Colors have changed in the past 2 days

[NateS]

Hi. I am a little concerned about my new Beardie. He is about 5 months old and smallish for the age at 11" from tip of nose to tip of tail. About 1 1/2" Body width.

When I got him last week he was really bright colors...yellow with bright orangish patterns on his back. Yesterday and today he has darkened...a lot and won't lighten up. He is basically a brown color with different brown patterns now. He is very active, and still pretty skittish, but he is acting about the same as he did when I got him. I wouldn't think it would be relocation stress as he was normal looking the first week or so that I had him.

First thought I had was that maybe it was due to him getting ready to shed, but there isn't really any flaking skin except a teeny tiny bit behind h is hind legs (2 very small loose skin pieces). I gave him a bath and that didn't change the colors.

Other thought I had was stress. If it's stress, what might be causing it? Nothing changed recently. He is in my classroom at school but I have him behind my desk where he's not around all the kids....again this has been the case since I got him a week or two ago.

Setup in my cage (I know you'll ask):

27" wide by 16" deep enclosure (building him a larger one, but this seems an okay size for a small 11" beardie...he has plenty of space to run).
Brand New Reptisun 10.0 18" Bulb
Heat light with basking area at around 105 degrees F.
Feeds on Dubias (eats a ton of them)
Given a mix of endive and escarole twice a day. Eats some of the greens

Any ideas? Am I being overly paranoid? TYIA.

 

[bdalton]

When they are getting ready to shed their skin it darkens first and tends to look dull, but you won't see any loose skin until the shed "pops" so it sounds like he is just getting ready to shed. Do his legs and tail look a different color than his back?

 

[NateS]

I do remember it looked like his tail changed do a darker color before the rest of his body.

Here is a picture of him from Friday 2-24-12

Here he is today

Don't know if these are stress marks or normal on his belly. Do they get a bit stressed during shedding too?

 

[bdalton]

Yep, he's shedding alright! Yes, they can get stressed while shedding. It's pretty uncomfortable for them. Some get cranky, don't want to be held and stop eating, so if he does anything like that during a shed it's normal. You can give him daily baths to help the process along, just when his skin starts to come off, don't pull it. It will look so uncomfortable you will want to, but it can damage the new scales. Just give lots of baths!

 

[NateS]

Yep, he's shedding alright! Yes, they can get stressed while shedding. It's pretty uncomfortable for them. Some get cranky, don't want to be held and stop eating, so if he does anything like that during a shed it's normal. You can give him daily baths to help the process along, just when his skin starts to come off, don't pull it. It will look so uncomfortable you will want to, but it can damage the new scales. Just give lots of baths!

Thank you so much for the confirmation. I will make sure to strat bathing him daily.