always stressmarks showing?

[jamesGriffith]

so i have a bearded dragon named Aspen, who has recently gotten his new cage around 2 months ago which is a 75gal. He has 10.0 UVB light aswell and the proper basking lights and basking spot. his basking area is around 100-115 and his cool side of tank is around 80-90. Aspen eats plenty of crickets per day as well as collard and kayle(kayle once a week). So im not sure why aspen always seems to have these dark marks on his belly. they seem to go away when hes hunting and running around the tank after crickets but as soon as he is done eating he seems to get them back again. This makes me think that he is still hungry but i don't want to over feed him either. I have taken him to a repti vet and he was one of the healthiest dragons he has seem in along time, and had nothing wrong with him at all. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[daner923]

How much are you feeding him at a time? How old is he?

 

[jamesGriffith]

hes about a year old but the amount of crickets kinda varries, i usually just put a handful into a cup and he always goes nuts. if i had to say tho it would be around 10- 1" crickets, coupled with his greens. i give him crickets twice a day aswell.

 

[daner923]

At his age, he should get as many crickets as he can eat in 10-15 minutes, once each day. The stress marks could be from temps being too low as well - What kind of thermometers are you using, and what is the basking temp? What color is the basking light?

 

[jamesGriffith]

the basking light color is yellowish, it's to mimic the sun. i use a thermometer gun to test the basking spot which was 112. i have 3 thermometers threw out the cage aswell which are metal dial styled ones, with a single "hand" in the center pointing at temp. sorry hard to describe them

 

[daner923]

Is the basking light bulb clear, or is it coated? It needs to be clear, and it is possible the yellowy light is stressing her out.

 

[Lindz0518]

If he is a year old the 112 may be too hot. Try 95-105 in his basking spot.

 

[jamesGriffith]

Thanks for all the advice, here is the bulb i use for the basking spot http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/intense_basking_spot.php

It's 150W. ill go to store today and see about getting it lowered, i just used the 150 becuase the basking spot before wouldnt break over the 100 mark and it was 100w.

 

[ohmybandit]

Lol when I read yellowish I glanced at mine And I use the same but the 100w. I've had my beardie for 8 months and whenever she's in her tank she has light stress marks but as soon as she's out she's all light colored. Maybe he's like bandit and just doesn't like his tank? Sometimes bigger tanks could stress beardies. Is he dark when you take him out?

 

[jamesGriffith]

nope when i take him out of his tank he gets super bright. Not sure why i never thought of him not liking his tank anyway you can think of to kinda maybe make him more happy in there? it's a pretty nice tank if i do say so myself has plenty of things to climb on, and to hide under.

 

[ohmybandit]

I have no idea. I haven't been able to get bandit to like her tank either lol she's always got slight stress marks. If my nieces are over she's dark but she's only in my room and if im not there, theyre not allowed in. Is he in a high traffic area?

 

[zandi202]

Would you mind posting of pic of your tank? Maybe we might see something that has been overlooked?

 

[jamesGriffith]

hope the link works, iv never used mediafire before.

http://www.mediafire.com/?387g220bhm88pzz,6pbelq3nflknyzu,q8zmxtbepze90tr,u511ww87wc0oh14,n9ua82b1a464i4u,to9lz3vhe45wlx6

i purposely don't have greens in there just so i could take this picture real fast he would get them everywhere!

 

[zandi202]

Okay, from what I saw, remove the water bowl. Instead give him a bath every other to every three days. They don't typically drink from their water bowls so all it does it raise humidity.
The UVB should be in the tank.
This is what my viv looks like to give you an idea:

What I did was I bought a light holder at Walmart that would fit a 24" UVB and then I screwed it into the screen (my screen lift on two sides instead of being one piece). Having the screen in the way removes about 50% of the UVB.

I know some beardies also just don't like to be in their viv's. My littlest one is a mamma's girl and she doesn't understand the importance of getting her UVB and would rather crawl on me all day. :roll: When she's in her cage, she's always stressing, not really dark for me to worry, but to tell me she wants out.

The UVB should be on the basking side as well and the basking spot needs to be 6"-8" away from the UVB.

On a side note, I have 2 bulbs for heat on his cage now. That was taken after his bulb snapped in the socket and I needed to get him a new one.

Hope some of this helps.

 

[jamesGriffith]

so how would i go about mounting somthing like this http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiSun%C2%AE-Terrarium-20-Inch/dp/B001HWGCHA
that's not the exact hood i have it just looks the exact same.