Black beard and tail but bright colors...?

[RagingBunny]

Heyo!

So something very unusual happened today..
It was the first time that I saw my beardies beard pitch black, with a bit of his tail too. He's not lethargic, he ate just fine and he doesn't seem to have any signs of dehidration either. Nothing changed around him that would cause stress...
I looked around in the forum and online and I don't know what to make of it... I need help!

Some pointers:
.Proper temperature and enclosure setup
.Not sluggish, if anything he's quite active
.Check for any signs of health issues
.He eats his crickets and collard greens, I fed him squash today and noticed a little bit of a runny poo; he hasn't eaten squash before
.He is about 6 months old now
.Yesterday I let him out for most of the day, a lot of sun comes in my window so he just sits there (first time he's been out this long)
.He's also shedding
.The rest of his nody is bright

I've taken him out, his beard is still black but not as dark. I'm going to put him in the tub wjth warm watter and see if that helps. I'm aleo going to try to give him water with a seringe, he isn't portraying any signs of dehydration as far as I can tell, the only thing could be that his eyes seem a little sunken, I'm not sure if it's me just getting paranoid or not...

Help!

 

[HippieLizards]

Hello,

It sounds like your beardie is just being hormonal. My male Loki has been super hormonal lately. This behaviour will go away in about a month or so.

But just in case it isn't hormones could you please post some pictures of him, his setup, and his lights? https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ What are you feeding him? Is there anything he could see that could be stressing him out (Such as a dog, cat, bird, or reflection of himself)? How is he doing today?

-HippieLizards.

 

[RagingBunny]

Hello,

It sounds like your beardie is just being hormonal. My male Loki has been super hormonal lately. This behaviour will go away in about a month or so.

But just in case it isn't hormones could you please post some pictures of him, his setup, and his lights? https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ What are you feeding him? Is there anything he could see that could be stressing him out (Such as a dog, cat, bird, or reflection of himself)? How is he doing today?

-HippieLizards.

I took him out and gave him a bath, gave him some water through a syringe and he is back to normal! The only thing I can think of is that I cut a bit on the crickets because I am trying to get him to eat his greens; he will eat collard greens(daily/when he feels like it) and kale (occasionally). I was having a lot of trouble to get him to eat anything else but crickets or worms and after some research and asking around I was advised to not give him crickets so that he eats his veggies. So I slowly reduced the crickets and I tried for 2 days to give him collard greens, bok choi and bell peppers and he ate that just fine, Im assuming it's because he was hungry. He drinks from a water bowl which Im told it's unusual, and the water is replaced several times a day because sometimes he just likes to sit in it :v

I think it was irresponsible of me to take away his main source of hydration and I have definitely learned my lesson...

But back to the veggies, there are a lot of different opinions online, what veggies should he be eating everyday & when can I transition the diet to mainly veggies?

Enclosure wise he is in a 40 gallon reptihabitat( I think it's the breeder one, it's as wide as it is tall +/-) with the 2 doors in the front. I am planning on replacing it this summer for hopefully a 120 gallon tank, still debating if a bioactive terrarium would be beneficial for him or not. He gets a lot of out of cage time since my room is quite warm and I have big windows with sun just shinning through them.

Light wise I have a 100W for basking spot with one of those adjustable fixtures and for the UVB I have a 22" Reptisun 10.0 T5 High-Output (HO) UVB tube and a matching 24" T5-rated long tube fixture

Bottom line is I think he needed water, his skin wasn't too wrinkly but after actually pinching it looking at his eyes he might be dehydrated. And like you mentioned I am not sure if it could be hormonal as well .----.

Either way better safe than sorry, so I am going to give him baths every other day, give him water every morning and get him back to the regular amount of crickets. I'm just going to hope that he will grow to like veggies rather than try to force him to eat them

 

[HippieLizards]

I Do not think that it is dehydration. It probably is hormones but beardies really DON'T need a water dish at all. If you are worried about him being dehydrated just give him water via a syringe (without the needle).

You do not need to bathe him every/every other day. You only need to bathe them every other week or at least if they get really dirty. and Beardies don't absorb water through the skin so a bath will only hydrate him if he drinks while in it.

You also are taking a bit of a risk while having the water bowl in your tank. Because at night beardies can sleepwalk and if they slip underwater while asleep they could drown or if the water is cold and they don't drown they could cool down to a dangerous level and become VERY sick or even die.

Also since he's only six months old he still should be having insects every other day. Good feeder insects are crickets, dubia roaches, black soldier fly larva, silkworms and hornworms.

