Black Beard while sleeping?

[Menolly]

This morning, I was going to get a drink of water in the middle of the night and noticed that my beardie had a jet black beard in the middle of the night. I'm curious about people's opinions on this as to why this could be, any ideas?

 

[CooperDragon]

I'm not sure exactly. What is your dragon's nighttime temperature?

 

[Menolly]

Probably around 76/77.

 

[CooperDragon]

That's no problem then. Does the black beard go away by morning? Does it seem to happen regularly?

 

[parodyofagirl]

I don't want to alarm you, but a black beard that doesn't go away at night can be a symptom of a very serious problem if it continues. Quincy had a grey/black beard constantly in the last few weeks before he passed away due to liver failure. He didn't show typical symptoms of liver failure until 2-3 days before he passed.

 

[Menolly]

It doesn't seem to be every night. I'm sorry for your loss. I just had a blood test done within the last few weeks and everything came back good.

 

[CooperDragon]

If blood tests were OK and it doesn't happen regularly or continue into the day, it's possible he was just having a bad dream or something that upset him. I don't really have any other ideas on this one.

 

[parodyofagirl]

I am so happy to hear that the recent blood test was normal.

When Quincy was a juvenile he would black beard in his sleep (and even head bob) when he was having tummy trouble.

As an adult and prior to his health problems, he blackbearded in his sleep twice when a few sugar ants found their way into his enclosure and were irritating him.

If it isn't a constant thing, he is probably okay.