Beardie appeared to gag and then beard turned black

[Soconnor91]

This morning our 4 year old female beardie had a weird episode where she gagged and shook her head. Her beard and tail turned black. It was a quick moment and afterwards she appeared fine. We checked her tank and everything seemed normal. The temperatures were good and she was eager to have a worm snack. It's been a couple hours now and even though she is alert and nothing appears to be wrong, her beard and tail are still black.

We have a 3 year old male frilled dragon in the same room and there is a small portion of the beardies tank where they can see each other so I covered that spot up because I figured maybe they were giving each other some looks from across the room or something.

Any idea on why her beard is still black? She rarely has a black beard so it's been a little concerning for us.

Her diet consists of daily veggies (cabbage, celery, broccoli, romaine lettuce[not a staple], bell pepper, brussel sprouts) and usually dubias for protein every couple days but lately they have been hard to find where I live so we've been feeding her a mix of dried dubia kibble and super worms, we will dust with calcium once a week. She has a basking area with a temp around 100, she will open her mouth while basking. The cooler area of her tank is around 75 Fahrenheit.

 

[KarrieRee]

Please dont feed her these as staple foods anymore cabbage, celery, broccoli brussel sprouts here is a website for better staple food ignore the kale thing its a good staple feeder
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html
Most on here order insects and worms on line I will post some for you but the black beard could be the possibility of seeing the other dragon I am guessing and is still in distress from that -- it may take a day for her to get over that sighting -- keep the block up and dont let her see him anymore --
Her basking temps your getting w/ a digital probe thermometer? Here are some websites for insects and worms
www.dubiaroaches.com great dubias they are fast usually -- horn worms are real nice and grow fast so order small amounts they are a good hydrating worm
www.mulberryfarms.com butter worms super worms and when they have them in stock silk worms
www.reptilianarts.com great place for silk worms - they have only cupped now but the bulk are great they come small you would need to order food for them and clean containers out daily they also have the dubias
www.coastalsilkworms.com they have places on the east and west coast - they come w/ food
Try the UVB I recommended and see if that fixes the eating issue
Karrie

 

[Claudiusx]

Hi there,

That sounds like she was choking. Happened once to one of my dragons too.

Is there anything in her tank she could have gotten ahold of and swallowed?
Had she just eaten?

-Brandon