BRUMATION

[koilover512]

ok I am new to the bearded dragon thing and well my dragon has been acting kind of weird. It started with she started sleeping a lot. When I would turn on her lights in the morning she would wake up and go to her cave. I would leave for work and when I got home she would still be sleeping. I thought maybe she was just staying too cold. So I took the cave away. Ever since she has been stressed. She has stress marks and a black beard. Her basking temps go in a range of 95'f to around 101'f and her cool temps are around 85'f. She is given collard greens everyday and eats around 70 crickets a week. Oh and ever since i took the cave away she stays on her cool side of the cage. she is around a year old. Could it just be her brumating?

 

[Katie007]

Could be! It definitely sounds like brumation but if your worried it might be a good idea for a vet visit and a fecal to rule out anything else (especially if its her first year brumating and you're not sure of her habits yet). This is what I did to be a 100% sure that my 10 month old was semi-brumating.

 

[snazzyglasses]

Your girl is definitely old enough for brumation I don't think they black beard during brumation though, usually that means they're annoyed or not feeling too great.
It sounds like she's eating well. Is she hydrated enough, and has she pooped recently? If she's fine besides the sleepyness she could be doin' that brumation thing, and maybe the black beard is just from taking out her hide! (Sometimes they get cranky about "furniture", lol. I switched out our male's basking spot once, and he got SUPER mad and black bearded and scattered his greens until I put everything back the way it was. :roll

 

[koilover512]

ok sooooo I put her hide back in her viv and she stayed in it for about 3 hours and when i put crickets in her viv to feed her she came out and has been happy ever since. I think the big lesson learned here is never take a hide out of the a BD home. All it does is piss them off. lol

 

[snazzyglasses]

Lol, what a grump!
Glad you figured out what was bothering her though