Once he's around a year old he should start having insects once or twice a week and greens everyday. Here's a feeding chart that many others and I follow. You should find some good veggies here: http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

What you are feeding him sounds ok and his lights sound fine. But could you please post a picture or two of him and his setup? Has he black bearded at all today? and What is his substrate?

-HippieLizards.

 

[RagingBunny]

I Do not think that it is dehydration. It probably is hormones but beardies really DON'T need a water dish at all. If you are worried about him being dehydrated just give him water via a syringe (without the needle).

You do not need to bathe him every/every other day. You only need to bathe them every other week or at least if they get really dirty. and Beardies don't absorb water through the skin so a bath will only hydrate him if he drinks while in it.

You also are taking a bit of a risk while having the water bowl in your tank. Because at night beardies can sleepwalk and if they slip underwater while asleep they could drown or if the water is cold and they don't drown they could cool down to a dangerous level and become VERY sick or even die.

Also since he's only six months old he still should be having insects every other day. Good feeder insects are crickets, dubia roaches, black soldier fly larva, silkworms and hornworms.

Once he's around a year old he should start having insects once or twice a week and greens everyday. Here's a feeding chart that many others and I follow. You should find some good veggies here: http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

What you are feeding him sounds ok and his lights sound fine. But could you please post a picture or two of him and his setup? Has he black bearded at all today? and What is his substrate?

-HippieLizards.

Hey! Sorry for the late reply ^^´ I saved the link already, I'm doing a chart of what I should be feeding him everyday to keep track of what he actually enjoys eating. Thank you for the link!

I'm not sure how to post pictures on here but I'll post a link in a bit with the pictures in a folder or something ☺ He has a rocky background that came with the enclosure, and I am using a desert themed carpet for substract. He has never picked at it but regardless everyday I make sure there are no loose pebbles when I go and clean it. He has a net for a basking spot right now, he used to have a tree he used for basking but he outgrew it. I have his enclosure quite bare right now; I'm in the process of making him a proper hide (right now he just uses his blanky, it's ridiculous how much he loves it)


His UVB light isn't fixed inside the enclosure because he climbs the background, but I made sure to get one strong enough to sit on the net and still provide him with what he needs. He also spends a lot of time at my window now that we have good weather, sun hits directly so I have a lil hide in case he has had enough.


Regarding the water bowl he enjoys sitting in it and occasionally drink (hence why I change it several times a day) and when Im not at home/night time I take it out, he's never left unsupervised ☺

Bathwise I place him in there when he's shedding, he seems to be a lot more relaxed after a nice bath. He's not too cranky during his sheds but you can see a change in his demeanor. I mist him throughout the day as well, he enjoys drinking like this.

I'll post a link asap once I am on the computer for the pictures. He hasn't shown the black beard again

 

[RagingBunny]

I'll post a link asap once I am on the computer for the pictures. He hasn't shown the black beard again

Aight so here's the link https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18Gv3LgW9NZAnJxl2vIGSPE1twkF9Mrdc?usp=sharing

Hopefully it works I have some pictures with and without filter.

The basking spot is usually a bit closer to the lamp, but since I am using a 100w ( https://zoomedwebsite-g10v9whlnw8q2qdmulwq.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/SL-100_Repti_Basking_Spot_Lamp.jpg) and my room is quite warm I didn't want to overwhelm him with heat, I check temperatures daily though and this seems to be ideal (please correct me if Im wrong)
The tree is right underneath the UVB lamp and close to the basking spot as well.

I usually let him sit there between 1h to 2h before I feed him and after he's done.

He eats crickets everyday, and I started to breed them, so Im feeding the crickets things that he would be eating as well. He gets some butterworms, superworms and hornworms time to time. When I give him superworms if I see that he hasn't pooped for a while I put him in the tub and let him do his business

And I think that's all I can think about that's worth mentioning really Oo

 

[HippieLizards]

You have a very pretty boy there! What you are feeding him sounds good and he seems to be happy and healthy. The heat bulb you are using is also what i'm using and IMO it's pretty good.

Also It is better for the beardie to have the UVB mounted inside the tank. One of my beardies is very much a live wire so she has to have a lid on her tank so I rigged the UVB and the fixture with pipe cleaners and tied them through the holes in the screen. View media item 60454

 

[RagingBunny]

Oooh! I would never have thought of thayt! It's definitely something I will look into and try to do, I was concerned about having it on top of the mesh but someone on here had told me that this lamp in particular can be placed on top so I went with it

Thank you very much for all the help!!

 

[HippieLizards]

You're welcome. and I would advise against putting it on the screen since the screen can block 40% of the emitted UVB or if there's a plastic wrap around the bulb it would block 100% of the UVB.