Baby beardie has black beard?!

[katelynnj072011]

Hi Guys,

Phoenix has been having a black beard for the past couple weeks and I have no idea why .At first I thought he was stressed out from his reflection, so I put black poster board around the inside of his cage until I can find a background I like for him. That solved our issue with his glass surfing, but it did not help with his beard (We did that on Sunday) . He still eats like a champ, about 20 crix x2 a day with a salad in between (collards and turnip greens). We dust his food x5 a week with calcium D3 & gets multi vits x2 a week. He's not lethargic, his eyes aren't sunken in and he is very active for the most part. Poop is normal, no diarrhea or anything (ANYMORE, we found out squash gives him the runs , he's not too happy about that..he LOVES squash ) He has started shedding as of Monday, but his black beard started a week or so prior to that. Given he is only about 4 months old.....could this be a hormonal thing? It's literally just his beard, his belly is completely white and has no stress marks. I get so freaked out anytime something goes wrong as petco sold me a sick beardie before I got Phoenix. Poor reggie died on the 30th day of having him (last day of warranty). Petco's solution to that was to give me a new beardie (Phoenix), as the clutch reggie came from had some babies come back to the store "sick" or "questionable" & they feel he didn't die due to anything that I was doing. Needless to say..im pretty paranoid because of that now . I posted a photo of phoenix from this morning, I will post photos of his viv once I get home. Please see the comments for his viv specs, I didn't want to overload this post with too many details.

Any help or advice would be great

 

[katelynnj072011]

His viv:

40 gal tank w/ front door access

Basking bulbs : He has 2 due to cold weather, a 100 watt basking bulb in a mini dome reflector, and a 50 watt floodlight in a big flukers dome right next to it. This keeps his cage around 95-100 degrees (80-75 cold side) . We are considering bumping the floodlight up to a 75 watt to see if we can get the temps up to about 105-110.

florescent light : 10.0 T8 reptisun in a 20 in fixture (above cage ontop of mesh.....can this be reducing his uva too much?)

I think that covers the essentials, let me know if you need any additional info , again i'll post a photo of his viv once I get off work.

 

[CooperDragon]

His beard doesn't look too dark. It's a good sign that he is alert and eating well. That makes me think it's more hormonal. When they get sick their beards usually go jet black and they start acting lethargic and lose their appetites and their weight drops. That doesn't seem to be the case here. His temps are pretty good. It's common to wrestle a bit with the exact temps as the seasons change but if you have a good gradient and it's close don't worry about it too much. The T8 UVB is OK going through mesh but that reduces overall output a bit. I wouldn't want it much further (or closer for other reasons) than about 6'' away from the main basking area to provide optimal UVB from that bulb. If you need to set it at a greater distance I'd move to a T5 which will have an optimal output between about 10-12'' through a screen top.

 

[kingofnobbys]

His viv:

40 gal tank w/ front door access

Basking bulbs : He has 2 due to cold weather, a 100 watt basking bulb in a mini dome reflector, and a 50 watt floodlight in a big flukers dome right next to it. This keeps his cage around 95-100 degrees (80-75 cold side) . We are considering bumping the floodlight up to a 75 watt to see if we can get the temps up to about 105-110.

florescent light : 10.0 T8 reptisun in a 20 in fixture (above cage ontop of mesh.....can this be reducing his uva too much?) <<<<< yes, mesh will block in excess of 25% of the UVA and UVB , suggest you relocate to under the mesh top, even better , get rid of the mesh top and replace with a precut plywood top (holes cut for the basking lights if you insist in continuing to use dome reflectors) will help keep heat in where you need it).
I'd discontinue using the dome reflectors for the basking lights and go to a simple ceramic light socket attached under the plywood top. (maybe with a wire cage to prevent hatchling leaping onto the hot globe.)
Mesh will let most heat created by the basking lights (and CHE if you find it's necessary overnight) escape (warm air is highly buoyant and will simply rise and warm the room's ceiling).

I think that covers the essentials, let me know if you need any additional info , again i'll post a photo of his viv once I get off work.