black bearded queston?

[VeggieLoven]

i just got a new beardy today he is 8 months old im a little worried because he is very black bearded after a couple hours in his tank. it is the same tank and everything that he had (i bought it from his owner) i know black bearding is normal when moving but i just had my baby die a couple of weeks ago and he was so black bearded so this is kinda freaking me out. is there any way i can calm him down

 

[carlisv]

Do you trust that the previous owner set the viv up properly? What are the temps on the hot side, the cool side, and the basking spot? What are you measuring them with? Does he seem well-hydrated? Hopefully the floor of the viv is repti-carpet or tile and not sand. Is the UVB bulb either a ReptiSun 10 tube or an Arcadia 12%? A nice warm bath couldn't hurt at this point, either.

I bet it's just re-location stress. As long as he's warm enough and hydrated, and has food if he wants it, a black beard may just be the equivalent of a pouty face!

 

[VeggieLoven]

its 95 f on the hot and 75 on the cool i have a prob thermomiter, his substrate is newspaper and yes i have a repisun 10 he didnt like being picked up when i tried

 

[Lurhstaap]

If the setup is fine, then I would lay odds that he is just feeling some relocation stress. Give him time, he'll be all right. A black beard CAN be a sign of serious distress, but, honestly, beardies have differing personalities, and some blacken more often than others and for more reasons or at less provocation. My Sunny is going through puberty right now, and his neck is black almost all the time just because he's in grumpy hormonal mode. XD Nothing is actually WRONG, he's just a little stinker right now.

 

[VeggieLoven]

how old are they when they go threw puberty?

 

[Lurhstaap]

Well, Sunset started doing this just recently and he's about seven to eight months old. From what I've read that's a pretty average age for beardie puberty, at least in males. Not sure about females. (Then again I also recently learned that Sunny is a vittikins and not a pure vitticeps as I had believed him to be, so this may have impacted the time he entered puberty, too.) The most obvious physical (as opposed to behavioral) signs of puberty that I have noticed in my boy are that the base of his tail has thickened, his femoral pores (the little 'spots' on the underside of their hind legs) have grown and begun to exude waxy stuff (this is normal in sexually mature males), and the spikes on his head and body have enlarged and become thicker and stronger (although they are comically small compared to those of my two vitticeps females. XD)