Beardie Coughing After Drinking?

[newreptile]

Hey Everyone!

I am a first time dragon owner, and I just got my juvenile dragon last Friday evening. I house Norton in a 40 gallon tank, with a screen sliding top. I have a double dome light fixture, with his basking bulb and a Reptisun 10.0 light for his UVB intake. His basking area is around 105 F, and his cool end is around 83 F. The lowest I've been able to get his humidity is 40, I know ideally it should be lower but I have no water dish in the tank, I have an under-tank heating pad for the humidity at night, and I also have a dehumidifier in my room right next to his tank to help the levels (if you have any other advice to lower it please let me know!).
For my actual question, I took Norton out today to do his first soaking. I put a towel in the bottom of a small rubbermaid and filled it with some lukewarm water, and then set him in it. He didn't swim much, however he did drink a pretty good amount of water (I don't know how much he had been drinking in the store before I took him home), and then I took him out and towel patted him dry before returning him to his basking spot. When I came back in the room after cleaning up all of the soaking stuff, he looked at me and seemed to cough once or twice, and then held his mouth open a little bit while basking. After a couple minutes he went down to eat, and then resumed his usual behavior. He's been pretty active since I brought him home, and has been eating and pooping as normal. He loves to climb.
Would the coughing have just been from being "parched" and then drinking a good amount? He hasn't shown any other negative symptoms, and only coughed right after drinking. Just want to make sure it isn't anything more serious, being a first time owner I tend to be pretty anxious about everything!
Thanks!

 

[CooperDragon]

It sounds like he may have just overdone it a bit on the water and coughed. If his behavior returned to normal shortly after I'd imagine that he's fine. If you want to post some photos of your setup I'll be glad to take a look and see if anything stands out as a possible issue. 40% humidity is fine, I wouldn't worry about that at all.

 

[newreptile]

It sounds like he may have just overdone it a bit on the water and coughed. If his behavior returned to normal shortly after I'd imagine that he's fine. If you want to post some photos of your setup I'll be glad to take a look and see if anything stands out as a possible issue. 40% humidity is fine, I wouldn't worry about that at all.

Thanks for the response! I included an overview of his tank, and then him just climbing on some things. I know they're desert lizards, I just felt like I had more climbing options that I could do with the "rainforest" theme.

 

[Drache613]

Moved by Moderator from General to Health

 

[CooperDragon]

That's a fantastic setup. They definitely love to climb! I suggest moving to a T5 UVB tube rather than the screw in type of UVB light though. I say this because the compact bulbs produce an intense narrow output of UVB while the tubes produce a more even, widespread output of UVB which is easier for them to bask under because they provide an area of adequate UVB which they can fit their whole body under easily. For a 40g breeder tank, these are good choices:

This fixture http://www.amazon.com/Sunblaster-904296-NanoTech-Fixture-Reflector/dp/B00AKKUBDQ
With this bulb http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiSun-10-0-Lamp/dp/B00AQU8HAO/

Or this combo set http://www.lightyourreptiles.com/22-t-5-ho-fixture-high-output-with-arcadia-d3-12-ho-bulb/

 

[newreptile]

That's a fantastic setup. They definitely love to climb! I suggest moving to a T5 UVB tube rather than the screw in type of UVB light though. I say this because the compact bulbs produce an intense narrow output of UVB while the tubes produce a more even, widespread output of UVB which is easier for them to bask under because they provide an area of adequate UVB which they can fit their whole body under easily.

Definitely, I'll check out the lights. And as far as the humidity goes, do you have any other suggestions? The 40 during the day is okay, it just rises pretty high at night when his basking bulb is turned off; I just don't want to set him up for a URI.

 

[CooperDragon]

Increasing airflow with a small fan in the area or adding a CHE for nighttime may help. How high is the humidity getting at night? I've found that if it doesn't feel humid in the room to me it hasn't been a problem. A range of 30-60% is usually thrown around but I wouldn't worry about it too much unless it feels humid or you're measuring humidity up in the 80s or 90s.

 

[newreptile]

Increasing airflow with a small fan in the area or adding a CHE for nighttime may help. How high is the humidity getting at night? I've found that if it doesn't feel humid in the room to me it hasn't been a problem. A range of 30-60% is usually thrown around but I wouldn't worry about it too much unless it feels humid or you're measuring humidity up in the 80s or 90s.

It usually resides around 50%-60% at night, the highest I've seen it get is 70%. It's never gotten higher than the 70% though, and it goes right back down to around 40% once I turn his basking bulb back on in the morning.

 

[CooperDragon]

That sounds pretty reasonable to me. A CHE at night may be helpful but I'd only bother if the temps drop a lot. I wouldn't want to make it hotter than about 75 or so overnight barring any health issues (boosting overnight temps to around 80 is often done to help fight illness).

 

[newreptile]

That sounds pretty reasonable to me. A CHE at night may be helpful but I'd only bother if the temps drop a lot. I wouldn't want to make it hotter than about 75 or so overnight barring any health issues (boosting overnight temps to around 80 is often done to help fight illness).

Okay, that sounds good to me. The temperature overnight doesn't drop too much, the humidity just rises but as long as it's in an okay level than I'm fine with that. He gets more active each day since I've had him home, I just didn't want to be putting him in an environment that could lead to him getting sick. Thanks so much for all your help, I appreciate it!