excessive “yawning”?

[furbyteeth]

just wanted to drop by and see if anyone could explain why i catch gnomeo doing what seems like yawning so much only outside of his cage. i know it’s not supposed to be aggressive because it’s just a quick stretch open for a couple of seconds at random, and i’m only slightly worried it could be a respiratory infection. there’s not any noise accompanying the yawns besides maybe his jaw moving, and he saw the vet just yesterday with no signs of anything wrong, but he’s doing it way too frequently for me to think this is normal.

i keep his cage clean and his humidity is controlled between 30-40%, so realistically, i’m thinking the only way he could develop a URI is through the thirty minute soaks prescribed by my vet.

if anyone has any experience with a dragon doing this, could you let me know if you found anything going on after awhile that i could be missing? thanks!

edit: thought i would add that he’s not shedding at all right now and also isn’t eating by himself because of impaction from his metabolic bone disease flaring up this winter (in case that’s important to mention)

 

[CooperDragon]

Do you see this happen more frequently after a meal? Sometimes they do this and I equate it to burping. It can also be yawning or grumpiness (often in the morning) or stretching skin (although you mentioned he is not currently shedding). The behavior is usually normal, but can be for several reasons. If you can take a video and post it to a hosting site like vimeo or youtube and then link to it here, we can check it out and perhaps give you more insight.

 

[furbyteeth]

Do you see this happen more frequently after a meal? Sometimes they do this and I equate it to burping. It can also be yawning or grumpiness (often in the morning) or stretching skin (although you mentioned he is not currently shedding). The behavior is usually normal, but can be for several reasons. If you can take a video and post it to a hosting site like vimeo or youtube and then link to it here, we can check it out and perhaps give you more insight.

thinking about it a bit more clearly now, i’ve noticed it after eating and during a lot of his soaks, and i think it’s a thirst or burping thing like you mentioned. i’ve only ever read that if it’s not yawning or anything like that, it’s something wrong, so i hope this post might help someone else. thanks again