Is it normal for the beardie to bask under their light and open their mouth but not move from under the basking light. Ive been noticing that Chimera will bask and bask he will open his mouth to cool off but he will kind of turn himself but not remove himself from the heated area. His basking side is about 100f its kind of cool in the house lately so his tank temp is a bit lower. His cool side is at 80f.(moved his tank to a diffrent room due to construction work) Im thinking hes just spoiled and knows ill move him or take him out of the cage. Maybe he dosnt know when to move?
From what I understand, gaping can be the first step in thermoregulating for a beardie.
They open their mouth to cool off and if that doesn't work, then they'll move. I would chalk it up to your guy finding just the perfect balance where he can gape and cool off enough that he doesn't have to move. :mrgreen:
Plenty of people have seen this same behavior from their beardies. Sakura does it from time to time also. I used to raise her MegaRay because I thought she was too hot but then when I got my temp gun, I could check the temps without waiting 45 minutes and noticed the temps were always perfect so I stopped fussing with the lamp and now she just moves when she's had enough.