Bobbing or seizing? SCARED IT MIGHT BE ADV PLEASE HELP

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Dragonism

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Not sure what my little guy Jupiter is doing. But he recently started doing this thing where if I try to pick him up or approach him, he leans back real far and then starts bobbing his head really hard and fast with his beard blackened. Then he stops abruptly and waves his arms at me. Now I know from research that males beardies do this and its a dominance display, but I have no other beardies, just him. That and, I'm honestly kind of scared that he might be seizing or something because my last beardie's head went back in a similar fashion before she passed away. :( I know I might just be waaay over worrying, so I'd really love to know whats up with my boy and make sure that this is completely normal. I'm also 100% sure he's male.

His basking temps are 108, he is on papertowel substrate, he has a Zilla 18-Inch Desert 50 UVB T8 fluorescent bulb light mounted on top of the tank which I bought back in February I think. He last ate 2 days ago (he had 3 hornworms and a few dubia so he's still a bit full), his last poop was this morning and it was small but looked normal (he pooped A LOT yesterday). I calcium dust every other day. He likes to play with the papertowels and he has an exo terra mossy background that he can climb and snuggle against. Also he is about 1 year old; give or take a couple months. Here is a picture of him and his setup.

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Aside from all of that, he's still pretty alert and active. He's not interested in eating though, but I'm not too worried. But he's doing the arm waving thing alot (he started doing it again as I typed this). I just wanna make sure I don't do anything to screw up with him. :c If it helps, only two sides of his tank are covered; the front and the right side aren't so that I can obviously peer into his tank. I'm not sure if he's reacting to his reflection or if he just doesn't like me lol. When I had my previous beardie, she never had a problem with the tank being partially covered. Jupiter has been like this since about yesterday after feeding him the other day. He's just been basking, beard has been black/grey but overall he's alert. He gapes alot too but I know he's just regulating his body temperature. When I take him out, he starts looking up really hard before observing normally. Idk whats up with the guy. XD
 

Dragonism

Member
Original Poster
I should also mention that he's seems a little disoriented before he starts the "bobbing" thing, which is whats scaring me and making me think something's wrong. Like he's roughly jerking his head back and disorienting himself before righting himself and start waving/bobbing. Kind of like he's throwing himself back/arching himself. Is that normal? I've only had him for several days so it could be that he's still not used to his environment. I noticed that in the morning he keeps on trying to "escape" through the top of the screen on the tank. I figured from his perspective it looks like he can get through but can't. I feel like because he kept doing this it might have disoriented him? Idk. This behavior didn't start until yesterday.
 

Dragonism

Member
Original Poster
I decided to take him out of his tank for a while. He was acting normal and looking around curiously. However, when I picked him up or pet him, his head went back again and he flopped all over the place before righting himself. I did some more research and... I think maybe he might have ADV or something. I'm crying right now. I JUST lost a beardie that was close to me. And now I'm starting over only to realize that I might be losing another one. Is there ANYTHING I can do? I don't want to say for sure he has it but... I'm scared and crying. Please help me. :( H was acting just fine before and now this...
 

Mordecai

Juvie Member
I'm a new beardie owner so I can't help much but you might want to post in the ER section for some more experienced people to see. How far away is the uvb light? A t8 needa to be 6" to 8" away fro your beardie and mounted on the inside of the tank because the screen filters a lot of the uvb. I also think it is supose to be changed out every 6months so its time for a new light. Hope someone more experienced gets on to help you more. Good luck.
 
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