BLACK BEARD ! HELP !

[HampshireFreddy]

Hello all, I would like to ask a question about our new beardie Freddy. We bought him on Friday, he is 18 months old and for the first 3 days he was absolutely fine, happy to be handled, and calm and just a lovely chap. Then yesterday evening his beard suddenly went very black, he had been out and sitting in a warm area of the sitting room but wasn't being handled. We put him to bed and he woke up this morning with less black but after moving to his rock he has gone very black again. We are not handling him obviously but we are not sure why this is happening.

He came to us in a large tank with wood chip and plastic leaves so we changed that to sand and removed the leaves. He has eaten locusts dusted with powder and a few worms since arriving and has pooped 3 times, consistency of bird poo i would say but greeny/grey in color. Can anyone suggest what could be upsetting him ?

He is our first beardie but we have been reading up and watching videos for the last month to understand what they need and how they should be cared for.

Help !

 

[HampshireFreddy]

Right after getting blacker and blacker all this morning (I was checking on him every 15 minutes) he has moved from his hot spot to the other wooden house on the other side of his enclosure and the black has completely gone !!! Can i take from this that he had got too cold yesterday and with night he hadn't had chance to warm up and now after a few hours in his hot spot he is finally comfortable and warm so is now happier again. Our daughter likes to take him out and have him on her lap but perhaps she is allowing him to get too cold and he doesn't like that?

 

[Soulwind]

We need some more information:

how big is his cage?
what are the temps in his cage? Basking spot, Warm side, Cool side.
how are you measuring his temps? Those little dial thermometers are horribly inaccurate.
what kind of lighting are you using for Basking? For UVA/UVB?

He may be getting too cool, he may be getting too warm, he might just
be acting up (he's about that age) and practicing his bearding, something
might of scared him, etc [it could be a lot of things].

FYI - sand isn't really recommended. Beardies like to lick everything and
sand can cause impaction and intestinal issues if they injest too much of it.
Remember, in the wild, beardies don't live on sand. They are a scrub desert
species not sand desert.

We recommend that you use just paper towels, non-sticky shelf liner, or slate tiles
for a substrate (tiles are great, they are easy to clean and they help to keep his nails filed down).

 

[HampshireFreddy]

Thank you for your reply -
Here are the answers to your questions -

how big is his cage? - 3ft x 2ft x 2ft
what are the temps in his cage?
Basking spot - 100f
Warm side - 85f
Cool side - 75f
how are you measuring his temps? with an infa red meter
what kind of lighting are you using for Basking? its a 100W infared, Exo Terra basking spot
For UVA & UVB - 750mm 25W Desert 10% + UVB/UVA Lamp

He is not black at all now but he has pooped for the 5th time in 4 days. In each poo there has been a blob of white and the rest a sort of greeny brown, slightly soft/runny Should there be a certain time to feed them ? He gets locusts, and worms (dusted) every other day and lettuce, grapes and strawberries on the alternate days.

 

[Soulwind]

Overall things sound pretty good for his setup.

At only 18 months, he should probably still be being offered
live food every day, and let him make up his own mind about
whether or not to eat it.

Also lettuce isn't recommended. It has zero nutritional value
and is basically just water and ruffage and can lead to loose
stools. Beardie poo is never really solid, solid, unless they are
dehydrated but lettuce can make things really runny.

For greens he should be getting mustard greens, turnip greens,
dandelion greens, etc. [ie actual 'greens'], along with some other
veggies like squash and such. Have you seen the nutritional chart
at www.beautifuldragons.com/nutrition.html that we recommend?

Time of day for live feeding doesn't really matter, as long as he's had a
chance to warm up and gets at least an hour or so of basking time
after eating to digest before lights out. You can leave out fresh
salad for him constantly.

Other than that, I wouldn't be too concerned about the occasional
bearding. He was probably just startled by something or else he was
"feeling his Wheaties" that day. If he does it often, you might want to
give his environment a once over and see what is triggering him though.

 

[TheGuvnor]

In my experience, once In a new home they can often take 2 or 3 days before they actually realize that everything had changed. New viv, new layout, new sights, new smells. Is kind of a lot to take in for them.

Keep an eye out, all will be fine I'm sure.

As stated previous, keep offering the food, although one of the possible "symptoms" of re-home is going off food for a week or two.
But just relax. Keep handling to a minimum for couple of weeks. This is hard I know, but you will have many happy years with your beardie, so those 2 weeks for him to settle are worth it.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Which desert UVB bulb are you using, a Reptisun 10 or a Zilla desert T-50 series, or a Reptiglo 10? Is it a tube bulb?
It can take a couple of weeks to get adjusted to their new home. How is he doing today?

Tracie

 

[jacody]

Glad that the blackbeard retreated and all is ok except for a lil' poop issues that the others have helped you out w/.. :wink: :wink: