Gaping.?

acidburn01

Sub-Adult Member
Beardie name(s)
Toothless
Toothless has done this several times today, more than I've ever seen him do. It's only for a minute or two at a time and has only been while on his basking rock. My boyfriend doesn't *really* think he's gaping, just because he's been doing it kind of a lot.? For him, it's a lot.

His rock reads about 97-101, the hot side in general is about 97ish, middle is about 90-95 and cool side at about 88, humidity is reading right at 40% most of the time, unless it gets super hot and stuffy in our room, then it'll reach 60% for just a bit. He's eating and pooping normal, pretty alert and has been at his usual level of activity.
 

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KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Toothless has done this several times today, more than I've ever seen him do. It's only for a minute or two at a time and has only been while on his basking rock. My boyfriend doesn't *really* think he's gaping, just because he's been doing it kind of a lot.? For him, it's a lot.

His rock reads about 97-101, the hot side in general is about 97ish, middle is about 90-95 and cool side at about 88, humidity is reading right at 40% most of the time, unless it gets super hot and stuffy in our room, then it'll reach 60% for just a bit. He's eating and pooping normal, pretty alert and has been at his usual level of activity.
Thats gaping which is good
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Great, I thought so. I was talking to Petco and mentioned it and the kid said he's never seen his beardie gape before. I was like, ?¿? 😅😅
His temps are not high enough- they will gape to adjust their body temp- please tell me you have a long tube fixture for your uvb and not a coil one
 

acidburn01

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Toothless
I
His temps are not high enough- they will gape to adjust their body temp- please tell me you have a long tube fixture for your uvb and not a coil one
I don't have either right now. I have a powersun 80 watt vu bulb and a CHE. I also have a flukers 100 watt basking bulb, but that with the powersun, his rock got too hot. Like, 105ish. So, we typically have the UV bulb and the CHE on, just to give that extra heat. I had the CHE on while he was gaping but when i turned it off, thinking he may be too hot, he stopped gaping. But shortly after turning it back on, he'd start gaping again. We don't have a lid for a long tube right now and no real way to hook it safely to his tank. We have the mesh lid, but we have to slide the entire lid to open the tank. We're currently looking for a front opening tank, once we have a bit more money. We have a wide basking spot for him, the whole left quarter of the tank, because he's only 8ish inches in a 40 gallon tank.

I checked it again, his rock itself is close to 101, the atmospheric temp is about 98 to 100, cool about between 80ish, middle is about 85ish. 85-94 anyway.
 

xp29

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Beardie name(s)
Zen , Ruby ,Snicker Doodles, Sweet Pea, Sinatra
His basking needs to be 105 to 110, gaping is good it means they are getting up to a temp they like.
It's best to create a temp gradient even in their basking area, they are smart enough to chose the right temp.
 

acidburn01

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Toothless
His basking needs to be 105 to 110, gaping is good it means they are getting up to a temp they like.
It's best to create a temp gradient even in their basking area, they are smart enough to chose the right temp.
See, I can get his rock easily close to 110, and both the basking light and the UV bulb will do that and raise the atmospheric closer to 105, but was told that his rock being 105 is too hot for his belly and will burn him. The light is a flukers basking light, which I'm assuming doesn't provide the UV rays he needs, so I just leave the powersun and the CHE on during the day and the CHE at night because his tank is right under the ac vent and he likes to sleep on the cool plastic top of our cricket hotel we keep in the cool side of his tank.


Petsmart has an all in one (basking, uva and uvb) bulb that isn't a coil that I want, if it's a good choice.

His whole tank has its own gradient. His rock is a little hotter than the corner of his basking rock and the cricket house he sleeps on is much cooler than the opposite corner, by his water bowl.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
See, I can get his rock easily close to 110, and both the basking light and the UV bulb will do that and raise the atmospheric closer to 105, but was told that his rock being 105 is too hot for his belly and will burn him. The light is a flukers basking light, which I'm assuming doesn't provide the UV rays he needs, so I just leave the powersun and the CHE on during the day and the CHE at night because his tank is right under the ac vent and he likes to sleep on the cool plastic top of our cricket hotel we keep in the cool side of his tank.


Petsmart has an all in one (basking, uva and uvb) bulb that isn't a coil that I want, if it's a good choice.

His whole tank has its own gradient. His rock is a little hotter than the corner of his basking rock and the cricket house he sleeps on is much cooler than the opposite corner, by his water bowl.
You want surface basking temps of 105-110 taken w/ a digital probe thermometer -- stick ons are inaccurate and IR guns are good but cannot read off of certain materials-- I recommend getting a 24" Zoo Med fixture UVB w/ a Reptisun as soon as possible - the MVB's do not provide the UVB he needs and the screen will block 30% of those rays- please take the cricket keeper out of his tank - they are escape artist and you do not want any crickets left in the tank or escaping into the tank - they will bite the dragon at night --
You can look at PetSmart and see if they have any of the 10.0 bulbs in stock - they usually carry only the T 8's you want a T 5 --
94 is too hot for days cool side 80's -85 -
you dont want your tank over 75 at night ambient temp - temps at night should be 65-75 --- too hot can make him sick --
 

xp29

BD.org Addict
Photo Comp Winner
Beardie name(s)
Zen , Ruby ,Snicker Doodles, Sweet Pea, Sinatra
The draw back to using the all in one bulbs is that its going to be really hard to get the basking temp correct. You run the risk of: if the bulb is close enough for adequate uvb it's to hot : if the bulb is far enough to not be to hot, uvb may be inadequate.
Also it only projects uvb in a fairly narrow cone. It's much easier to use the tube type uvb (the exposure is a much larger area) and and regular basking bulb, you can arrange that setup so you have basking and uvb overlap which is idea.
 

acidburn01

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Toothless
Hard to tell from a picture but they also do this to regulate their temperature while basking.
Well he only does it in his basking spot. He's been on his rock a total of maybe half an hour and has already done it two or three times. I don't know if it plays into it at all or not, but our room is super hot this morning, like 85° according to our fan.
 

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