So I got a 3 month old beardie on Sunday, she’s an orange color. I know she’s having a bit of relocation stress right now and I’ve been trying to just get her used to her tank before handling her or anything. But the last two days her color has been a really dingy dark grey/brown. She doesn’t look good. She’s currently in a 20 gallon tank (she’s very small right now and I plan on getting her a bigger one when she grows more), with all of the proper lighting (basking bulb, UVB bulb), temperatures seem to be right (107 basking, around 90 for the hot side and 80 on the coolest side), a hammock a hide and a big log that goes up towards the basking light. I’ve been having issues keeping the humidity down low enough. I live in the southeast so it’s fairly humid, but the humidity in her tank is around 45, but at night goes up to about 50. I’ve been feeding her mostly crickets and some collard greens as her veggies. She won’t drink water out of her bowl and I’ve tried dropping some on her nose but the drops just sit there she doesn’t try to drink it. I don’t know if she’s dehydrated or what but I’m wondering if this color change means stress or if it’s a health problem. I’m just really worried about my new baby and any help would be appreciated!
I have been using a temperature gun from amazon that seems to be measuring it accurately. I know she hasn’t been drinking water but I put her in a bath and her color seemed to come back a bit. I’m wondering if I do daily baths if she’ll eventually drink water or if there’s some other trick I should be doing to get her to drink?
She will drink when she needs to -- you can try dripping water on her nose and see if she will drink - you can mist her w/ a spray bottle -- make sure her bugs are good and gutloaded -- meaning well hydrated and fed - she will get moisture from them as well - you can wash her greens before feeding them to her although she probably wont eat greens at this point since her main diet is bugs --- just keep an eye on her ----
Karrie