Baby Beardy likes the cold?

[Phurba390]

Hi everyone,

I have a question about a peculiar behavior my baby dragon is displaying. It is 4 weeks old now, and in a 55g tank. The temps are fine. I feed it crickets till it stops eating them. I also leave a salad of greens in the tank. Basically I've done hours and hours of research on the care of beardies and I know what I'm doing.

It has been spending a lot of time hiding under rocks in the tank, and hanging out on the cool side. It does this until It appears to no longer be breathing and when I pick it up it is really cold. I will then hold it under the heating light until it's warm, then it will start squirming again and acting completely normal.

Is it trying to commit suicide or something?! Does it have a death wish? Please help!

 

[Taterbug]

Can you go over your temps, lighting and cage setup/decor? Do you have any hide-aways on the warm side?

 

[Phurba390]

Sure thing.

First of all, I use an infrared gun to get the temps.

Warm side is 91 on the floor, 105 on the basking spots.

Cool side is 75.

The warm side has a large cave area I made out of big rocks. There aren't any climbing areas on the cool side except for one long log that runs all the way up to the hammock on the warm side. The hammock is the largest basking spot and it is directly under the lamp. There are also a few other spots on a log next to the hammock. I had a cave on the cool side but I rearranged it once I caught my beardy doing this.

Speak of the devil! I just now caught it doing this again. He was laying on the cool side out in the open, not breathing. I put him under the heat lamp and it is fine again. I wouldn't worry about this much if it didn't look like it stops breathing.

 

[Taterbug]

Your setup sounds good, not sure why he is avoiding the warm side. What uvb do you have? Do you have any pictures you cousl share with is? Hopefully some one will have some insight for you.

For reptiles breathing is variable - when they are relaxed or sleeping say, they can slow down to only a few breaths per minute. When they are active or anxious they tend to breath faster.

 

[Phurba390]

I guess it's just sleeping and it's breathing is too slow for me to see since it's so small.

My UVB is the ReptiSun 10.0

It is eating crickets now and has eaten about 5 today so far so I think I may just be worried over nothing like an overly concerned parent LOL.