5 month old dragon won’t bask until the evening

[ZiggyDust]

Hi! So my beardie is finally settling in for the most par to their new/permanent enclosure. The only thing that is weird is they don’t really bask until later afternoon/evening. Being ~5 months I assume they still need a lot of heat.

Example: Ziggy wakes up when their lights go on and will bask for less than an hour. Then Ziggy will chill on the tile floor in the cooler side. Ziggy will stay here for a about 3 hours. I finally feed them since they are not going to bask to heat up. Their Body temp is low/mid 70s to 80s using a temp gun. They will eat a normal meal.

Ziggy then when bask for a few minutes before moving to the tile floor under a heat lamp. Might not be a basking spot, but at least they are on the hot side. Then move to bask somewhere else. Then back to the cold side for a couple hours. Then to the warm side. Fast forward to the evening, when dinner is over, they will bask for 3 hours, not moving until their lights go off.

I know beardies are super good at regulation. Is this just how my dragon is now? It’s like they completely changed when I relocated them. Or are they still not fully settled in? I understand they need to cool down at times. But cooling down after only an hour of basking and staying cool for 3-5 hours at a tile seems off and odd. Especially since they won’t really bask until the evening.

Habitat information
- 8’ x 2’ x 2’ (240 gallons)

- Basking temps range from 93°F to 110°F (multiple spots as the enclosure is big enough)

- Ambient Temperature is 90° F to 77°F. Ambient temperature is slightly cooler given the size of the habitat. Cooler side is kept warmer with two CHEs as without them the cool side would be 70°F.

- Reptisun T5 10.0 mounted inside the enclosure and covers 2/3 of the length (proper UVB when measuring with Solar Meter)

 

[Beansbanana]

Did you end up figuring out what was going on or what was it just that this is what your Dragon wanted to do and that turned out to be fine?

 

[ZiggyDust]

Did you end up figuring out what was going on or what was it just that this is what your Dragon wanted to do and that turned out to be fine?

After about a month or so, she went back to being her old self. She is perfectly healthy and eats like a champ and has good weight on her too.

The funny part about this? She is doing it again lol. She will bask for an hour in the morning now and then go hide and sleep. She won’t eat her salad or roaches either (normally her favorite). She will eat BSFL and hornworms though, so she at least has an appetite. I think she is just going through a hormonal change as she is almost a year old now. She has been basking under a cooler light for almost 4 hours now. As long as she is under her UVB light I am not as concerned.

These dragons have a mind of their own.

 

[Beansbanana]

my Dragon is doing something kind of like this , so it’s good to hear that possibly it’s just a phase!

 

[ZiggyDust]

my Dragon is doing something kind of like this , so it’s good to hear that possibly it’s just a phase!

Is your dragon eating? Not basking can be a sign something is wrong, it’s just not something to jump to unless other signs are present.

 

[Beansbanana]

Is your dragon eating? Not basking can be a sign something is wrong, it’s just not something to jump to unless other signs are present.

He is eating great, but he finished the last round of meds for pinworm treatment 2-3 weeks ago and I am wondering if maybe the pinworm treatment didn’t work. I’m gonna take a fecal in this week.