickets I recently ordered because she seems perfectly happy otherwise. I've been drip feeding her water because she seems quite thirsty, although her eyes aren't sunken so I'm not sure if she's dehydrated or not. She ate fine and had no dark beard while eating. I would appreciate any advice :study:
 

Aaradimian

Juvie Member
A picture would help here if you can add one via the User Image Uploader and then paste in this thread using the XIMG button. Black bearding is pretty dramatic, so a kinda-sorta gray is likely not that. My one beardie has some natural black in his beard and it's common for them to change color in general in response to various stimuli & situations. Mine range from light tan & orange to a clay-colored gray depending on the situation, but a black beard sticks out like a sore thumb on both of them.
 

blue11

Sub-Adult Member
Hi!

I think every dragon is different ?

My girls beard, body and belly change shades all day long. Sometimes everything will go super waaaay dark when she’s outside in the sun - sometimes after a warm bath and a good poop her beard goes peach and her belly lightens up - sometimes when she is basking in her viv, one hour she’ll be light, then next she will go grey or black or more ...
if your dragon isn’t acting stressed out/out of sorts, I wouldn’t worry too much right now - if she has good temps and a good temp gradient even better!
I see colour changes and shade changes and pattern changes occur at all different times in reaction to all kinds of different stimuli - I wouldn’t worry if she’s eating/pooping/drinking fairly normal ? ...
Ofcourse to be safe, keep an eye on her for any unusual behavior not common for her, they are awfully good at masking problems as we all know. But - unless your gut is telling you something is wrong by her behaviors being out of the ordinary - sounds like she’s just being a beautiful (and baffling) beardie! ❤️❤️❤️

-E
 

blue11

Sub-Adult Member
One more thought ...

I have never had experience with my girl being gravid/egg laying ... she’s going to be 9 years old soon, and I have managed to get by that long without having to deal with the whole egg experience - so you had mentioned hormones, and there could be relation there that I am not aware of ?

Hope everything is all good!!!
 
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